Guidelines for Contribution to Artefacts Canada

a) Software

A recent web browser, such as Chrome, Firefox or Internet Explorer.

b) A database administrator or someone in your institution with similar skills

Certain aspects of the procedure for contributing data and images will require some specialized technical knowledge of your system; skills which are typically possessed by a database administrator. This person is often responsible for the initial set up of an in-house system.

A person with these skills will be needed to:

• assign record identifiers,
• define field mapping,
• create data and image export programs and other computerized and non computerized procedures,
• create procedures to select data and images for contribution,
• create data files for upload to AC,
• ensure links between digital image files and object records,
• exclude sensitive data,
• manage the deletion of records from AC, and
• use an FTP service to send images

c) A signed Agreement for Contributing Institutions.

Eligible institutions wishing to contribute to Artefacts Canada must print, fill, sign and return the CHIN Agreement with Contributing Institutions, available on the agreement page.

d) Contributor User Name and Password

Before you can contribute data and images you must sign the above agreement and complete the “Contributor Registration Form” available online.

Please note that you need only register for contribution to Artefacts Canada once. You will receive an E-mail from CHIN including your contributor user name and password.

e) Data file format

Your data will need to be in one of the following file formats:

• ASCII Tab Delimited
• Microtext

(Please see Appendix C: File Format Specifications for details)

Determine in which file format you will be sending data. Most collections management software packages should be able to export in ASCII Tab Delimited format. If you are not aware of the file format in which your system can contribute you may need to contact your vendor.

f) Artefacts Canada Database

Determine to which Artefacts Canada database you will be contributing, whether it be the Humanities or Natural Sciences or a combination of the two.

g) The fields in the Artefacts Canada databases

The list of accepted fields for the Artefacts Canada databases can be viewed in Appendix B: Artefacts Canada Fields and Field Mapping Worksheets.

Some of these fields are mandatory and represent a minimum amount of data that must be supplied for each record. Records that do not contain data in the mandatory fields cannot be accepted by the system. Besides these mandatory fields, there is a group of 50 fields that are strongly recommended for Contribution to Artefacts Canada; they are clearly identified in the CHIN Artefacts Canada : Humanities Data Dictionary. We encourage you to contribute as much information as possible.

h) Unique Record Identifiers

i) Field mapping

a) Imaging Strategies

Images of your collection can readily be added to Artefacts Canada. The following are some of the potential sources of digitized images in your institution:

1. You may already have images available in Web display format. These images may be available on the institutional Web site, in virtual exhibits or other Web projects. These images likely do not require any reformatting and can be linked with the textual information on the object in your collections management system by adding specific fields to deal with images. See Section III f) Image Fields for more details.
2. Digital images may already have been produced for digital presentation, on-line publications, on-line or digital exhibits, electronic research papers, CD-ROM projects, or imaging projects for archival purposes. These images may require reformatting for Web display. The images can be linked with the textual information on the object in your collections management system by adding specific fields to deal with images. See Section III f) Image Fields.
3. Archival photographs, transparencies and slides in your collection can be scanned and converted into digital image format by an electronic scanning process and then linked to object records.
4. You may also consider using a digital camera to create directly digitized images of all or parts of your collections.
5. Whenever you are photographing artifacts using a conventional camera, have the images scanned into digital format as well. Most film processing shops can do this for you. However, it is very important to retain the original photograph; if you want to make new copies in other digital formats, it is much easier (and, therefore, cheaper) to work from the original slide, negative or print.

Creating the original image is the most expensive and time-consuming part of the imaging process and requires the handling of the original object. Some institutions use traditional photography to produce a 35 mm slide or better, and then scan the photographic images into digitized formats as required. Others begin with digital photography and create a digitized image in the highest quality feasible for archival purposes. Derivatives or copies can then readily be made for purposes such as publications, a Web site, Artefacts Canada and other digital projects.

