EMu (Electronic Museum)

EMu (Electronic Museum)
Name	EMu (Electronic Museum)
Developer	KE Software
Released	1990s
Programming language	C++, Perl, SQL
Operating system	Windows Server, Linux
Genre	Collection management system
License	Proprietary

EMu (Electronic Museum) is a collection management system designed for museums, herbaria, galleries, archives, and natural history institutions. It integrates cataloguing, multimedia, conservation, loans, and provenance workflows for cultural heritage organizations such as British Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Natural History Museum, London, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and Metropolitan Museum of Art. EMu is used internationally by institutions including Australian Museum, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, National Museum of Australia, American Museum of Natural History, and Field Museum of Natural History.

History

EMu originated in the 1990s when KE Software collaborated with collections staff at MuseumVictoria, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Australian Museum and Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney to adapt database systems for large natural history and cultural collections. Early deployments paralleled initiatives at institutions like British Geological Survey, Natural History Museum, Bern, National Museum of Natural History (France), and Smithsonian Institution Archives to digitize catalogues and integrate multimedia. Subsequent commercial development involved partnerships with organizations such as Microsoft for server platforms, and community projects connected EMu deployments with digitization programs at EuroMuseums, ICOM, and national digitization projects in United Kingdom, Australia, and United States. Over time, EMu evolved to meet requirements set by standards bodies including CIDOC CRM, Dublin Core, and national heritage agencies like Historic England.

Architecture and Technology

EMu's architecture is a client-server system built on a relational database backend (commonly MySQL, PostgreSQL, or Oracle Database) with an application layer implemented in C++ and scripting via Perl and Python. The system uses web services aligned with SOAP and REST paradigms to interoperate with portals such as Europeana, Trove, Digital Public Library of America, and content management systems like Drupal and WordPress. EMu supports multimedia storage with integration to image servers and IIIF-compliant viewers that work with infrastructures from Dublin Core Metadata Initiative and repositories like BASE, OAI-PMH aggregators, and institutional repositories at Harvard University, University of Oxford, and Yale University. Authentication and authorization are often tied to directory services such as LDAP, Active Directory, or federations used by eduGAIN.

Features and Functionality

EMu provides modules for accessioning, cataloguing, conservation, loans, exhibitions, and provenance research used by curators at institutions such as Victoria and Albert Museum, Guggenheim Museum, Louvre, and State Hermitage Museum. It supports complex taxonomic hierarchies and botanical nomenclature workflows employed by International Botanical Congress participants and herbarium networks like Consortium of European Taxonomic Facilities. Multimedia management enables high-resolution image handling, 3D models used in projects with Smithsonian Institution and Sketchfab, and linked data exports for aggregators like Wikidata and Europeana. Reporting, bulk import/export, and mapping functions integrate with GIS platforms such as ArcGIS, QGIS, and collection mapping initiatives led by National Aeronautics and Space Administration-funded research centers and university labs at University of California, Berkeley.

Implementation and Use Cases

EMu deployments support museums, botanical gardens, zoos, and archives, with documented implementations at Australian National Botanic Gardens, Queensland Museum, Canadian Museum of Nature, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, and numerous university museums at University of Melbourne, University of Sydney, University of Cambridge, and University of Oxford. Use cases include digitization projects funded by bodies like Australian Research Council, National Endowment for the Humanities, European Research Council, and collaborative collections research across consortia such as SPNHC and DPLA. EMu is used to manage loans for touring exhibitions organized with Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service and provenance research tied to restitution efforts involving institutions such as Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Data Standards and Interoperability

EMu aligns with cataloguing standards and schemas including CIDOC CRM, Dublin Core, Darwin Core, MARC 21, and thesauri such as Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names and Art & Architecture Thesaurus. Interoperability pathways enable harvests via OAI-PMH and linked data transformations for publication to Wikidata, Europeana, and national portals like Trove, DigitalNZ, and Collections Trust registries. Controlled vocabularies and authority files integrate with databases such as Union List of Artist Names and botanical resources like International Plant Names Index and Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Reception and Impact

EMu has been cited in case studies and evaluations by museums, research libraries, and cultural heritage organizations including International Council of Museums, Collections Trust, and university research groups at University College London and University of Melbourne. Reviews highlight EMu's strengths in handling large specimen datasets at institutions like Natural History Museum, London and multimedia-rich collections at Metropolitan Museum of Art, while critiques often reference licensing and customization complexity noted in reports by national museum networks such as Museums Australia and regional consortia in Europeana Network. EMu implementations have enabled major digitization and access initiatives with partners including Smithsonian Institution, National Gallery of Art, and research projects funded by European Commission programs.

Licensing and Support

EMu is offered commercially with site licensing, support contracts, and professional services provided historically by KE Software and successor organizations in partnership with system integrators who have worked with clients like Museums Victoria, Australian Museum, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, and university collections at Harvard University and University of Cambridge. Support models typically include training, custom module development, and integration services aligning with enterprise IT standards from vendors such as Microsoft and Red Hat; licensing and maintenance arrangements are negotiated per institution and funding frameworks like grants from Australian Research Council or institutional budgets.

Category:Collection management software