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Join the Dots
HOW TO MANAGE 80 MILLION ITEMS
Overseeing a museum collection - that is possibly as diverse
and idiosyncratic as nature itself- is a tricky task, as Join the
Dots Project Coordinator, Scott Wilson explains.
The Natural History Museum is home to
around 80 million items - these are natural
science specimens in Earth Sciences and Life
Sciences, as well as an enormous collection af
Library and Archives material, much of which
is historic, artistic and unique.
Across these three Museum departments,
curators, researchers, archivists, collection
managers and conservators, all ensure
that collections are being accessed, used
in research and kept in the best possible
condition for the future.
But even with a team of hundreds of
committed experts, how do you manage 80
million items? How can such an enormous
number, and the enormous tasks associated
with that number, best be tackled?
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BREAKING IT DOWN
One of the main problems encountered when
trying to manage an enormous museum
collection is understanding what that 'enormity'
actually consists of.
Standing at the foot of a skyscraper can
be daunting, but breaking it down into its
floors, separates the massive into the bitesize.
Similarl y, a large col lection can be difficult
to interpret wi thou t a way of dividing it up.
Breaking things down into smaller parts makes
planning and communicating complex ideas
much ea sier.
No curator or collection manag er ha s the
time to count specimens or items individually,
unless there is a specific need to do so. As ,
such, maintaining a collection effectively (and
,
 ES Economic and Environmental Ern lh Sciences
e ES Invertebrate s and Plants Polaeah,ology
ES Mine,al and Plonetnry Sciences
e ES Ve,tebrote; and Anthropology Polarontolog,J
e UtAMadern
L&A Special
• LS Algae. Fungi ond Plant'.
• LS D1ve1s1ty and lnfo1111ot1Cs
LS Insects
LS Invertebrates
LS Parasites and Vectors
LS Vertebrates
,/onnin g wha t to do next) is a ta sk that is
ighl y dependent on co mprehensive co ll ection
atosets in co ll ection mana gem ent systems, as
i ell as sen ior curators and col lection manag ers
·am different di sciplines regularly meeting to
iscuss collection priorities.
So th is year, after a trial of alm ost two years,
1e Museum launched Join the Dots.
VHAT ISJOIN THEDOTS?
oin the Dots is a co ll ecti on assess ment too l
esig ned to refl ect th e state of th e Mu se um's
ntire collection and is accessi bl e to an y user of
1e Mu seum's co ll ecti ons. Throu gh a qualitati ve
nd qu antitati ve sco ring system compri sed of
l criteria, curators co n assess th eir co ll ecti ons
nd up load their finding s to thi s cro ss-
ollection s tool.
The Muse um ho s exce llent lin ks with mu se um
nd re search institutio ns all over th e wo rld
nd the ori gin al meth odology 'Move the Dots',
1as develop ed by the Smith son ian Noti onal
1useum of Natural Hi story, in th e US, in 20 09.
A cross-di sciplin ary steering group was set
Pat the Mu seu m, to see how th e Smith so ni an
1odel coufd bes t be imp lemented on our
Jllection s. The first trial assessed the data
f 65 million items - th e full proj ect cove rs all
0 mi ll ion.
OLLECTION UNITS
he design of Jain th e Dots reflect s th e often
□ li sti c nature of curo ti on and co llecti ons
plan ni ng, particu larly at larg e mu se ums, whi lst
setting stand ards and measuring improvements
where possible.
In th e Join the Dots framework, co llecti ons
are subdi vide d into di screte 'coll ectio n units'.
Using co ll ection units is a way of separating
a coll ection to refl ect how cu ra tors org ani se,
index, and work with their collections. In
general, a collection unit is a named group of
objects tha t shore th e core characte ri stics of a
stora ge loca tion , a taxo nomi c (or other syste m
of ord ering ) level , a respo nsible curator an d
on abj ec t/s ize esti mate - far example, 1,000
tadpo les in one jar.
This helps capture co ll ections as th ey ore
pra ctica ll y ma naged - althoug h a curator with
100,000 co ll ecti on items is responsible far
all th ose ite ms, th ey do not ph ysica ll y handl e
100,000 items in one da y. Rother, they pri ori tise
and focus th ei r effo rts an discrete units or items
th at ore ofte n curated and arranged together.
SETTINGSTANDARDS
With ma ny di sciplines and sciences taki ng
pla ce und er the umbrella of one orga ni sa tion,
it is important th at all Mu seum professio nal s
co n discuss co ll ec ti ons using a consistent,
eas ily appl icable set of terms and standards.
