Curating Data: The Next Frontier

Room: Montreal
Museums have moved past milestones such as placing collections online, applying best practices in metadata, bridging collection and digital asset management, and other approaches to museum information. But few are addressing data curation. Defined as “the active and ongoing management of data through their lifecycle of interest”, data curation recognizes that museum data assets, like collections, require stewardship to be seen as authoritative resources for research and education. Processes for acquiring, creating, using, preserving and making these available must be documented and made transparent or they will degrade, become “orphaned”, and lose value. NSF and others now require data management plans from grantees making this is a new nexus for museums, libraries, and archives. This session brings together experts from academia, scientific research, and LAM professions to describe the impications for museums and tools for addressing the challenge.