We have two new members in the Collecte Steering Group for the years 2022-2024: Project Planner Susanna Hakkarainen from the University Museum of Helsinki and Iris Kankaanpää from the Finnish Forest Museum Lusto. Susanna is familiar with E-Kuva and Collecte from ten years of experience, while Iiris brings a new user perspective to the steering group. Both are the main users in their own organisations.

Susanna Hakkarainen was recruited for the implementation project and to prepare the migration when the University Museum of Helsinki joined E-Kuva and the Akseli consortium more than 10 years ago. At the time, the University Museum had nine databases to convert, all of which needed to be familiarised with. At the same time, the University Museum also adopted Finna in the so-called second wave. The new system and portal provided an opportunity to think deeply about old cataloguing practices and how materials are made available online to end users. Over the years, Susanna has done a wide range of collection and exhibition work, almost all of which is supported by the collection management system.

Access-based applications, Collecte, E-Kuva, Mops, Sip and Extend Image have been used by Susanna for, in her own words, "everything possible": basic cataloguing, small and large inventory projects, information service and other customer service, collection changes, archive reorganisation, exhibition planning. As the main user, he also manages the identities of colleagues and researchers and compiles statistics. The new features of Collecte open up many new possibilities for what the collection management system could still be used for. Susanna is genuinely enthusiastic about collections management in general and about Collecte in particular.

”I was already involved in the E-Kuva project when Collecte was just a twinkle in the eye of us E-Kuva people, and I was enthusiastically involved in the brainstorming from the very beginning, even though I was not part of the actual Steering Group. I genuinely enjoy testing systems and am always open to reflections on how to improve the system blocks or cataloguing practices. I'm not an engineering prodigy or a coding genius, but I dare to ask [...] and I think about the system from a user rather than an engineering perspective.. ”

Iiris Kankaanpää started working at Lusto as an assistant curator of the photographic archive in November this year. She is new to the Collecte, but otherwise has well over a decade of experience in exhibition, public and collection work; on the collections side, especially in customer service work for the Photographic Archives. She has been involved in updating the collections policy, working with Tako, and working on the accumulation of collections. He has become familiar with Antikvaria and Musketti.

In her day-to-day work, Iiris uses the collection management software for general image archive work, to serve the customers of the Luston Image Archive and to produce content for the museum's core exhibition renewal. In her role as Chief User of Kantapuu Consortium, Iris is the liaison between the consortium's member museums and the system provider, and acts as the Chief User for the Kantapuu organisations in Kantapuu-Finna.  

”As someone at the beginning of my Collecte career, I look at many things with fresh eyes and ask those "stupid" questions because I believe that in the end it all works to the benefit of the users. The wide range of practical museum work experience gives me the motivation to help make Collecte even smoother and more user-friendly, thus contributing to the opening up of collections and better accessibility..”

The steering group will continue to include

In 2022, the Steering Group will be continued by Mikko Aho from Rauma Maritime Museum, Juho Haavisto from The Association for Rural Culture and Educationn (spokesperson 2021), Kimmo Kestinen from Werstas (Chairman of the Board 2021), Anna-Riikka Vaden from Lahti City Museums and Panu Rissanen from the Police Museum (secretary 2021). Userix is represented in the Steering Group by Mikko Sola and Maija Ekosaari is an invited expert.

The Steering Group has agreed to rotate the positions of Chair, Secretary and Spokesperson on an annual basis to ensure that no one is unduly burdened by the duties of a trustee. We will inform you after the January meeting how the Steering Group will be organised for 2022.

All members of the steering group can be contacted by email cohjausryhmä at userix.fi

The Collecte Steering Group thanks all users for their active participation in the Collecte Coffee, User Day and development, and wishes you a peaceful Christmas and a Collective New Year 2022!