Members of the CollectionSpace community at UC Berkeley are actively participating in working groups recently formed by Atlanta-based non-profit LYRASIS, the software’s organizational home. Berkeley, with five major campus collections cataloged and managed using this system, plays a significant role in the ongoing effort to sustain and expand CollectionSpace in the museum community.
The LYRASIS groups focus on the following areas:
- Leadership: reviewing and prioritizing software development, technical infrastructure, and user support roadmaps.
- Function: guiding functional requirements, reviewing user suggestions, and liaising with communities.
- Technical governance: guiding the software’s technical and architectural directions.
Key participants from UC Berkeley include:
- David Greenbaum, Director, Research IT (Leadership Working Group)
- Michael Black, Head of Research and Information Systems at UC Berkeley’s Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology (Functional Working Group)
- Patrick Schmitz, Associate Director, Research IT (Technical Working Group)
- John Lowe, Tech Lead and Service Manager for UCB’s CollectionSpace deployments (Technical Working Group)
CollectionSpace is an open source, web-based collection management and information system used by museums across the United States and in other countries. The working groups draw from a number of these institutions, including the Museum of the Moving Image, Staten Museum for Kunst (National Gallery of Denmark), the Walker Art Center, and the Litchfield Historical Society, as well as from LYRASIS itself. The Technical Working Group also includes an independent CollectionSpace developer. Agendas and minutes from the working group meetings are available on the CollectionSpace wiki.