Museum Data Service

Explore collections

View information about museum collections around the country, including those already available in MDS. Learn about the scope and strengths of museum collections in the fullest guide yet to the UK’s wonderfully diverse museums.

Search objects

Search millions of object records from museums large and small: the raw material for research and countless other uses. This database grows constantly as we accept all object records from all UK museums.

Sharing data

Any UK museum, or museum-like collection, can be part of the Museum Data Service. We offer a free and easy way to share your collections data, on your own terms. Use us to open up your collection catalogue to everyone, or keep some things restricted to certain people only. You can even use us as a secure and confidential backup for all your collection data. We can take your collection in any format and however you can get it to us. It couldn’t be simpler.

Using data

We think it will take up to a decade to include all object records from all UK museums, but you can already search across millions of object records, and hundreds of collection summaries. In this section, we describe the scope of our data and explain how you can search and use use records from our databases, subject to licensing and other restrictions the source museums might set. As people start using MDS data, we’ll also post use case studies here.

About

The Museum Data Service is a joint initiative by Art UK, Collections Trust and the University of Leicester, supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and Bloomberg Philanthropies.

Get a quick overview of what we’re aiming to achieve, and see who’s involved.