We have continued to improve our various collection databases and our offerings online to the general public. Much of this work has been accomplished through a series of federal and foundation grants. In the past several years, the Institute of Museum and Library Studies (IMLS) has contributed over $250,000 in grants for our Great Explorations project, first Phase I and now Phase II.

In August 2012 the Museum received an IMLS Museums of America grant for Great Explorations Phase I, a two-year project to develop requirements and standards for catalog record formats and metadata for archival materials, connect the Museum’s library system to a digital asset management system (DAMS) to reduce duplicate data entry, connect other collection databases to this system, and continue to add information to these systems to aid searching for both the Museum staff and general public.

Metadata standards selected during this project ensure there is a uniform way of cataloging digital assets for the future. Also, the ability to use the DAMS as the center for metadata and digital files is incredibly valuable and avoids duplication. Now, metadata and files only need to be loaded once; and by simply clicking on an icon, those assets can be uploaded to Flickr.com or YouTube. In addition, the ability to automatically ingest public tags from Flickr.com into the DAMS ensures that the incredibly valuable information gained from crowdsourcing is quickly and permanently stored in one location.

We received another IMLS Museums of America grant for Phase II of the Great Explorations project in October this year. This three-year grant project will focus on improving and streamlining the Museum’s collection management system through the use of proper and consistent cataloging and metadata, detailed descriptions, and location tracking. During the grant period, over 30,000 currently held curatorial objects, as well as incoming objects, will be cataloged into the Museum’s PastPerfect system. In addition, a digital record of the object will also be created, stored in the DAMS, and linked to appropriate databases.

Images of the objects and their metadata will be offered online to the public through the Museum’s existing social media sites. The online resources will allow a broad audience of scholars, students, aviation enthusiasts, and other museums to access artifacts without having to visit San Diego. This second phase of the Great Explorations online initiative will allow the public to tag images and add more information, which will also be store in the artifacts’ metadata.