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Digitization Coordination Workshop NMNH 2023�

Digitization Coordination Workshop NMNH 2023

Frederik Berger & Franziska Schuster | Museum für Naturkunde Berlin – Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science

Combining Project Management & Digitization Efforts

to Benefit Collections, Big and Small

Frederik Berger & Franziska Schuster

Museum für Naturkunde Berlin – Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science

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Digitization Coordination Workshop NMNH 2023

Frederik Berger & Franziska Schuster | Museum für Naturkunde Berlin – Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science

Combining Project Management & Digitization Efforts

to Benefit Collections, Big and Small

#1 Importance of Digitization for the MfN

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The Future Plan

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Transformation-driven digitization

Entomology
Mollusc Collection
Written material from the MfN archive
Herbarium
Hist. coll. inventories �

(mostly with external

Companies)

Digitization Coordination Workshop NMNH 2023

Frederik Berger & Franziska Schuster | Museum für Naturkunde Berlin – Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science

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User-driven digitization

„Digitization on Demand“

Internal and ext. research questions
Enquiries from other users (press, artists …)

International „Virtual Access“ programm

Detailed view, 3D scans, CT scan, XRF spectroscopy, transcription, georeferencing

Digitization Coordination Workshop NMNH 2023

Frederik Berger & Franziska Schuster | Museum für Naturkunde Berlin – Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science

CT Scan

Puffotter, Bitis arietans

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https://doi.org/10.7479/8h2v-4040

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Digitization Coordination Workshop NMNH 2023

Frederik Berger & Franziska Schuster | Museum für Naturkunde Berlin – Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science

Combining Project Management & Digitization Efforts

to Benefit Collections, Big and Small

#2 Establishing Digitization Priorities

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Every Digitization Project is a Puzzle Piece in the Emerging Infrastructure

Digitization Coordination Workshop NMNH 2023

Frederik Berger & Franziska Schuster | Museum für Naturkunde Berlin – Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science

CT Scan

Puffotter, Bitis arietans

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Selection of a sub-collection for digitization

Preservational issues

Upcoming move
Endangerment of collection objects due to poor condition (urgent need for conservation action)

Demand

High number of usage requests (research, public, press)

Change Management

Willingness to cooperate among existing staff
Collection comes up with own project ideas and supports their implementation

Digitization Coordination Workshop NMNH 2023

Frederik Berger & Franziska Schuster | Museum für Naturkunde Berlin – Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science

CT Scan

Puffotter, Bitis arietans

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Selection of a sub-collection for digitization

Completeness

Identify and close cataloging gaps

But also

Pragmatic reasons

Good logistical conditions (accessibility)

Impress the world

Potential for process automation (robotics, AI) due to object properties
Innovation potential in the digitization solutions to be developed

Digitization Coordination Workshop NMNH 2023

Frederik Berger & Franziska Schuster | Museum für Naturkunde Berlin – Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science

CT Scan

Puffotter, Bitis arietans

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Digitization Coordination Workshop NMNH 2023

Frederik Berger & Franziska Schuster | Museum für Naturkunde Berlin – Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science

Combining Project Management & Digitization Efforts

to Benefit Collections, Big and Small

#3 Coordination of Work

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Workflow design

Overarching structure of goals and milestones to guarantee project success by 2028
Actual planning of digitization workflows bottom-up

close stakeholder involvement
exploring framework conditions and requirements

Coordination with data management to develop the digital product and set up the actual digitization processes
Integrate preservation work
Quality management from the

start

Digitization Coordination Workshop NMNH 2023

Frederik Berger & Franziska Schuster | Museum für Naturkunde Berlin – Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science

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Digitization Coordination Workshop NMNH 2023

Frederik Berger & Franziska Schuster | Museum für Naturkunde Berlin – Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science

Combining Project Management & Digitization Efforts

to Benefit Collections, Big and Small

#4 How to be cross-functional and break silos

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Our silos (in our heads) …

Collection staff vs. digitization staff
Scientific staff vs. technical staff
Manager level vs. working level
…

Digitization Coordination Workshop NMNH 2023

Frederik Berger & Franziska Schuster | Museum für Naturkunde Berlin – Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science

