THE IMPACT OF OPEN COLLECTIONS (...AND WHAT’S NEXT)

EFFIE KAPSALISSMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION ARCHIVES

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Anthony Quinn and Alan Bates, Zorba the Greek, 1964

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"IT IS ONLY BY EXCHANGE AND MUTUAL ASSISTANCE THAT NATURALLISTS [SIC] CAN POSSIBLY EVER SUCCEED IN ASSEMBLING TOGETHER A COLLECTION OF SUBJECTS OF THEIR STUDY, WHICH NATURE HAS MADE SO NUMEROUS, AND DISSEMINATED IN SUCH VARIOUS AND DISTANT PARTS OF THE WORLD,”JAMES SMITHSON

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Color Image of the Smithsonian Castle on Fire, January 24, 1865

#ALLEZCULTURE

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“…AN ESTABLISHMENT FOR THE INCREASE & DIFFUSION OF KNOWLEDGE AMONG MEN.“

- JAMES SMITHSON, 1826

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21ST CENTURY INCREASE & DIFFUSION“An old tradition and a new technology have converged to make possible an unprecedented public good. The old tradition is the willingness of scientists and scholars to publish the fruits of their research in scholarly journals without payment, for the sake of inquiry and knowledge. The new technology is the internet.”

- Budapest Open Access Initiative, 2001

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WE, THE WEB KIDS1. We grew up with the Internet and on the Internet… The ability to find information is to us something as basic as the ability to find a railway station or a post office in an unknown city is to you… 

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WE, THE WEB KIDS2. People who will share their expertise with us not for profit, but because of our shared belief that information exists in motion, that it wants to be free, that we all benefit from the exchange of information…

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WE, THE WEB KIDS3. What we value the most is freedom: freedom of speech, freedom of access to information and to culture. We feel that it is thanks to freedom that the Web is what it is, and that it is our duty to protect that freedom. We owe that to next generations, just as much as we owe to protect the environment.

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WE, THE WEB KIDSOne more thing: we do not want to pay for our memories. 

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OPEN ACCESS“…free availability on the public internet, permitting any users to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of these articles, crawl them for indexing, pass them as data to software, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without financial, legal, or technical barriers other than those inseparable from gaining access to the internet itself.”

- Budapest Open Access Initiative, 2001

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#OPENGLAM STUDYTrailer - http://s.si.edu/2cQ6PU1Research - http://s.si.edu/2d8MNQS

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#OPENGLAM RESULTS• New fundraising and brand licensing opportunities.• More efficient image management and digitization

processes.• A realignment of staff with more mission-critical jobs.• A furthering of research, educational and creative

activities.• Increases in use and awareness of institutions’

collections.• Creation of a strengthened and more relevant brand.• Increased goodwill leading to more public engagement.

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#OPENGLAM – MISSION

“Making the biodiversity heritage literature online has accelerated the pace of taxonomic science across the world.” - Martin Kalfatovic, Smithsonian Libraries, Biodiversity Heritage Library

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#OPENGLAM – MISSION

“Open access increased the institution’s appetite for risk-taking, and enabled innovative research and experimentation with the library’s collections.” - Nora McGregor, British Libraries

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#OPENGLAM – EMPLOYEE SATISFACTION

Since releasing the museum’s collections online without restrictions, staff members have been spared from approving 14,000 image requests — and writing at least 28,000 emails. - “Reusing Te Papa’s collections images, by the numbers,” Adrian Kingston, digital collections analyst, Te Papa Museum of New Zealand

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#OPENGLAM – INCREASED FUNDING LANDSCAPE“We lost all our income on direct sales of images, but we gained a lot of new friends, sponsors, and new funding streams…more than we lost in revenue.”- Lizzy Jongma, formerly Rijksmuseum, Netwerk Oorlogsbronnen

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#OPENGLAM – IMPROVED BRAND

A few months after launch, New York Public Library had received over 100 press mentions and was approached by a major New York retailer asking about brand licensing opportunities.

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RISKS TO OPEN ACCESS

• Increased demand on technical infrastructure.• Potential increase in staff workload if media delivery is not

self-service.• Loss of rights and reproduction income….however

doesn’t actually cover costs of doing that business.• Staff worries over loss of intellectual control and potential

for abuse of collections; however, studies show that nothing of negative consequence results.

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RISKS TO CLOSED TERMS OF USE• Decreased funding opportunities as funders move to

requiring open access. • Reduced opportunities for collaboration with other

knowledge organizations, open government initiatives, cultural heritage aggregators, Wikipedia, and digital humanities projects.

• Reduced mission-impact.• Reduced marketing opportunities/irrelevant brand.• Potential reduction in activity from digital volunteers due to

perception that their work is not supporting an open effort. • Large amounts of staff time spent on non-mission-critical

tasks.

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CHALLENGES TO ”GOING OPEN”

• Not-so-nimble organizational structures• Resources needed for copyright research, digitization,

dissemination activities.

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How do we make it as useful as possible to as many users for the most uses?

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The first U.S. National Museum Building Committee, 1880, 78-10099

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“…when you’re invisible people assume you’ve done nothing.”- Edith P. Mayo, Curator Emeritus, Smithsonian National Museum of American History

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Smithsonian Institution Archives “Women in Science Wednesday” Campaign

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Screenshot of African American Contributions to the Smithsonian: Challenges and Achievements

IS OUR HISTORY INCLUSIVE?

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“Color History with the Smithsonian” Wikipedia Edit-A-Thon

WHO GETS TO TELL OUR HISTORY?

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Smithsonian Secretary Skorton’s Youth Advisory Committee

WHO ARE FUTURE MUSEUM PROFESSIONALS?

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OPENNESS + ACCESSIBILITY

“Accessibility is something that’s never really done. It’s not like, ‘Oh, we checked that box. We finished that work.’ It’s really about an almost philosophical approach and a practice of engagement, and it’s something that we are continually working to improve here.” - Danielle Linzer, Warhol Museum's curator of education and interpretation