by Lieke Ploeger, Open Knowledge Foundation.

OpenGLAM has just released a case study on the open data release last year of the York Museums Trust. The study was written as part of the Open Knowledge Foundation involvement in Europeana Space project, and describes how the York Museums Trust went about publishing their online collection, as well as the effect this had, including different examples of the reuse of their content.

Replica Roman Figurine, York Museums Trust, YORYM : 2006.2914

By publishing the collection fast, and allowing people to reuse their material, even though it was not yet perfect, they managed to engage with their audience, stimulate reuse and generate new interest in their collection and museums. It is exactly this type of approach (think big, start small, move fast) that Michael Edson, Associate Director/Head of Digital at United Nations Live Museum for Humanity, identified as on of the patterns that accelerates change in organisations last year at the Openlab workshop in December 2015 (inspiring the case study’s title).

We hope that the story of how York Museums Trust opened up their rich collections can inspire other institutions to take steps in this direction, because, as Martin put it: “To just say the content is not good enough for us, and therefore no one can see it, did not sit right with me”.

The full case study is available from: http://openglam.org/2016/02/24/think-big-start-small-move-fast/