More information and resources about digitization project planning are available on CHIN’s website.

b) Image Display Formats

Artefacts Canada accepts two different image display formats. These are:

• thumbnail (small display)
• full (large display)

The thumbnail and full images must be recorded in separate fields. See Section III f) Image Fields. The thumbnail images must be no larger than 125 pixels on the longest side or they will interfere with the image display format. The full images can be any size. We recommend a size of 500 pixels on the longest side taking into consideration both the display technology users may have and the file size. The file size should be limited to 30-40K or less. Thumbnail images appear on screen quickly due to their small file size but generally lack in quality. Larger images appear on screen more slowly because of their large file size especially when being accessed via a modem, but are generally of higher quality.

c) Image File Formats

Images contributed to Artefacts Canada are accessed via the World Wide Web (WWW) and, therefore, must be in a digital format that can be displayed by a browser, i.e.: Firefox or Internet Explorer, and be accessible from a server accessible through the Internet.

Acceptable digital image formats include JPEG, GIF and PNG. The display quality of the images is dependent on the type of computer and monitor and on the format and quality of the digital image. Some factors that affect quality of the digital image are the number of colours in the image, the compression ratio, the image capture technology (scanner), the imaging software used to create the image, image file format, etc. An image in GIF file format is limited to 256 colours (8 bit), whereas digital images in JPEG or PNG file formats can be displayed in 16 million colours (24 bit) or more, thereby providing a much higher quality image. Generally, digital images are rendered at 72 DPI (Dots Per Inch). At this quality, digital images are of sufficient quality to be easily viewed but are not of sufficient quality to be used for reproduction in printed format - perhaps your greatest safeguard against improper use.

The size (height and width) of the image is measured in pixels for display. Although there is no restriction on the size of an image linked to Artefacts Canada, it should be kept to a size that can readily be viewed on a computer monitor with minimum scrolling. Remember that Artefacts Canada is accessed by a wide audience from school children to journalists to researchers, all with varying levels of equipment. Older 14" (or smaller) monitors will be able to display a maximum resolution of 640x480 or 800x600, whereas 15" monitors or larger can display at a higher resolution of 1024x768. The newer 19" (or larger) monitors are able to display at much higher resolutions.

d) Image Storage

Your digital images must be stored on an Internet accessible server. An Internet accessible server may be your own institution's Internet server or a server provided by an Internet Service Provider (ISP). If your institution does not have an Internet accessible server or an Internet Service Provider, your images can be located on a CHIN server. To upload image files to CHIN, you must use the Canadian Heritage FTP Service (MoveIT). An account will be created for you on request to CHIN client services, or when you register as a contributor. You can read the instructions for uploading images to Artefacts Canada using MoveIT for an overview of the process. If you cannot upload your image files using this service, contact CHIN to arrange to send them using an alternate way, for example by regular mail or by email.

e) Linking digital image files to object records

It is essential that you assign image file names to all digital images in order to link them to the appropriate object textual record. You must provide different names for the thumbnail and full image, and these must be entered in your collections management database with each object record. In many cases the accession or catalogue number or a variation can be used to create the image file names.

CHIN has added a common set of fields to each Artefacts Canada Database to facilitate contribution of images (See Section f, Image Fields). These fields should be administered in the same way as all other data in your collections management system. If this information is not updated regularly and maintained properly, the links to the digital images will not be consistent in the collections management information or in Artefacts Canada. For example:

Though the maintenance of these fields is time consuming, it is essential to maintain data integrity and to ensure that the correct image is linked to the correct textual information.

**Note: The names of the image files in your mapping table and the names of the image files you upload MUST BE IDENTICAL.

For the purposes of this file upload:

‘T1998_1_2.JPG’ is NOT identical to ‘T1998-1-2.jpg’

Pay close attention to the file names of your image files to avoid contribution errors.

f) Image Fields

Contributing image data to Artefacts Canada can be done in one of three ways. As mentioned, CHIN has added a common set of fields to each Artefacts Canada Database to facilitate contribution of images.

Please note that when including data in image fields, images must exist and be accessible via the web at the URL specified before this data can be accepted into Artefacts Canada. If images are not found based on the information in the image fields, no image will appear in Artefacts Canada for that record. Instead, an error message will be displayed. For more information please call 1-800-520-2446.

