Samtidsbild

A digital picture archive for Stockholm County Museum

Stockholm County Museum is a digital museum for the county's cultural heritage and art. Working without a traditional museum building, it is always looking for new technical solutions to document and showcase both history and the present.

One of these initiatives is the collecting project Samtidsbild, which aims to capture residents' everyday lives through digital photographs. To create this digital picture archive, the museum needed an accessible collecting platform and a sustainable archive solution for storage and publishing.

Photo: Annette Berglin, CC BY.

A long-term technical partner for digital archiving

The collaboration began as early as 2011, when Museum.link built the first version of Samtidsbild. The platform was initially based on an early version of the service, but over time both the technology and the features needed to be modernised.

The solution was migrated from CollectiveAccess to Omeka S to ensure better support for standards, interoperability and long-term synchronisation with relevant databases. The design, user flows and technical infrastructure were updated at the same time.

Photo: Eira Nordström Källström, CC BY.

The project shows how Museum.link works as a long-term technical partner through continuous development and adaptation to new requirements and standards.

An accessible platform for collected pictures

Museum.link developed both a web-based and an app-based collecting platform to make it as easy as possible for users to submit digital photographs.

Users create a profile and can then upload pictures together with metadata such as:

• photographer
• description
• year
• categories and location

Submitted pictures are published directly in the digital picture archive, building a contemporary picture of life in Stockholm County.

Working with G-W Studio for a good user experience

As a regionally initiated project, it had high requirements for accessibility and usability. To develop a sustainable, easy-to-navigate interface, Museum.link worked with G-W Studio, an agency specialising in branding and web design.

Museum.link was responsible for the technical infrastructure and integrations, while the design agency shaped the user experience. The result was an intuitive user flow with a high standard of accessibility.

Photo: Doris Cecilgård, CC BY.

Seamless integration with Stockholm County Museum's website

To integrate the platform directly into Stockholm County Museum's existing website, Museum.link developed a dedicated WordPress plugin. This lets Samtidsbild work as a natural part of the museum's digital presence, without feeling like a separate system.

A digital picture archive with advanced search and curation

Samtidsbild has fast search thanks to an integration with the search engine Solr, tailored specifically for the project.

Visitors can, among other things:

• filter pictures by photographer, location or category
• move between collections
• use the shuffle feature to generate a random feed

At the same time, Stockholm County Museum can organise the material into different themed collections. Residents can choose to contribute to specific collections, creating both contemporary digital exhibitions and a clear structure for future research and documentation.

Samtidsbild – a long-term documentation project

Samtidsbild is an ongoing project that documents life in Stockholm County over time. Through tailored technical solutions, standards-based infrastructure and close collaboration between partners, the platform has developed into a sustainable model for public collecting of contemporary heritage.

In the digital picture archive, old pictures of Stockholm sit side by side with photographs of the capital today. For Stockholm County Museum it is a chance to preserve everyday stories for the future, while residents themselves help create the county's history.

Photo 1: Tyra Svensson, CC BY. Photo 2: Kelly Hart Phillips, CC BY. Photo 3: Mårten Oscarson, CC BY.