'Data Matters': Report on the Towards a National Collection Discovery Projects focus group on data management, documentation, and archiving practices in digital cultural heritage projects

With the increase in digitisation and datafication of cultural heritage over the past few decades, cultural heritage data has become a potentially valuable resource for knowledge production that has been heavily invested in by both public and private investments. It has, however, thus far been under-utilised, with several barriers existing that prevent its reuse. One significant barrier is the lack of clear records or descriptions of how data has been created, collected and processed - also known as data documentation - and standardised methods for recording, managing, maintaining and sharing this information. In summer 2024, representatives of the Towards a National Collection (TaNC) Discovery Projects attended a focus group to discuss and exchange experiences, challenges and potential solutions on issues around data documentation, processing, archiving and publication.

This report presents the key findings and recommendations that developed out of these discussions, and outlines the primary challenges in data management and documentation identified by the five TaNC Discovery Projects, including:

• Accessing data that can be reused is a complex and time-consuming process.
• Datasets used and created by projects often are not openly available, increasing barriers to their future reuse.
• Insufficient documentation of how data was created, collected or processed makes it difficult to understand, and analyse data.
• Ongoing reassessment of data-related decisions, requires continuous resources to refine or change processes.
• Creating documentation to capture datasets and to document decision-making processes is resource-intensive (financial, time, knowledge and skill).
• Establishing and maintaining the necessary infrastructure to store, analyse and share data is resource intensive, and a lack of centralised infrastructure leads to wasted resources and unnecessary environmental impacts.
• Data focused tasks are frequently undertaken on an ad-hoc basis, often without the involvement of dedicated data specialists, leading to inefficiencies and potential gaps in expertise.