A co ll ecti on in o mu seu m does not exist in
iso lati on, so it is imp ortant tha t co ll ection
attrib utes ca n be co mmunica ted and th at
co mp arative analy sis wi th other co ll ectio ns
is poss ible.
- This is a snapshot of the entire collection. We con see
across all deportments that the Museum's collection is being
developed (and new items and specimens ore bei ng acquired)
strategica ll y. Plann ing the growth of a co ll ection before items
ore acquired and indexed is essential. The granularity of the
data con drill down to a very fine level - useful for targeting
where resources should be allocated , and understanding
how smalle r teams con have huge impacts on the state
of a col lection.
In th e spring of th is year a Jain the Dots Use r
Ma nual was pro du ced, which sets th ese
sta ndard s and uses exa mples from acro ss the
Mu se um's diverse co ll ection.
A curator in Life Sc iences, fa r examp le, may
hove o lot of 'wet co ll ecti on' items hou se d
in jars and li quid - these ore often fi xe d in
indu strial methylated spiri't s or fo rma lin. Wh il e
a co ll eag ue in Library and Archives wi ll hou se
their co ll ection ite ms in entirely different
stru ctures, such as protecti ve sleeves and
bespoke arch iva l-q uality boxes. If col lection
managers wish to discu ss the state of housi ng
str uctures across the Mu seu m, it is import ant
that som e level of co mpari so n ca n be easily
mo de bet ween di scipl ines that ma y not shore
si milar methods or materials.
Joi n th e Dots fa cil itates this by applyin g
stan dard s that ore in clusive enough to straddl e
oil Museu m di sci plines.
CREATIN GCOMPARAB LECRITERIA
Items in a muse um co ll ecti on ho ve all kind s
of elements. They ore used in research, they
engage the pu blic in ex hibiti ons, th ey ore
cons ti tuent part s of enormou s data sets and,
someti mes, they ore port of the hi story of
th e institu tio n itself - such as, fa r exampl e,
th e co rr es pond ence of the Mu se um's first
sup erinte nd ent, Ri chard Owe n.
To refl ect this, 17 cri te ria were deve loped to
ca pture th ese eleme nts. En ca psulating th ese
qu alities in on obj ective and s tandard i se d ►
evolve issue 37 - 25 -
manner is a complex task that took a cross-
disciplinary committee of Museum experts,
who reviewed each criterion exhaustive ly
to ensure that the Museum's collection was
being reflected objectively and fairly by this
new infrastructure.

HOW DO WE USE JOIN THE DOTS?

Step one: Assessing o collection's structure
One of the most important task s when
designing the new syste m was to think about
the problem of collections structure from
the outset. All collections are meticulously
structured and arranged, often dependent
upon discipline-specific sta ndard s. Reflecting
that in the data architecture - the models and
standards that govern which data is collected ,
and how it is sto red, arranged , integrated and
put to use in data systems - of Join the Dots
was a huge cha ll enge.
Curators were asked to subdivide their
collections into as many collection units as
seemed realistic and practical - practicality is a 00
t Each dot is a collection. The amount of dots may seem
core principle of Join the Dots. Once collection daunting, but they provide an important image. The cluster of
unit bou ndaries were set, curators were then dots shows that collections across insects ore being conserved
and housed to a high standard. In the upper right quadrant we
asked to 'score' these units. see that the bulk of the collection, lens of millions of specimens
are in excellent condition and have high quality housing
materials. The dots in the top left quadrant show that while the
Step two: Scoring collections may be very fragile or have some damage, they ore
Join the Dots is divided into four still being housed to a high standard. The few outlying dots con
categories - Condition, Importance and be assessed to see whether their conditions can be improved
through focused curation or project work.
Significance, Information, and Outreach.
Assessments of condition included the
physical state of the items themselves, the
state of collections furniture, the state of the
collection environment, the housing materials,
and to what exte nt items in collection spaces
were physically accessible. This provided a
wealth of data about how collection re sources
should be use d and prioritised in the future. It
is al so a way of identifying which collection
units may need targeted treatment from the
Mu se um's conservation team . For example,
our sunfish speci men (right) benefitted from
bespoke housing materials with a spe cial
harness and transport system.
