Where is my 'pastel de nata'? Open access and the enormous game changing benefits it brings to the museum world - The advent of the internet has brought a new paradigm for the museum world. By making content openly available and downloadable in high resolution people can now use museum collections as a form of individual expression, as highlighted by the Rijksmuseum. In addition to this Open Access policies have proven beneficial for the promotion, dissemination, democratisation and conservation of museum collections. My presentation seeks to show concrete examples of where Open Access policies have benefitted museums, and highlight how knowledge sharing is intrinsic to progressive and inclusive societies.

1. Saint Vincent Panels, 15th Cent.
Nuno Gonçalves
Public Domain
Pastel de Nata at Cafe St.
Garty Steves
Source: Flickr CC BY

2. Tired Office Worker
Free Clip Art
Wikimedia CC BY-SA

3. Paradigm Shift
Artworks in the Public Domain allow users to
reinterpret, recreate and reuse the works.
Through the act of creative self-expression
artwork gains new significance for those who
come into contact with it.

4. VanGoYourself
by Jem
CC BY-SA

5. Rijkstudio
Public Domain

6. Promoting universal access to
the worlds collective heritage
By making artworks and their meta-data available
with open licenses, via the use of API these can
automatically be added to Wikipedia, Knowledge
Panel and Google Arts & Culture. Open licenses
also allow their inclusion in social media and
blogues. The immense growth and availability of
the internet allows for unprecedented opportunities
for compiling and revising knowledge through
platforms such as Wikipedia.

8. Improving quality & digital
preservation
Unless an image is made available in high
resolution and quality with an open-licenses
available via a credible source, it will suffer from
the ‘Yellow Milkmaid Syndrome’ albeit only copies
of low resolution images of varying quality being
made available.
High-res images with open licenses will become
available on more sites/servers therefor ensuring
their digital preservation.

9. José Malhoa
©?

10. THE MILKMAID, c.1660
Johannes Vermeer
Public Domain

11. THE THREATENED SWAN c.1650
Jan Asselijn
Public Domain

12. Making collections available beyond
the physical confines of the museum
The Rijksmuseum has space for 8.000
objects but seeks to make all of its 1.000.000
object collection available online.

13. Presentation by: Luis Ramos Pinto

14. @lrpnto