How do I start an online collection?

Depending on the size and nature of your collection, there are a number of collection management systems (CMSs) to chosse from, which allow you to share your collection online. 

You can invest in a CMS which enables you to share your collection on your own website, or sign up for a CMS which also handles publishing your collection online. 

• Deciding on digital tools for collection management 
• Contact one of our Museum Advisors | Kaiwhanake Whare Taonga for advice.

Join the NZ Museums community

By sharing your collections on NZ Museums you will become part of Aotearoa’s largest collection-sharing portal for museums, galleries and whare taonga.

Collections shared on NZ Museums are found by communities across New Zealand and across the world  – from teachers to geneologists, museum kaimahi to iwi researchers. 

To start sharing your online collection with NZ Museums you’ll need to sign up as a DigitalNZ content partner. 

Find out more about signing up to NZ Museums

Collection Projects 

National Services Te Paerangi has supported and funded a number of collections and digitisation projects. 

Project Ark: Digitisation in the Deep South (2018 - 2020)

Over two years, a roving unit of collections and photography staff worked across 12 museums in Southland to catalogue, image and pack small museum collections as part of a pilot project comissioned by the Southland Regional Heritage Committee. The team, consisting of two cataloguers, a photographer and a collection packer, worked to create 4,800 published and 560 unpublished online collection records that were published on NZ Museums.