Art in the CloudsCreating an Archival Repositoryfor Museum Assetsusing Cloud Storageand Open Source

Jane Alexander & Niki KrauseCleveland Museum of Art

DIGITAL STRATEGYLooking at the Big Picture

Archival Repositoryin Collection-informationand Scholarship Backbone

INCEPTIONBruce buried by DVDs

Inception

• Photo Studio’s artwork photography– uncropped, high-res masters– three sets of 3800 archival DVDs = 11,400– manual lookup / pull to use– long-term viability of DVDs– gold DVDs = $$$$$$

• ditch the DVDs, move to online storage• but, it’s archival in nature

Interdepartmental Team

• CIO + Applications Services Manager (leader)

• Museum Archivist + Digital Archivist• IT network+infrastructure+storage duo• Library Applications Analyst / developer• Photo Studio Assistant Manager

• Photographers• Collections Management / Registrar• Conservation staff• Performing Arts, Music, and Film staff

Approach

• inventory digital materials• identify appropriate standards• storage platform+management software• map metadata• define workflows• ingest+iterate

Inventory & Projections

• artwork photography• conservation photography• editorial photography• business documents• AV of institutional history• AV of lectures, performances• artwork in time-based media

= 20TB now, 35TB by 2018

Standards

• LOCKSS & archival best practices• OAIS reference model• preservation file formats• PREMIS• descriptive & technical metadata schemas

• Dublin Core (DCMI)• IPTC, XMP, etc. mapped to DCMI• local metadata needs = local schema

Storage Platform Options

• onsite hardware/storage + AMS• SaaS/hosted solution• cloud-based hardware/storage,

with in-house AMS administration

…but there were concerns!

Performance

Virtual Data Center on same ISP trunk

5 years = $500,000+

Archival Management Systems

Options considered:• DSpace (open source/SaaS, MIT)• CONTENTdm (SaaS, OCLC)• Fedora Commons (open source, Cornell)• Archivematica (open source)• Invenio (open source, CERN)

Ingest Progress @ 9 Months

• editorial photography — ⅔ ingested• artwork photography — ½ staged, mapped• conservation photography —

file name review+de-duping underway• business documents — scripting xformations• AV — detailed inventory, analog to digital• artwork in time-based media

– 10 works accessioned so far– team working on in-house standards

Challenges

• developer is leaving the museumTOMORROW

• staff time– Digital Archivist– Conservation and PAMF staff availability

• network storage running high• demand for more DSpace installs