In order to link to your images, images added to Artefacts Canada are stored by CHIN as fully qualified URLs, ie. a URL in the following format: "http://www.anymuseum.ca/directory/filename". Depending on your current in-house methods for storing image data you may choose one of the following two options for storing image data sent to Artefacts Canada.

a) Selecting records to be contributed to Artefacts Canada

From your in-house collections management system you will need to be able to select and export the specific records and fields that you want to upload. These could be all the records in the database or all the records added or changed since the last time data was uploaded to Artefacts Canada.

It may be necessary to consult with your vendor to design a process that extracts the required information for upload to Artefacts Canada. Remember that each contributed record will overwrite the existing record in Artefacts Canada with the same unique record identifier. This means that all fields in a record that are being sent to Artefacts Canada must be recontributed each time a record is modified in your in-house system.

You may also need to talk to your vendor or database administrator about ways to exclude records that you are not yet ready to contribute.

Recommendation: Data should be contributed in batches. The number of records to include in each batch will depend on how large your records are. Begin with batches of maximum 20,000 records and adjust up or down depending on the length of time the actual file transfer takes.

Implement a regular schedule to select records to be added, changed or deleted in Artefacts Canada. This schedule will vary by institution but is generally on a monthly or quarterly basis.

b) Excluding records or fields

If any of your data are considered sensitive you may consider developing a strategy in your in-house system to exclude sensitive records or fields from Artefacts Canada. You may wish to contact your vendor or database administrator for assistance.

c) Creating the data file(s) to upload

After records and fields are selected for contribution, it is necessary to export this data into a text file format. Your database administrator will need to implement a process to generate this file in one of CHIN's interchange formats (ASCII Tab Delimited or Microtext). See Appendix B, Artefacts Canada Fields and Field Mapping Worksheets for file format specifications.

The character encoding can be in one of the following character sets including:

• ASCII
• ISO 8859-1 Latin-1 (Standard Windows encoding)
• DOS Code Page 437
• DOS Code Page 850
• Macintosh
• CSA_Z243.4-1985-1

Other character sets may be added as required.

Contact your vendor if:

• your in-house system does not support exporting data from the database to a text file
• your in-house system does support exporting data to a text file but does not support one of CHIN's supported file formats.
• your in-house system does not support one of CHIN's supported character sets.

Please contact CHIN if you would like to suggest the addition of other file formats or character sets.

d) Uploading Image files

To upload image files to CHIN, you must use the Canadian Heritage FTP Service (MoveIT). An account will be created for you when you register to contribute. You can read the instructions for uploading images to Artefacts Canada using MoveIT for an overview of the process. If you cannot upload your image files using this service, contact CHIN to arrange to send them by mail or email.

e) Uploading the data file

Once your files have been prepared for upload you will need to access the page to contribute (and select Add or update records on Artefacts Canada) to upload your files.

You will notice that the file format and character set have been highlighted based on your specifications outlined on the "Contributor Registration Form". This will remain as the default value but can be manually changed on a temporary basis at this point. To change your default file format and character set permanently, please contact CHIN.

You will be asked for the name of the text file on the "Upload File" page within the Contributor interface. You may search for the file using the "Browse ..." button or you may simply enter the file name in the box. The naming convention for your file is governed by your operating system.

If you are contributing records to Artefacts Canada for the first time, or you have modified your mapping table follow the instructions below in section V) Test Procedures.

f) E-Mail Reports

You will receive an E-mail containing a summary of the records that have been processed. Please review any processing errors indicated in this summary. Contact CHIN if you have any questions about contribution errors and how to correct them.

g) Deleting Records

When a record is deleted from your in-house system, that record is no longer available in-house. However, if it has previously been contributed to Artefacts Canada it will remain there until a separate delete operation has been carried out to delete it.

You may wish to discuss this issue with your database administrator. Special effort must be made to track deleted records and to include delete transactions in the data files uploaded to Artefacts Canada. The syntax for indicating a record to be deleted within a data file differs depending on the file format you have selected. All file formats require that the unique record identifier be included in the delete transaction.

The following are scenarios for your consideration.

1) If the anticipated number of records to delete is small, say less than 10 a month, a manual log of deleted records could be created using a text editor. This log becomes a separate file to be uploaded to Artefacts Canada when other data are uploaded.

