Last Thursday night some individuals with an interest in Museums, Archives and Libraries gathered to discuss an article called Artefacts and archives: Considering cross-collection knowledge networks in museums. It was a merry band with beer in hand that, as the article suggested, explored how collections in various cultural institutions have become decontextualised. Through no fault of our own GLAM (Gallery, Library, Archive, Museums) professionals can’t always tell the full story of the artefacts in their care, this is because the way we separate artefacts from letters, journals or photos (museums from archives) means we don’t readily have the information available to make those connections in our collections.

We enthusiastically observed how how Artificial Intelligence is breaking into many other professions and wondered if it could be used it to help us identify where connections could be made between collections. We also thought there may be some lessons to learn from social media and how it easily provides context for social history through hashtags.

While this was the last article club for 2017, it was the first time it was co-hosted by Museums Galleries Australia, ACT and ALIA’s ACT Student and Newgraduate group. Here’s to many more collaborations in future!

Don’t forget to sign up for ALIA ACT’s Data Workshop on the 18 November at the NLA.

Cheers,
Jade Koekoe