Documenting and digitising fieldwork

Museum staff can:

  • Advise on the process of selecting and ordering your collections before documenting them. It is important that collections are initially reviewed for archival suitability. If collections are not already ordered systematically (for example according to date or location), this would be done before creating a registry order of the collection.
  • Advise on the documentation of a collection. Staff will take anthropologists through the process of cataloguing, and explain the categories of information that should be recorded to allow subsequent incorporation into the Museum's database.
  • Make a digitisation plan based upon the size of the collection, the photographic format, and whether the collection needs to be scanned prior to documentation (such as negative-only collections). 
  • Plan to make the collection accessible online via the Museum's Collections Online or this website. 

This process makes the material available both to the academic community as well as, potentially, members of the communities represented in the collection. Staff always work closely with donors on questions of cultural sensitivity regarding access to certain parts of a collection, and will always restrict access to sensitive or personal information online where this is felt appropriate.

Contact details

General enquiries about this service can be directed to ms-photo.colls@prm.ox.ac.uk

Documentation and digitisation activities are co-ordinated by:

Dr Christopher Morton, Curator, Photograph and Manuscript Collections 

Philip Grover, Assistant Curator, Photograph and Manuscript Collections