The following is an example of a transaction file to delete records with unique record identifiers 100 and 105 (assuming that the field name "ID" is mapped to CHIN's “UNIQUE RECORD IDENTIFIER” field)

In Microtext format, the file might look like this:

ID=100
DELETE=YES
/
ID=105
DELETE=YES
/

In Tab Delimited format, the file might look like this:

ID<Tab>DELETE
100<Tab>YES
105<Tab>YES

In this process no database changes or programming are required. However, the following problems may occur:

• records may be overlooked and not get deleted in Artefacts Canada, and
• typographical errors can easily be made when the delete transaction file is created, thereby causing the wrong record to be deleted in Artefacts Canada.

2) If a larger number of deletes are anticipated a more sophisticated solution should be considered.

There are many possible options and the selection of the best one depends on the capabilities of your in-house system. Your system may be capable of executing an automated procedure, using the unique record identifier as a parameter, to automatically generate the file of records to be deleted. As shown above, the format of the external file is fairly simple. This file would then be uploaded to Artefacts Canada.

3) If your database application does not allow a simple programmed solution as described above, you may wish to seek assistance from the vendor, your database administrator or a programmer who is experienced with your software.

The advantage of the automated approach is that deleted records are logged automatically and the possibility of typographical errors is eliminated. The disadvantage is that consultation with a vendor or programmer could involve a cost to you.

1) Advise CHIN

Advise CHIN that you are planning to do a test. Until testing is complete, your data will be sent to a test database and not directly to Artefacts Canada.

2) Create test data

Create 3-5 test records in your database. Make sure that every field you will be contributing to the Artefacts Canada test database(s) contains data in order to ensure that your mapping structure is complete. Please note that this is necessary for test purposes only.

3) Create data file to upload

Select the test records and export the records to a text file.

4) Upload file

5) Review database

Use the links below to access the Artefacts Canada test database to which you have uploaded records.

Humanities
https://app.pch.gc.ca/application/artefacts_hum/humaines_humanities.app?lang=en

Find your test records. Look at each record you contributed to assure that the field mapping is correct. Verify that default field values are present where appropriate.

You can also access the Artefacts Canada test databases.

6) Modify mapping if necessary

If problems have occurred or changes are required with the field mapping, you can modify your mapping table. Click on "Add or update records in Artefacts Canada".

7) Change test data

Once you are satisfied that your field mapping is complete change 2 or 3 of your test records in some way. Delete one following the procedures outlined in Section IV g). Select and save the test records that have been changed or deleted to a text file as in Step 2 above. Upload the file to the test database as outlined above in Step 4.

8) Review database

After receiving the processing summary via E-Mail go to Number 5) above and choose the appropriate Artefacts Canada test database(s). Find the remaining test records. Look at each of the records to assure that the changes you made are reflected. Verify that the deleted record is no longer available. If errors are detected, correct your database procedures or field mapping as required and repeat the test until no errors are detected.

Delete the remaining test records and repeat the test to verify that the records have been deleted in Artefacts Canada test database(s).

If you have questions, contact CHIN.

9) Advise CHIN when you are finished your test.

You MUST inform CHIN that you are finished testing and ready to upload your data to the ‘Live’ Artefacts Canada database. Changes will be made at CHIN to allow future file uploads to be automatically updated in the appropriate ‘Live’ Artefacts Canada database(s).

Appropriate Copyright Clearances

1. Prior to contributing a digitized image to Artefacts Canada, a museum should ensure that where the work being photographed and then digitized is not in the public domain, then authorization should be obtained from the artist/creator of the work that is the subject matter of the digitized photograph. If the work at issue is in the public domain, then such authorization is no longer needed.
2. Since the digitization of an existing photograph is a reproduction, museums should also ensure that they hold the rights to digitize the photograph. Such rights can be obtained in two ways: by ensuring that the museum holds the copyright on the photograph through an agreement with the photographer or by negotiating these rights when the photograph is being subsequently digitized. If the photograph that is being digitized falls into the public domain, then such authorization is no longer needed.
3. In either case, rights should also be obtained to contribute the digitized photograph to a publicly accessible database such as Artefacts Canada.

