Embarking on a military-style data journey
There is much reason to celebrate for the Royal Logistic Corps (RLC) Museum website has just gone live! This means that all of the existing content contained within their previous archive has now, after a long and methodical process, been successfully ingested into the PastView platform. This will truly enhance the visitor experience and modes of engagement, revolutionising how The RLC’s Museum's content is managed and shared.
The website offers access to regimental journals dating back to the 19th century, including records of interest to vehicle enthusiasts. Their archive also contains enlistment books from the early 1920s and photographs. Results can be identified, explored, and drilled down through a powerful advanced search facility, and the archive itself offers varying levels of accessibility, with some items being segregated and secured through paid subscriptions or on a one-off ‘pay per item’ basis. The move to a PastView website has been respectful of existing brand and style, and the overall result promises to be a significant resource within the field of military research.
We had the privilege of speaking with Major (Retd) Simon Walmsley, the Director, and Tess Manders, the Archivist from the Royal Logistic Corps Museum. This allowed us to delve deeper into The Royal Logistic Corps Museum, the fascinating collections they hold, and their captivating journey to PastView.
Project aims
Spurred on by the impending retirement of their expert website manager, The RLC Museum approached TWA to discuss their unique collections. Despite being incredibly popular, the website did not take advantage of the latest innovations and improved functionality currently available. The transition to the PastView publishing platform and a redesigned website was undertaken with the aim to increase awareness of the collections available and of the museum itself, appealing to The RLC’s Museum's audience of veterans, researchers, and military enthusiasts.
Much of this project was in relation to The RLC Museum's data which was being held on a different platform. This required TWA to understand and manipulate the data in preparation for ingesting into the PastView platform. In short, the following data services were employed by TWA’s Data Migration Specialists:
- Data Manipulation
- Data and Metadata Analysis
- Data Importing
- Data Conversion
- Metadata Processing
The RLC Museum's military collections
There was a huge amount of data and content to work on across a number of significant collections, including:
Data ingest and manipulation
With nearly 1TB of data to be ingested into the PastView platform, this undertaking posed a significant challenge for our Data Migration Specialists. The following process offers a glimpse into the monumental task of migrating The RLC Museum's extensive collection from a proprietary collection management system to the PastView publishing platform:
Monetising their most valued collections
The Royal Logistic Corps Museum's digital collections will continue to grow for some time to come. This important work will enable an already significant digital collection to increase in value within the field of military research. The move to the PastView platform has also enabled them to consider opportunities for monetisation of their most sought after collections, offering high resolution offline copies of vehicle records and subscription access to Corps journals. The revenue generated from these collections presents a substantial opportunity to reinvest in the future of their collections and contribute to the development of other military archive initiatives.
Visit the Royal Logistic Corps Museum website here: rlc-museum-collection.co.uk
OUR SERVICES
Data Migration Services
Data migration may seem complex and overwhelming, but fear not! TWA's data migration specialists are here for you every step of the way. We will guide and support you throughout the process, ensuring that your collections are perfectly prepared to take advantage of the extensive collection management features offered by PastView.
Here are just a handful of the services TWA's data migration specialists can support you with:
- Gaining insight into your collection data
- Migrating data from your previous collection management system
- Getting your data 'PastView ready' (including organising collections, managing metadata, and enhancing security)
- Collection-wide text recognition and text extraction services
- Configuring monetisation and access features, to safeguard and support your collections
Explore our Data Migration Services
