If you’re interested in opening up GLAM collections for use in research, you might like to join the new Collections as Data Interest Group, part of the Research Data Alliance.

According to the group description:

This group is aimed at collections professionals such as archivists, librarians, records managers and museum curators, as well as related professions such as IT professionals, knowledge scientists, and those involved in standards development, who serve in a range of critical roles: as experts in ensuring access, preservation, and reuse of digital records, objects, data, and collections; as provocateurs for good collections curation practices; and as advocates for the construction of responsible and sustainable infrastructures for information sharing.

The group has been running for a few months now, but communication has been difficult due to the upgrade of the RDA website. Things now seem to be working ok, so it’s time to spread the word!

The group has monthly online meetings. To try and cover a variety of timezones, we’re rotating the meeting times. The next meeting will be held in an Australia/Asia/Pacific timeslot – 3pm AEST (5.00am UTC), on Wednesday, 18 September. Further meeting details, including a registration link and agenda are available here.

To become part of the Collections as Data Interest Group, first register for membership of the Research Data Alliance. Once you’re logged into the RDA site, visit the Collections as Data IG page and click on the Join Group button. You’ll then receive notifications of new group posts and activities. You’ll also be able to access archived group meeting minutes under the ‘Wiki’ tab.

Current activities include planning for a session on ‘Gathering Metrics and Setting Boundaries: Reusing Collections as Data and the impacts of AI’ at the RDA’s 23rd Plenary Meeting in November. There’s also a Zotero group where we’ve started to capture useful resources.

Given my work on the GLAM Workbench and the Trove Data Guide, I’m particularly interested in ways we can collaborate to engage researchers, build tools, and share resources. But what are your interests? I’m the Australian-based co-chair, so let me know if there are topics you’d like to discuss in future meetings.