Order from Chaos: Development and Implementation of NMAI's Culture Thesaurus

Ann McMullen, Curator, National Museum of the American Indian

North American EMu User Group meeting, New York City, 10/16/2007

About NMAI… NMAI is the 16th museum of the Smithsonian

Institution, established by an act of Congress in 1989.

It is the first national museum dedicated to the preservation, study, and exhibition of the life, languages, literature, history, and arts of Native Americans.

Core collections are those of New York’s former Museum of the American Indian, founded in 1916 and transferred to SI in 1989

Locations…

The George Gustav Heye Center (GGHC) in New York City, opened in 1994, offers exhibits and other public programs.

The Cultural Resources Center (CRC) in Maryland, opened in 1999, and home to the collections and its supporting staff and programs.

The Museum on the National Mall in Washington DC, opened in 2004, hosts a variety of exhibits and public programs.

Collections…

Object collections: 266,000 object records, 825,000 items (ethnology 43%; archaeology: 55%; modern and contemporary arts: 2%)

Photo Archives: 324,000 imagesPaper Archives: 1522 linear feetMedia Archives: 12,000 items

Legacy systems and workflows…

1999–2006: Maintained home-grown standalone databases for each collection, plus a separate system for conservation

Few data standards enforced within each system, and none across databases

Lack of centralized system and standards led to idiosyncratic workarounds

Ramp up and EMu implementation…

May – June 2003: formed Project Team and Plan; high level requirements

July 2004: selected KE EMu Project hiatus due to museum opening October 2004 – January 2005: began design April 2005: restarted with new project manager April – October 2005: restarted design October 2005 – May 2006: Development/Testing May 2006: Final data migration August 2006: officially “live”

Special considerations…

Maintain immediate access to and searchability of legacy data for culture fields

Allow for attributions and differences of opinion Differentiate “Culture of Manufacture” from “Culture of

Collection” Allow culture searches by specific reservations or

indigenous communities Use tribal names designated or preferred by

communities themselves as well as synonyms Search by language family, linguistic sub-group, or

region for sets of tribal collections

Building the Culture thesaurus…

Initial migration included objects, photo archives, verbatim catalog card data, and an object-based exhibit interactive media program

Object and Photo databases included two-term hierarchy for general and more specific terms: “Sioux” and “Oglala”

Compiled list for those data sets: total 6623 unique terms

Unique values…

Sources…

http://www.ethnologue.com/

Handbook of North American Indians (Smithsonian Institution Press)

Many, many other websites, maps, and books

Hierarchy…

Continent: North America

Culture Area: Plains

Sub Culture Area: Central Plains

Culture: Lakota (Teton/Western Sioux)

Sub-culture: Hunkpapa Lakota (Hunkpapa Sioux)

Community: Hunkpapa Lakota [Standing Rock]

Unpreferred synonym: Standing River Sioux

Language: Siouan/Siouan Proper/Central/Mississippi Valley/Dakota

Caveats…

Think about your data and how you want it to work Know how the Thesaurus module works before

you start (and understand it better than we did) From Help

“Use”: “The term that should be used in preference to the current term - attaches to another record from the Thesaurus module”

“Used for”: “A list of other terms for which this term is the preferred term, i.e. the opposite relationship from that described above”

Thesaurus module advantages…

Can handle straight hierarchies or multi-level hierarchies

Can use #+[term] for tree searches Can also use thesaurus functions to find

valid terms within tree and search that set even if your structure isn’t perfect

Can use drag-and-drop to reposition terms within hierarchy

Acknowledgments…

DucPhong Nguyen, CIS Project Manager

Pat Nietfeld, Collections Manager

Kara Lewis, Collections Information Program Manager

NMAI curators Chris Fincham and Brad

Lickman, KE Sandy Crab and Buster

(feline supervisors)