"The Treasury of Lower Austria": New online database

Recently, the State Collections of Lower Austria launched an online database, which currently provides access to 30,000 digitized objects in total from the holdings of all collection areas. Both the Center for Museum Collections Management and the Department for Knowledge and Communication Management are working on presenting the collection holdings in a contemporary manner.

A small selection from the roughly six million objects held in the extensive holdings of the Landesammlungen NÖ (State Collections of Lower Austria) are already on display in exhibitions during normal operation. A visit to the exhibits has become completely impossible as a result of the current situation and the related closures. While silence fell in the exhibition rooms, time was used behind the scenes to work on a new database. 30,000 objects are now open to its admirers on the online database of the State Collections of Lower Austria.

Research of Danube University Krems

Many years of scientific cataloguing undertaken by the staff of the Center for Museum Collections Management resulted in the creation of many data sets of the objects in the collection. One of them is Isabella Frick, who took over the project management for the online publication of selected data sets of the Landessammlungen Niederösterreich. With the support of Kathrin Kratzer, who also works at the Center for Museum Collections Management, criteria for the project were defined with the State Collections of Lower Austria. Data sets needed to be identified; new input guidelines and standards for the use of norm databases as well as consistent standards for high-quality photography had to be developed.

In cooperation with the Department for Knowledge and Communication Management at Danube University Krems a visualization concept will be developed in the coming months to facilitate access to the extensive object database and to create an intuitive exploration of the holdings. The aim is provide an overview of the collection holdings and, by means of user-friendly navigation, will enable users to delve deeper into the data holdings.