Launch of the Minimum Dataset Recommendation for Museums and Collections (Version 1.0)

20.06.2024
Institut für Museumsforschung

The virtual launch event for the Minimum Dataset Recommendation for Museums and Collections (Version 1.0) took place on 10 June 2024. The eCulture project of the Saxony-Anhalt Museum Association and the Institute für Museumsforschung organised the two-hour event attended by over 90 participants.

Members of the Minimum Dataset working group spoke about the aims and structure of the recommendation and explained how the online guide can be used in daily museum practice. Panel and plenary discussions addressed the following questions, among others:

• How can museum staff effectively integrate standardised data?
• How can digital tools for describing and exporting object data be improved in collaboration with software manufacturers?
• What are knowledge graphs and how can museums use them to make data about their collection objects easier to find?
• How can object biographies be (more) effectively documented? What role do the LIDO (Lightweight Describing Objects) metadata schema and the event-oriented object cataloguing play in this?
• How can existing object data be upgraded to the quality level of the minimum dataset?

Various contact points were also named that can support users in implementing the recommendation:

• Museum advice centre(s) of the German Federal States
• Specialist departments of the Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek: Museum, Mediathek Fotografie and Mediathek Ton
• Helpdesk of NFDI4Culture

The Minimum Dataset Recommendation for Museums and Collections can be accessed via: www.minimaldatensatz.de (Wiki) and Zenodo, where a PDF of the Minimum Dataset Recommendation is also available for download.

The Minimum Dataset Recommendation working group looks forward to receiving feedback and questions by email: info[at]minimaldatensatz.de.