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“When you give people data, they do cool things with it, like help you make your own records better or interpret it in a way you’ve never thought of. It feels like the right thing to do in light of our duty to the public trust.” — TRACEY BERG-FULTON, CARNEGIE MUSEUM OF ART
Berg-Fulton, collections database asso- ciate at CMOA and primary data wran- gler for the project.
The Art Tracks team created a prov- enance standard that is designed to re- solve ambiguities and provide structure and machine readability. It also cap- tures timeline data on the artwork’s ac- quisition method, location, owner and length of ownership.
The Art Tracks software is open
source, and the code libraries and user- facing provenance entry tool called Ely- sa are all “available on GitHub for use, modification and tinkering,” Berg-Ful- ton said. “That’s a newer way of work- ing for our museum, but that openness gives others a chance to lean on our technical expertise and improve their own records and hopefully contribute back to the software to improve that as well.”
She added that using an open-data format creates opportunities for on- going partnerships with other experts throughout the museum community so that provenance becomes a constant conversation.
Berg-Fulton said CMOA has been “dying to make” the move because the more people who have access to data, the more ways it can be interpreted.
“When you give people data, they do
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