Not just art: the challenges and successes of integrating archival, library and image collections into an art focused collection management system

Established in 1871, the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney is one of the oldest public art museums in Australia. Alongside a collection of 32,000 art works, the gallery also holds over four hundred art archives (the largest collection in Australia), an extensive visual arts library and a vast collection of visual documentation of Australian art making. Historically these collections have been managed discretely, each with their own systems, databases and metadata standards. Without any integration of these collection management structures important relationships between material remain underexplored. To better show, utilise and integrate these collections the gallery library and archive has embarked upon a program of cataloguing archival, library and image material onto the art collection management system, Vernon. The ultimate aim of this program is to provide users, both internal and external, with a more wholistic view of our collections and enable a deeper understanding of art making in Australia. This paper will examine some of the challenges and successes in cataloguing archival, library and documentary image material onto a system primarily designed for singular art objects - How do we adapt metadata standards for art cataloguing to suit other types of material? How do we create linkages between a diversity of material in a system with little authority control or indexing outside of artist authorities? How do we create an online interface that allows for these linkages and is navigable to everyday users? And, perhaps most challenging, how do we engage other departments within the organisation to achieve our goals?