The most innovative system in Israel for managing collections has come into use in Haifa museums

The cost of the system developed by the KEYSOFT company, jointly with the museum staff, was about half a million NIS, but it was built as a pilot and as a joint project and the cost to the museums was therefore extremely low. Researchers and academics can already now coordinate access to the system to view the collection of the Haifa museums; in the next step, within In a few months, a special portal is expected to be opened that will allow access to the general public as well.

The Haifa museums in collaboration with the software company KEYSOFT are currently launching a new system for managing the museum collections, the most innovative system in Israel today. The KEYSOFT company invested about half a million NIS in the development of the system, but the Haifa museums were given the system at a low price, as part of a pilot conducted jointly by the Haifa museums team and the software company.

As part of the pilot, KEYSOFT, in collaboration with the informatics department of the Haifa Museums, designed a management system that is adapted to the needs of the museums and enables a more efficient and convenient cataloging of the tens of thousands of items found in the Haifa Museum collections: the Haifa Art Museum Collection, the National Maritime Museum Collection, the Tikotin Japanese Nanny Museum Collection, the Mana Katz Museum Collection and Herman Struck and the collection of the Haifa City Museum.

In the first phase, the system will be used by Haifa museums, curators, academics and art researchers. You can arrange a viewing by contacting the collections department of the Haifa museums (e-mail to[email protected]). The next step will be to open the system to the general public within a few months. The public will then be able to enter a special portal and receive information about the Haifa museum collections and the works of art therein, rich information that was not publicly accessible before.

According to Ran Hillel, director of the collections of the Haifa museums:

After hard work that lasted several years, starting with the physical arrangement of the collection warehouse, cataloging and documenting exhibits and works, I am happy and proud that we have reached this moment, when we are launching our innovative collection management system. The Haifa museum collection has great cultural value, as it includes tens of thousands of exhibits, from ancient textiles to traditional Japanese prints, paintings by the best Israeli artists, the collection of Mana Katz's artworks, ship models, Roman sculptures, Judaica, ancient maps, historical documents and much more .

After the pilot version of the innovative system in the Haifa museums was completed and was a success, the KEYSOFT company is currently implementing the software in other museums, libraries and galleries throughout the country.

Yotam Yakir, CEO of the Haifa Museums, warmly thanked the KEYSOFT company and the staff of the collection management department of the Haifa Museums for the unique cooperation:

Very proud of the unique operation that put us in a completely different place in the field of collection management. All of Haifa's museum collections are among the most important and unique in Israel. In recent years, our collections have undergone a significant upgrade in many ways. The innovative collection management software we are launching is a crucial step in our ability to present the impressive collections to the general public as well. This is software with great capabilities, which due to budgetary limitations we would not have been able to achieve without the unique cooperation between us and the developer company.

Haifa's museums include six museums spread throughout the city: the Haifa Museum of Art, the Tikotin Museum of Japanese Art, the National Maritime Museum, the Haifa City Museum, the Herman Struck Museum and the Mana Katz Museum. In all the museums, changing exhibitions and permanent displays on various topics are presented, and in parallel with them, creative and educational activities are held for different audiences and quality films are screened in the Tikotin cinema. KEYSOFT Ltd. is an Israeli software company, founded in 2008. The company specializes in the development of Internet and mobile systems and uses the best of the latest technologies. The company is active in a variety of fields: archives, museums, warehouses, employee attendance, diamonds, surveys and questionnaires, and more.

According to Eli Samder, owner and CEO of KEYSOFT:

The system we developed in collaboration with Ran and his team is, unequivocally, the most innovative and advanced system available in Israel today for managing collections and archives. Among its notable advantages is the speed with which it finds items - it takes a few seconds, and its multilingualism - each record can be cataloged in several languages ​​and the search can also be performed in several languages. In addition, in each record it will be possible to add text, images, videos, etc., so that users will have a clearer idea of ​​what exactly is in the collection and whether it answers their search.