Bridging Continents: How Trimontium empowers volunteers with CatalogIt

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How The Trimontium Museum streamlined its cataloging and enabled remote volunteers to bring stories of this Roman fort to life.

The Trimontium Museum in Melrose, Scotland, showcases the history of the largest Roman fort north of Hadrian’s Wall. As Scotland’s only museum dedicated to the Roman era and the Iron Age, it features an extraordinary collection of Roman military artifacts, offering a glimpse into life on the edge of the Roman Empire.

When Thania Flores, Trimontium’s Heritage Environment Resources Officer, joined the museum in 2020, she recognised the need for a robust collections management system. For over 30 years, the museum had relied on dedicated volunteers, using handwritten records and ledgers enriched by their deep institutional knowledge. However, the absence of a CMS left the historic collections without a modern cataloging system.

Enabling global volunteers

Thania began researching CMS options, including AIM Associate Supplier CatalogIt. “When I found CatalogIt they were one of the only CMS’s that was cloud-based and user-friendly,” said Thania. Trimontium needed an affordable, cloud-based system that could support its dynamic team of 70-100 global volunteers. “Our CMS needed to be accessible from anywhere because we always wanted to have remote volunteers working on the collection,” said Thania.

Trimontium’s CMS search was also driven by “The Digital Romans,” a project launched in September 2022 with funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund. The project aimed to create digital resources and promote accessibility. “We wanted to create a digital place where all of the collections could live,” said Thania. Trimontium’s collection and historic site are owned by three other organisations, including the National Museum of Scotland, so Thania’s goal was to document the entire collection in one CMS. “That way researchers and others don’t have to look in multiple places for the material. Instead, everything is in one place.”

After testing CatalogIt’s free trial, Thania found it was the best fit. “Our experience with the system has been really good!” said Thania, who has worked with almost 25 volunteers on the cataloging efforts for the Digital Romans project. “CatalogIt being cloud-based has allowed us to connect to remote volunteers from as far as Ecuador, Turkey, Italy, and the USA who are enthusiastic about getting involved with Trimontium but cannot otherwise do it because of distance,” said Thania. “We intend to continue working with volunteers to enrich our CatalogIt entries over time.”

Digitising the past to inspire the future

After adopting CatalogIt, Trimontium launched an online catalog on the CatalogIt HUB as part of the Digital Romans Project, which concluded in Autumn 2024. The project aimed to digitise at least 4,000 objects, and Trimontium surpassed this goal, cataloging over 4,300 artifacts, books, and archives. Volunteers contributed to about 20% of the entries and captured photographs of the artifacts for the catalog.

Currently, about 5% of the collection is accessible to the public, with more entries being shared as Thania and her team continue to enrich the catalog. “Having the whole collection under one digital umbrella can help researchers, school children, and anyone who is looking for information find it in just one place,” said Thania. “It’s a resource for the present and future for anyone interested in Roman history in Scotland.”

Ultimately, CatalogIt has enabled Trimontium’s team of volunteers to contribute remotely, helping passionate individuals around the world to make a global impact. “Volunteers have worked on the system from far and wide!” Thania shared. “People are excited by museum collections which are not always accessible physically to them; working with cataloging these collections helps people feel connected to the objects and their stories, and to the museum community at large.”