Modifying the Image

1. If in the course of digitization or contribution, the image is somehow modified – either cropped or discoloured, rights associated with copyright, such as moral rights, may become an issue. Moral Rights are held by the artist/author of the original work that is the subject matter of the image. The photographer also hold moral right in his photograph. Moral rights run for the length of copyright and cannot be transferred. They can, however, be waived.
2. In either case, museums should ensure that it obtains a waiver of moral rights from the artist/creator and/or photographer if they intend to manipulate the image so as to prejudice the artist/creator and/or photographer in any material way.
3. If the work that is the subject of the image or the photograph that is being digitized is in the public domain then the moral rights of the artist/creator and/or the photographer are no longer an issue.

Protecting Museum Copyright and the Copyright of Others

CHIN undertakes to do what is reasonable to protect the copyright of its contributors. Copyright notices are posted on Artefacts Canada so that the viewer is aware that the content is protected by law. Furthermore, the canadian government has developed terms and conditions that define clearly how viewers and users may use the web content.

Rights Management and Protection Technologies

Images can also be protected and managed to some degree using current technologies. In the CHIN publication titled A Museum Guide to Digital Rights Management, author David Green explores best practices in Digital Rights Management and develops practical recommendations for today's museums. The first section covers the history of rights management, from the rise of computerization, through to the early collections management systems, digital asset management systems and end-to-end rights management systems. The second section reviews current practice in rights management in museums, gathered from a survey of Canadian museums and interviews with leading museums and practitioners in Canada, the US and the UK. The section is organized around the workflow, from assessing the intellectual property that the museum owns, to licensing IP to third parties and recording and tracking those licenses.

B.1 - Artefacts Canada: Humanities

B.2 - Artefacts Canada: Natural Sciences

C.1 ASCII Tab Delimited Format

1. The ASCII tab delimited file consists of two elements:
   1. The first line consists of the field names that correspond with the data. Each field name must be separated only by a Tab. The end of a line is indicated by a carriage return.
   2. The second and subsequent lines are the data lines. Data fields in a delimited format are separated by a Tab. A carriage return indicates the end of a record.
2. There is no restriction on the length of tab delimited fields, i.e. fields can be longer than 256 characters.
3. If there is no data for a field, a tab character needs to be included to hold the column position.
4. To delete a record using the Tab delimited format include a field called "DELETE" where the content = YES.

For example:
IDENTIFIER<Tab>DELETE
100<Tab>YES

C.2 Microtext File Format

1. A data field begins with the field name in column 1, followed by an equal sign "=", followed by the field contents.

   ObjectName=Painting

2. There is no line length limit. However it is recommended that line lengths be limited to 80 characters. Microtext lines are broken on a space. A leading space is optional on continuation lines. CHIN's system will add a single space when processing a continuation line. The CHIN system will remove multiple blanks when the data is reformatted for loading to a database.

   The following is an example of a Description field formatted to the recommended 80 character line length.

   DESCRIPTION=THE HUMAN HEAD HAS A LANDSCAPE DEFINING THE FACIAL DETAILS. A RAINBOW EXTENDS OVER THE HEAD FROM FRONT TO BACK, BEGINNING JUST ABOVE THE POSITION OF THE LEFT EYE AND CONTINUING DIAGONALLY TO A POSITION BEHIND THE RIGHT EAR. THE EYES ARE DEFINED BY FURROWS IN THE LANDSCAPE WHICH BEGIN OVER THE TEMPLES AND LOOP AROUND WHERE THE EYE SOCKETS ARE SITUATED.

3. Field names can be a maximum of 25 characters in length.
4. No spaces are permitted on either side of the equal sign.
5. A slash "/" in column 1 denotes the end of a complete document. No other data can be present on this line.
6. To delete a record using the Microtext format, a record identifier needs to be identified followed by "DELETE=YES".

For example:
IDENTIFIER=100
DELETE=YES
/

NOTE: The presence of an equal sign on continuation lines in columns 1 through 25 inclusive will cause that line to be treated as a new data field. If an equal sign occurs in the data in column 1 through 25, entry can begin in column 26. The CHIN system will remove multiple blanks when the data is reformatted for loading to a database. A slash occurring on continuation lines in column 1 will automatically end the current document and start the creation of the next.