Power in Partnerships: 3 Models for Sharing a Museum Collections Management System

In an era of tightening budgets and rapidly evolving digital user expectations, the “islands of information” approach to museum collection data is becoming a relic of the past. For the modern museum professional, the Collections Management System (CMS) is more than just a ledger. A CMS is a tool we use to streamline collections care, share compelling stories, and deepen collection discovery.

Such an important and multifaceted tool deserves a prime place on the budget, yet increasing costs often lead to compromise. This is where creative partnership can offer an alternative approach. Instead of compromising on an affordable CMS, let’s change how we approach CMS acquisition and use. In this series we’ll review three ways museums are reimagining the CMS through the lens of creative partnership.

The 3 Shared Partnership Models

This post outlines 3 main creative partnership models for sharing a CMS:

1. Sharing a single database (a unified hub)
2. Sharing permissions to access (a peer-to-peer bridge)
3. Separate databases but a shared discovery portal

1. The Unified Hub: Sharing a Single Database

This is the most integrated approach, where multiple institutions operate within a single, centralized database. Instead of each museum maintaining its own server, database, and software licenses, this partnership shares a unified infrastructure.

Depending on the partnership and the CMS, some iterations of a unified hub are fully combined; whereas others can erect partitions to help keep designated points of data separate and secure.

The Danish Natural History Museum consortium is an example of the unified hub model, with a centralized CMS shared by partner institutions. From large university institutions to smaller regional sites, all natural history museums in Denmark are in the same system.

The Partnership Edge: Massive IT cost savings, standardized data quality, and an increase in technical capacity.

The Partnership Challenge: Requires a high level of trust and agreement among partners on CMS configuration decisions and cataloging protocols.

2. The Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Bridge: A Shared Tool, Separate Databases

If sharing a single database isn’t on the roadmap, then a joint purchasing approach with shared permission to access can be a great alternative approach. Going in together for a joint purchase means each museum can acquire their own database but at a discounted price. If sharing some data or project workflows is of interest, permissions can be leveraged to support appropriate access. (This is common in joint-ownership scenarios or long-term loan partnerships). While in separate databases, the shared-but-separate CMS approach can offer fertile ground from cross-museum collaboration.

A big-name example involves the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), who jointly acquired the Robert Mapplethorpe collection. The institutions adopted a shared-but-separate CMS approach, leveraging a cloud-based CMS and role-based permissions to view or edit specific records in the partner museum’s system.

The Partnership Edge: Facilitates complex joint-ownership workflows while maintaining institutional autonomy.

The Partnership Challenge: Requires use of the same CMS tool complete with robust securities and permission management.

3. The Discovery Portal: A Shared Window into Collections

By far the most common method, this approach allows museums to keep their existing CMS and publish their public-facing data to a shared discovery portal. Supported by consortiums centered around topics or regionality, the discovery portal creates a single point of entry for the public while each museum uses the CMS that makes the most sense for them.

Initiatives like Europeana, Digital Public Library of America (DPLA), or the Public Art Archive allow hundreds of museums to contribute collection data to a central search engine. This partnership model ensures that users don’t have to visit fifty different databases to find related items.

For example, a person can discover a painting in Los Angeles with artist correspondence at an archive in New York, even though those institutions use different internal Collections Management Systems. It’s essentially a one-stop shop.

The Partnership Edge: Low barrier to entry and maximum public visibility, and you get to keep your own CMS.

The Partnership Challenge: Data is often “static” in the portal; updates in the home CMS may take time to sync.

Creative Partnerships Can Deepen Collection Discovery

By embracing the concept of creative partnership, institutions can afford more. And the benefits don’t stop at cost-savings. A shared Collections Management System approach can be a strategic move to standardize data, foster cross-institutional research, and amplify collective reach.

Museums who adopt a shared approach are discovering that they can achieve more together than they could in isolation. Leveraging shared resources allows us to shift our focus from costs and technical infrastructure restrictions to meaningful storytelling and improved collection discovery. When we pool our tools and expertise, we can transform our databases from expensive internal silos into affordable interconnected networks.