CASE STUDY - PDF document

1 CASE STUDY PUKE ARIKI Swainson/Woods
CASE STUDY PUKE ARIKI Swainson/Woods Digitisation Published 2 March 2015 A PRICELESS RECORD OF TARANAKI LIFE THAT WAS ALMOST LOST CATALOGUING MODULE In 2005, Puke Ariki received the donation of the Swainson /Woods Collection, a nationally and regionally significant photographic collection. The archives are from two local photography studios which operated between 1923 and 1997, Swainson’s Studios and Bernard Woods Studio. This collection traces both the lives of Taranaki people and the development of photography over time. The collection features a wide range of studio portraiture and local photographs of public and social events. Since the Swainson/Woods Collection arrived at Puke Ariki in 2005, the 110,000 negatives it comprises have been cleaned, catalogued and re - housed, with the support of the Lottery Grants Board, the Taranaki Electricity Trust (TET), Puki Ariki Trust and Puki Ariki. THE PROJECT The digitisation of the Swainson/Wood Collection began on 1 July 2013. The Swainson/Woods digitisation team, Amber, Clare, Chris and Milly, are working hard taking high - quality images of the original negatives and manually processing each RAW image file to create a positive image as close to the original as possible. We were able to record specialised information through bei ng able to add new fields and repurpose existing ones. Being able to extract information in different ways was also hugely flexible. ONLINE ACCESS THROUGH BROWSER MODULE Every week, hundreds of new images are are processed by the Swainson /Woods digitisation team and are being added to the online Vernon Browser catalogue. Puke Ariki Pouarahi Tukuihotanga / Manager Heritage Andrew Moffat believes Ve

2 rnon Browser is an important way for Pu
rnon Browser is an important way for Puke Ariki to make this collection available. Since the Swainson/Woods digitisation began, usage of the online collection has skyrocketed. While content is being added across the heritage collection, the emphasis placed on the Swainson/Woods collection is responsible for much of this. In the first six months of the project, from 1 July 2013 – 31 December 2013, page views increased by over 100% to 226,000 views. Average visit duration increased to just under 7 minutes. Usage continued to build in the first six months of 2014, with 269,933 views. Users on the site during this same period increased 17 per cent to 21,402 Puke Ariki M useum and L ibrary at New Plymouth “ Currently the collection is being digitised to enable the community to reconnect with this comprehensive visua l record.... It is expected to take three years, to photograph all the negatives and upload them to the Puke Ariki online catalogue. ” CASE STUDY “ In the first six months of the digitisation project page views increased by over 100%. ” Vernon Systems develops innovative software for cultural organisations to manage and share their collections. We have been dedicated to the cultural sector since 1985. Manage Collections Create Connections www.vernonsystems.com Puke Ariki M useum offices showing Vernon Cataloguing module displaying the project. To learn more visit the Swainson/Woods Collection page at the Puke Ariki website : www.pukeariki.com/Heritage - Collections/Swainson - Woods - Collection “ This is a solid result and something we are really keen to build on further. “ Andrew Moffat, Manager Heritage Collections