Managing Museum Collections at the Collections Storage Facility (CSF)
Delivering the IT systems to manage museum objects in the Collections Storage Facility
What’s New?
This page is intended as a source of information for anyone interested in this project. Please check back regularly for updates and news.
How can I get involved?
The project team have been actively engaging with a number of stakeholders who are representing the museums, CSF and Bodleian. Contributions from these individuals have helped shape the design of the system solutions.
We will be forming a Focus Group to represent the voice of the customer, inputting subject matter expertise, user perspectives and operational insights throughout user testing and the creation of training materials. It will be the responsibility of the Project Board to recommend membership of this group.
What is the "Managing Museum Collections at CSF Project"?
The four University museums are leading a major Collections Move Project to re-house and improve research access to the collections that are not on display in the main museum buildings. The moves are part of the museums’ Shared Storage Strategy, which will see the development of two new museum collections centres: a new Collections Storage Facility (CSF) in Swindon and the Collections, Teaching and Research Centre (CTRC) in Oxford.
This project will deliver the IT systems required to manage the storage, movement and object viewings of the museum collections held in the CSF.
The project is in the delivery stage.
Since 2010 the Bodleian Library has stored over 10 million items across four chambers of the Book Storage Facility (BSF) in Swindon. From 2021, the BSF have used the market-leading CaiaSoft inventory management system to manage the storage and retrieval of library collection items.
Most warehouse management systems expect items to leave the warehouse and never return, having been distributed out to a customer. Our requirements are different as books temporarily leave their permanent storage location to be consulted by readers in the Bodleian Libraries in Oxford. Museum objects located at the CSF will temporarily leave their storage locations to be consulted in research rooms on site at the CSF in Swindon, after which the objects will return to their storage locations.
Fortunately, CaiaSoft has the functionality needed to manage these processes and track objects stored in the new CSF chamber 5. For the project, this brings the added advantage that CSF staff are very familiar with the software, using it for their day-to-day work managing the Bodleian collections.
The Bodleian Library Special Collections use the Atlas Aeon system for managing reader requests and staff workflows for accessing archives and manuscripts.
Aeon can successfully manage the use of the four visitor rooms at the CSF, allowing object viewing enquiries to be recorded and managed through each stage through to the visit completion.
Who is impacted by this project?
In a nutshell
If you are a museum collections manger, CSF staff or are involved in managing the movement of museum objects for viewing or other collections activities then you should stay informed of these changes.
Stakeholders who will see some changes to their current processes are:
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Museum Collection Managers
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Museum staff who may travel to the CSF to care for objects e.g. conservation, digitisation | CSF Staff | |
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Process changes |
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| System access |
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Other stakeholder groups will not be affected by this project, including:
| Stakeholder Group | Responsibilities | System Access |
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| Bodleian Staff |
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| Visitors & Researchers |
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What changes will be made to museum processes?
In a nutshell
New processes will be set up to book object viewings for all museum collections stored at the CSF. These processes will centre around Aeon, the system managing the visitor room calendars and visit details.
Aeon integrates with CaiaSoft to ensure the correct objects are retrieved from storage in time for the CSF staff to welcome visitors and facilitate the object viewings.
Aeon will also accept object identifiers and validate them against CMSs to ensure the correct object is being requested. Any required pre-visit activities will then be identified and completed to properly handle the requested objects.
CaiaSoft and Aeon are currently in use by the Bodleian Libraries, and this project will expand their functionality to include the storage and management of museum objects at the CSF in Swindon. Aeon is used to plan object viewing appointments and report on room utilisation, while CaiaSoft handles object retrievals and records all location moves within the CSF warehouse.
Approval to view objects at the CSF is controlled by Collections Managers who receive enquiries from researchers. The CSF Staff will then engage with the visitor to schedule the visit, logging all the details in Aeon. The system can even send the visitor a confirmation email from Aeon with details of their upcoming visit and joining instructions.
As the scheduled visit approaches, the CSF Staff will flag in Aeon that the objects need retrieving, and this will automatically send CaiaSoft a list of objects to be picked from storage. CSF Staff will retrieve these objects, updating their location via barcoder readers at each step as they move through the warehouse. When the visit is over, Aeon will trigger the refile of the objects back to their permanent storage location which is again tracked using CaiaSoft.
You are welcome to view this diagram showing this workflow and the systems involved
What changes will be made to how objects are barcoded?
In a nutshell
All freestanding items or object containers being stored in Swindon chamber 5 must have a new CSF specific barcode attached to allow tracking through the warehouse. This does not replace any existing museum barcode and will be added alongside these where they exist, so any processes currently using museum barcodes can still be followed should an object leave the CSF. New barcodes will be added by the GLAM Collections Move Team as part of the re-location of objects from existing stores to Swindon.
Museum items stored at the CSF will be labelled with a CSF specific barcode, while also retaining their existing museum barcodes. The CSF barcode will be recorded in the museum CMS, using new field in each museum CMS (MuseumPlus or EMu). The project will work with suppliers to create these in a logical place in each system.
Storing the CSF barcode in the CMS creates a unique ID for each item or container that can be used to match data between systems.
The CSF barcode will either be hidden or read-only for the majority of CMS users and will not impact museum operations.
Each CSF barcode will be prefixed with 'M' in order to differentiate museum items from the Bodleian's. The second character (A, S, N, or P) will indicate the museum of origin, aiding data routing and reporting.
Oxford museums currently without a barcode strategy can either adopt the CSF barcode or create separate museum barcodes for internal use, as both options are supported.
Further detail on the barcoding processes and consideration are detailed in the Barcoding Strategy.
The GLAM Collections Move programme will purchase CSF barcodes that are compatible with the existing CSF barcode scanning hardware, affix these to objects before their transfer to Swindon, add the barcode IDs to the relevant museum CMS and scan the barcoded objects into the CaiaSoft system. This process is outlined in this diagram showing the agreed barcoding process
Further information about the project
What is the project timeline?
- Now to end of 2025: IT systems development & testing
- January - July 2026: early adoption support, user acceptance testing & training
- July 2026: project closure
Who is involved in the project?
Amy Warner-May, the Sponsor, chairs the Project Board, which plays a pivotal role in decision-making. The Board is supported by a team comprising business users who meet as needed. The IT Services project team members are listed below:
- Project Manager: Deborah Gallacher
- Lead Business Analyst: Karen Ward
- Business Analyst: Chiara Trentin
- Business Change Manager: Rav Bharj
- Technical Architect: Richard McDonald
- Senior Quality Assurance Analyst: Paul Musson
What are the project benefits?
- Enabling research & education through better access to collections
- Streamlining operations and de-duplicating tasks
- Improving monitoring and controlling of storage collections management
- Maintaining health & safety compliance
- Reducing time and effort required to perform routine tasks
- Producing useful insights into operations and content collections via reporting
Link to Collections Move project
This project is closely aligned with the GLAM Collections Move Project, which is responsible for moving objects from their current storage locations into the CSF once construction is complete. Further information about this project can be found here: Collections Move Project
If you would like to know more about the Collections Move Project, please contact us via ctrc@glam.ox.ac.uk
Frequently Asked Questions
Please see our FAQs for more detailed information about the project.
Contact
If you would like to know more about the project, please contact us via the project email address: csfsystemsproject@it.ox.ac.uk
