System Simulation / Museums
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Museums, libraries and archives
System Simulation is well established as a leading supplier of software to the cultural heritage sector; our first museum project was for London Transport Museum in 1986 and they're still key clients of ours today.
Other long term relationships include ongoing work with the V&A, British Museum and more recent projects with the Royal Academy and the Courtauld Institute. Our bigger institutions often have interesting and complex requirements which typically involve the management of multiple assets (in many forms) across departments and across older systems. More and more museums and galleries are looking to build a more unified data landscape to achieve coherence, economies of scale and sustainability. Our products build together to give museums a linked, relational world within which to curate, collect and exhibit. The CollectionsIndex+ integrated suite of products allows museum, library and archive professionals to focus on this curating, collecting and exhibiting by taking care of the management of their collections and digital assets reliably and intuitively.   We are a Spectrum Partner and MuseumIndex+ is Spectrum Compliant. |
System Simulation, Clerkenwell Workshops, London.
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MuseumIndex+ is part of a new generation of systems for managing the collections of museums and galleries. It builds on over 30 years of experience delivering collection management system to a wide range of clients including the V&A and British Museum. It is SPECTRUM compliant, with enhanced support for management processes and meeting Accreditation criteria.
BooksIndex+ is a system for the management of book collections and libraries with provision for professional library cataloguing, based on the MARC standard. The system is, however, sensitive to the needs of staff who are not trained librarians and provides a series of helpful features to support the cataloguing process.
ArchiveIndex+ is an easy-to-use management system for archives, based on the ISAD(G) standard, that supports and assists the flexible organisation of papers, letters and other archive material. It includes a powerful search engine and graphical display of multi-level hierarchies with drag-and-drop organising facilities.
System Simulation's integrated suite of products covering the management of books, archives, museum objects, digital images, digital assets and website content.
Procedure workflow system for CollectionsIndex+
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SSL's work with the Royal Academy resulted in a fully integrated website pulling in information from many sources within the institution: the collection management system; the library system; the book system; the archive database and also records carrying information about individual Royal Academicians.
Culture24's website (formerly the 24 Hour Museum) is an award-winning cultural guide promoting museums, galleries, libraries and archives across the UK. Every month, at least a million visitors enjoy content on Culture24 and Show Me, along with a host of micro sites powered by the Culture24 database.
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Through collaboration with the staff at the museum, we delivered creative design and robust implementation for the new interpretation kiosks and the new website. Each of the 30 kiosks spread throughout the gallery tells the unique story of around 10 objects in the immediate vicinity, using pictures, oral histories and video.
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In 2002 the British Museum went live with Merlin, the biggest collections management system in the world to date. Based on MuseumIndex+ we implemented and configured Merlin to the museum's specification, including a Unicode facility to catalogue and search using historical and non-European scripts. Merlin will support the museum's requirements well into the future. Merlin enables the museum to make its collections accessible for secure scholarly and public access.
We have supplied software to the V&A over a number of years including its core collections management system and integrated image library allowing web access to its collections. Recently, we supplied our AssetIndex+ to achieve much greater integration and allow the V&A to feed its assets into a range of more specialised applications.
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As part of its design provision, System Simulation offers a special set of services to assist clients to achieve high standards of Usability and Accessibility in their web sites and in other interactive environments.
Services include automated testing of compliance with accessibility standards, the management of user feedback, including focus groups and observed interaction exercises, and advice and consultancy on meeting the needs of particular user constituencies.
System Simulation offers an intelligent hosting solution in a package of hosting services.
The cultural sector has tremendous potential as a dynamic element in the emerging creative economy, in terms of the resources that it holds, the services that it provides and the knowledge and skills of its staff. Digital technology is continuously enhancing this potential.
System Simulation is probably unique in being able to offer an in-depth knowledge of the technology and its creative application, together with the experience of its senior staff and associates in enterprise promotion and economic development.
Over many years System Simulation has dealt with an impressive variety of data, at times handling huge repositories, at others processing relatively small amounts in specialised formats. Some of this experience has found expression in our product range, but it also puts us in a position to help clients plan and execute projects to restore, convert and migrate data from legacy systems and to arrange for safe back-up and storage.
The cultural heritage sector has a long tradition of sophisticated cataloguing, including the use of elaborate terminology systems. New requirements and applications are emerging, however, not least in providing access to and exploiting images and other digital assets. With its knowledge both of collections systems and of the management of digital assets, System Simulation is well placed to offer advice and analysis in the effective use of terminology systems.
System Simulation offers highly flexible design and creative production services across the range of its technical applications. These services include web and interactive user interface design, digital content production and usability and accessibility services (both appraisal and implementation). Our design work is characterised by its disciplined approach and its arresting results.
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