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… and how to break them

Build small cross-functional project teams (collection staff, digitization managers, data & media managers, developers)
Each person in the team has specific expertise and skills that are absolutely needed in the project (everyone feels needed and valued)
Involve everyone in the project team in the development of the project concept
Listen to personal needs and see how they can be addressed

Digitization Coordination Workshop NMNH 2023

Frederik Berger & Franziska Schuster | Museum für Naturkunde Berlin – Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science

A. Casino et al. (2019) ICEDIG.EU Milestone report 49, p. 20 (unpublished)

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… and how to break them

Present successful projects again and again
At the beginning prefer to work with those who are open and willing to cooperate
Integrate colleagues that are skeptical about change into teams that already work well together
Pilot projects and build working prototypes

Scientists

Address them as stakeholders and/or customers in digitization
Involve them as consultants
Offer digitization on demand as a service for research

Digitization Coordination Workshop NMNH 2023

Frederik Berger & Franziska Schuster | Museum für Naturkunde Berlin – Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science

A. Casino et al. (2019) ICEDIG.EU Milestone report 49, p. 20 (unpublished)

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Digitization Coordination Workshop NMNH 2023

Frederik Berger & Franziska Schuster | Museum für Naturkunde Berlin – Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science

Combining Project Management & Digitization Efforts

to Benefit Collections, Big and Small

#5 Leadership Buy-in

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How to sell digitization

Dashboard development for progress indication
Promote immediate use of data so that ROI is visible
Development of business models
Communicate with the public, create expectations
Make routine tasks visible (e.g. “Digitize!”)
Use lighthouse projects to impress with good organization
Raise the team spirit and promote solidarity and loyalty in the project work groups. Ideal case: all those involved identify with the project and know the “why”.

Digitization Coordination Workshop NMNH 2023

Frederik Berger & Franziska Schuster | Museum für Naturkunde Berlin – Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science

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Digitization Coordination Workshop NMNH 2023

Frederik Berger & Franziska Schuster | Museum für Naturkunde Berlin – Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science

Combining Project Management & Digitization Efforts

to Benefit Collections, Big and Small

#6 Challenges

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Challenges

The human factor:

Many competent individuals are not automatically a team
Knowledge carriers in terms of certain skills and knowledge are part of many project teams (= bottleneck, stress)

Digitization Coordination Workshop NMNH 2023

Frederik Berger & Franziska Schuster | Museum für Naturkunde Berlin – Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science

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Challenges

Leadership support

Impatience or lack of understanding towards time-consuming routine tasks and basic infrastructure development

🡪 but these tasks require much workforce, time and effort!

Digitization Coordination Workshop NMNH 2023

Frederik Berger & Franziska Schuster | Museum für Naturkunde Berlin – Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science

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Special problems of a large museum with a large budget

everyone wants a slice of the pie
the expectations are enormous
a large heterogeneous team with high fluctuation
digitization team has grown faster than the administration

most leaders are not project managers

no commitment to a particular form of project management
different project management approaches in parallel, both within the team and in cooperation with external partners and service providers
large variety of productivity tools

Digitization Coordination Workshop NMNH 2023

Frederik Berger & Franziska Schuster | Museum für Naturkunde Berlin – Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science

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Digitization Coordination Workshop NMNH 2023

Frederik Berger & Franziska Schuster | Museum für Naturkunde Berlin – Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science

Combining Project Management & Digitization Efforts

to Benefit Collections, Big and Small

#7 Coordination at a Global Level

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Priorities to work on together

Project management (models and implementation)
Skills and competencies needed in digitization/ crossfunctional teams and how to get them (training programs/roadmap))
Tell about successful as well as failed projects
Collect use cases for digitized collections
How to make knowledge transfer (more) efficient

Help asking the right questions
Digitization coaches

Digitization Coordination Workshop NMNH 2023

Frederik Berger & Franziska Schuster | Museum für Naturkunde Berlin – Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science

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Thank you for the attention

frederik.berger@mfn.berlin

franziska.schuster@mfn.berlin

https://www.museumfuernaturkunde.berlin/de/wissenschaft/sammlungserschliessung-und-entwicklung