Assess ments of importance gave
curators an opportunity to see how their
collection s integrate with the global rese arch
community, the Museum's own strategy,
and how collections compare to those in - This image shows an assessment of the items in the Mineral
and Planetary Sciences collection. What we see from the
other organi sations. While assessments spread of collections data is that the specimens that hove
of information al low us to understand the been scored as having a high impact or correlation to the
Museum's science strategy ore also the speci mens that have
abundance of informatior1 in our collections, been identified to a high level. This shows that the aims of
and how we can best utili se the Museum's the Museum are being considered at a collection level - the
specimens that ore of high potential to scientific study are also
digiti sation programme. Collections that are the ones that are identified to a high standard.
not digitised, but score highly in other criteria

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!Above Port of the Museum's
wet collection' items housed
njars and liquid.
•
(such as importance) may be the natural choice
to digitise next.
Ensuring all 80 million items hove o digital
footprint is o major task and is done specimen
by specimen. Curators were also asked to
cons ider the development potential in o
collection. What con we do with o collection7
How con it be improved, and ore there
emerging reasons to do so7 Ensuring that
our co ll ections ore curated to the highest
standard and ore compositionally relevant
and useful is on essential task for curators.
For example, o donated hi storic coll ection of
corals from the Chogos Archipelago hos been
curated to on extremely high standard. This is
important - research interest in this area of the
wo rld is high - and the data in this collection
will no doubt be_very useful.
When assess ing outreach, curators were
asked to co nsi der wheth er items in their
collections might be particularly appropriate for
exhibition or educational outreach. Some items
ore unique, unusual, or exem plify a particular
topic or theme. This is a useful process to reflect
within Join the Dots, and includes the 'synoptic
collections' curated by the Museum's Angelo
Mormont Ce ntre for UK Biodiversity. The se
collections use a few specimens to provide a
much larger understanding or treatment of o
larger subject.
Scores ore applied by the curator across
each criterion - this means that for each
collection unit, there ore 17 different measures
of assessment. The result is that the attributes
of the entire col lection ore measured in a multi-
loyered, cross-disciplinary and standardised
way, which comb in es the curator's individual
ex perti se and understanding of a collection with
the Museum's larger collection management
priorities and projects.
Step three: Evaluation and planning
Being ab le to assess the data of 80 million
items through 17 readily-combinable metrics
means co ll ection managers con access a tool
that helps them prioritise projects for the future.
Cross-disciplinary collection management
meetings happen regularly at the Museum, and
data from Join the Dots con inform discussions
at every level.
The data collected by the curators is
uploaded into the Join the Dots 'dashboard ' -
this provides the ability to visualise collections
across various criteria, and across scales
from Museum-wide to a minute level. The
flexible scope of this framework con inform
planning, collections resource projects and
developing infra structure.
WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED?
Join the Dots ho s mode it easier for our scie nce
staff to quickly interrogate the Museum's
collections. Being able to easily drill down
to a particular collection and und erstand its
attributes, and pre sent thi s dot □ to others (who
may not be scientists or mu se um professionals)
in o highly visual way, is extremely useful.
The data wil l continue to assist collection
managers as th ey lead amb itious collection
development plans for the future, and keep
building and improving upon the Museum's
collection infrastructure .
Using Join the Dots, there ore aspects of
cura torial work that con be streamlin ed.
The Mu se um ho s task forces of curatorial
assistants who take on proj ect work and work
with collection managers to decide where to
focus on ne xt.
Digitisation is on enormous priority at
the Mu seu m, and using Join the Dots to
target our next digital projects wil l open up
new collections to research communities
across the world. The enhancement and
deve lopment of all our collections is on ongoing
mission - it's important that all collections con
be unlocked, interrogated and assessed, so
they con be of the most use and inspiring for
future generations.
Join the Dots was also on excellent
opportunity for Mu se um colleagues across
di scip lines to discuss which co llectio n attributes
ore important to th em, how they manage their
own collections, and how best to capture these
factor s i n □ shored phraseology.
Devising a new syste m that upheld the
Museum's collection standard s was on
excellent exercise in curating - everyone hod
to conside r the ne eds of other cura torial and
research disciplines.
Join the Dots is o too l that wil l continue to
develop as th e Museum's coll ections change.
Curators con easily rescore their collection units
as they need to, which will change the data
that we see on the dashboard. It is on interface
that adopts to change and makes the process
of data entry as sea mless as possible, making
it a re sponsive and intelligent way of assessing
collections without feeling daunted by the
enormity that 80 mil lion items repre sent.
evolve issue 36 - 27 -