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talk · Thursday 24 September · 08:55–⁠09:10 · SAL A

From Silos to Standards - Advancing Standardised Collection State Documentation for Institutional Continuity and Coordination

Jacobus Christiaan Steenkamp · From Cabinets to Clouds - Bridging the gap between collection- and database management

Recording time 1:15:58–1:31:19Open on Vimeo ↗

Summaries and key moments are machine-produced. Check the recording for the speaker’s exact words.

The short versionStandardising how collection state (readiness, risk, conditions) is recorded turns tacit curatorial knowledge into shared, comparable institutional memory.

Overview

What this was about

Christiaan Steenkamp described how South Africa's NSCF supports a network of about 23 partner institutions, many without data managers, in documenting the state of their collections. Tacit knowledge about readiness, risk and conditions usually sits with individual staff. A 2021 community collection management and conservation manual led to a national collection assessment. Its first tracking tool, built on Google Forms, Apps Script and Looker Studio in 2025, was then refactored with agentic development into a standalone system. The new system scores implementation, documentation and risk, links specimens to jars, preservation batches and storage conditions, enriches records from GBIF with IPT-ready export, keeps audit trails and generates handover documents. It works alongside Specify and BRAHMS.

Why it matters. Collection state and curatorial history are largely missing from current standards. This work shows how a national network with thin staffing can capture them, and it points to a gap beyond Latimer Core.

Key ideas

In the room

  • The NSCF network covers about 23 partner institutions, from full teams to single staff members, built over nine years.
  • Darwin Core describes occurrences and Latimer Core describes collections, but collection state, readiness and risk are not captured in shareable form.
  • A community collection management and conservation manual (2021) led to a national assessment scored with taxon experts and observers.
  • The first Google Stack tracking pipeline (Forms, Apps Script, Looker Studio) was view-only, tedious to update and hard to scale.
  • The refactored system scores implementation, documentation and risk, lets institutions customise questions, and uses role-level security.
  • It links specimens to jars, preservation batches, fluids and environmental conditions, keeps an audit log and generates customisable handover documents for staff continuity.
  • GBIF data can be pulled in, edited with tracking, and exported in IPT-ready format; the system works alongside Specify and BRAHMS rather than competing with them.
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Transcript

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Programme abstract

From Silos to Standards - Advancing Standardised Collection State Documentation for Institutional Continuity and Coordination

Jacobus Christiaan Steenkamp

Collection-specific knowledge often lies exclusively with collection management staff. While collection managers understand the state of the collections they oversee, this information rarely reaches decision-makers or data managers in a standardised form. In South Africa, many institutions lack dedicated data managers, and those that do often lack access to collection-related contextual information needed to prioritise digitisation workflows and support data compliance.

Standardising collection state documentation addresses these challenges on three fronts. Operationally, institutions gain visibility into collection conditions and priorities, improving resource allocation. Institutionally, the system creates institutional memory that persists beyond staff turnover, preserving knowledge and collection history for future staff. Strategically, a shared standard introduces a common vocabulary that enables siloed institutions to move beyond isolated problem-solving toward coordinated, community-based approaches.

In 2025, we launched a prototype system across partner institutions using Google Apps Script and Google Data Studio. Although engagement varied, the pilot validated the concept. However, maintaining the system, onboarding collections, capturing data through Google Forms, and manually configuring dashboards proved labour-intensive and difficult to scale.

To address these limitations, the prototype was refactored into a standalone web application that streamlines collection state documentation and reporting workflows across institutions. The system supports institutional continuity while enabling a more standardised approach to collection management in South Africa.

Submitted to the conference programme before the talk, so the talk itself may differ.