Introducing the Heritage Samples Registry: Old samples, new questions: making heritage samples findable, citable and traceable

Small physical samples taken from heritage objects (such as paintings, books and archaeological material) are central to understanding how our cultural heritage was made and how it changes over time. They are also reused far more than most people realise: a sample taken twenty years ago can answer new questions today as analytical and examination techniques improve. Yet samples are usually recorded with local numbers in spreadsheets, notebooks and reports, so they are hard to find across institutions and their contribution to later research is less visible. The Heritage Samples Registry, developed through several initiatives, including the HSDS and ECHOES projects, is working to give heritage samples globally unique, citable identifiers (IGSNs, a type of DOI). Each identifier links a sample to the object or source it came from, the institution that holds it and wherever further information is published. This talk introduces the Registry from a user’s perspective: why it is needed, how it will help people find samples and explore their potential for reuse, what a recent international survey revealed about demand, and how sample identifiers could make the reuse of heritage collections traceable.