Summary University museums and galleries play a key role in the nation’s educational system and as part of the national heritage, serving audiences both within and outside Higher Education. In England, Wales & Northern Ireland, University Museums are custodians of 30% of all the collections ‘Designated’ by DCMS as being of national or international importance (www.umg.org.uk) and over 50% of University Museums in Scotland are Recognised Collections of National Significance. (www.umis.org.uk). This project will provide new ways to join and open up this wealth of collections information via the Culture Grid, (www.culturegrid.org.uk) for increased use within Higher Education and beyond. The project will do this by improving the management of collection records within the Culture Grid and enabling access to integrated, contextualised collections information (a process initiated during the first RDTF Infrastructure ‘Contextual Wrappers’ project http://context.collectionstrustblogs.org.uk/). The range and quality of collection descriptions and the mechanisms for adding collection level descriptions to the Culture Grid will be addressed and the project will also prototype new ways to access aggregated collections information for different audiences. The project partners will be working closely with stakeholders, including the University Museums Group and Subject Specialist Networks, to ensure that community requirements are met and that an effective service is developed to support research and learning. Links will also be made with the University Museums in Scotland project ‘Revealing the Hidden Collections.’ (www.umis.ac.uk). Although university museums provide the focus for the project, the enhancements to the Culture Grid and the lessons learnt during the project can subsequently be applied to other kinds of collections. The project will be delivered by an established consortium combining: the expertise of a major University Museum: The Fitzwilliam, University of Cambridge; Collections Trust, the national collections management agency and an RDTF affiliate; Knowledge Integration Ltd and Gooii Ltd, leading SMEs in collections integration technology and interface design. The project is also supported by The University Museums Group; University Museums in Scotland and the Theatre, Egyptology and Portraits Subject Specialist Networks. Objectives The main project objectives are: • To better understand the scope, use and value of collection descriptions for resource discovery • To develop enhanced ways for the Culture Grid to aggregate and open up collections information from University Museums for improved resource discovery by higher education and other audiences • To demonstrate new ways to access and engage with this significant body of resources for research, learning, teaching and wider engagement. Anticipated Outputs and Outcomes Outputs: • Consultation Report (to provide evidence and understanding of how collection descriptions are defined, used and valued and to refine technical requirements) Produced from: o Online survey o A stakeholder workshop • Enhancements to the Culture Grid to improve how collections are described and aggregated • Enhanced collection records from university museum and subject specialist networks • Prototype user interfaces: o A UK University Museums access point, (based on the UMiS ‘Revealing Collections’ service) o An improved UK Collections (Culture Grid) search interface, including collections navigation. o An improved Fitzwilliam collections browse interface o A personal/mobile location based search service for HE learners to find nearby and course-relevant collections • Formative evaluation report. Produced from: o Online consultation o User evaluation focus groups at 5 University Museums • Project reports (Quarterly) Outcomes: • Improved access to aggregated information about collections held within university museums in the UK, assisting resource discovery for use in HE and beyond • Better understanding of how university museum collection descriptions can be used in HE • More coherent representation of collections descriptions across all kinds of UK collections within the Culture Grid