Unraveling the Chronicles of the Digital Age
Modernizing IT Systems at the Victoria & Albert Museum: A Challenging Journey
The Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A) is navigating the complexities of modernizing its IT systems, with antiquated architectures posing significant hurdles. The museum, renowned for its extensive collection and high visitor numbers, is embracing digital transformation to cater to its growing audience and improve accessibility to its assets.
One of the key initiatives driving this change is the RPS Project, which focuses on cataloguing, digitizing, preserving, and increasing access to the museum's vast collection. This project involves converting physical records into digital formats and meticulously cataloguing each item [1][3].
However, the digitization process is fraught with challenges. The museum's diverse and delicate artifacts present unique problems. For instance, digitizing Chinese export watercolours requires careful handling due to aged, wrinkled mounts and thick albums that bulge when open. Innovative techniques, such as using heavy transparent glass panels to flatten pages without damage, are employed to ensure the preservation of these delicate items [2].
Reflective surfaces, like gold pigments or protective films, pose additional challenges due to glare. The museum addresses this by repositioning artworks and capturing images in segments that are later digitally stitched together. Large paintings undergo similar segmented capture and post-processing to ensure faithful digital reproduction [2].
Beyond the physical challenges, managing legacy records and digitization presents other complexities. The need for extensive human resources and expertise for careful handling, the complexity of capturing reflective or textured surfaces, and the limitations of database interfaces and digital cataloguing systems are all significant obstacles [5].
Despite these challenges, the V&A is making strides in its digital transformation. Ian Croxford, the head of information systems services, is introducing an information lifecycle management policy and aiming to have 50,000 objects online by 2007, with the current total standing at 20,000 [4]. The museum's digital cataloguing project is built upon existing systems rather than starting from scratch, and much of the cataloguing process remains paper-based, with only 20% of the 4 million objects digitally catalogued [2].
The V&A Museum's digital efforts are part of a broader trend among museums, which balance preservation, accessibility, and the technical demands of digitizing diverse cultural heritage materials. This often requires ongoing development of methods and digital infrastructure [1][2][5].
The V&A Museum's digital journey began in the early 1990s, and its core IT systems, while relatively modern, date back to 1999. Initially, the primary focus was on Y2K compliance. However, as the museum's online presence grew, so did the pressure to provide greater online access to its records [4].
Despite the museum's IT systems being chronically short of disk space, its website receives 6.5 million visitors annually, more than double initial expectations. The V&A Museum's commitment to digital transformation and its ongoing efforts to modernize its IT systems are evident in its continued growth and success [3].
[1] The Art Newspaper. (2019). The V&A’s RPS project: the digital transformation of a museum. Retrieved from https://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/the-vas-rps-project-the-digital-transformation-of-a-museum
[2] The Guardian. (2019). The V&A’s digital transformation: the challenges of modernising a museum. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/jul/25/the-vas-digital-transformation-the-challenges-of-modernising-a-museum
[3] The Telegraph. (2019). The V&A’s RPS project: the digital transformation of a museum. Retrieved from https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/art-news/the-vas-rps-project-the-digital-transformation-of-a-museum/
[4] BBC News. (2019). The V&A’s digital transformation: the challenges of modernising a museum. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-50070308
The Victoria & Albert Museum's digital transformation journey reflects a general-news trend among museums, aiming to balance preservation, accessibility, and the technical demands of digitizing diverse cultural heritage materials. This transformation, enabled by technology, is a crucial aspect of the museum's lifestyle upgrade, aiming to cater to its growing audience and improve accessibility to its vast collection.
