Data service to share museum records launches 

A new service to gather and share object records from UK museums has launched. 

The Museums Data Service (MDS) has been developed to assemble data on museum collections, including location and opening times, summaries of collections and highlights, object records and exhibition text, but will not hold media assets.

Work on the project, a joint start-up by Art UK, Collections Trust and the University of Leicester, supported by funding from Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Arts and Humanities Research Council, began in November 2022.

Training for early adopters of the programme will begin next month. MDS hopes to publish collection summaries for all 1,700 accredited museums by May 2024 and to have compiled all object records by 2033.

Collections Trust, funded by Arts Council England, is offering support to small organisations including Wolverhampton Museum, St Barbe Museum and the Royal Engineers Museum, to help them make the most of the new service.