Eko-Konnect is leading a GAF Demonstrator Project that assigns DataCite IGSNs to ancient physical artefacts housed in museums. This initiative aims to preserve Nigeria’s cultural heritage in collaboration with the National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM) under the Ministry of Arts, Culture & Creative Economy. It also serves as a demonstrator for Nigerian research and education institutions to enhance the visibility of scholarly and research outputs through Open Access repositories and Persistent Identifiers like IGSNs.

The project is a joint effort between Eko-Konnect and NCMM, a department of the Federal Ministry of Arts, Culture & Creative Economy. Its objective is to digitize Nigeria’s archaeological objects and cultural heritage to make them accessible through Open Infrastructure. To achieve this, artefacts from national museums are being digitized, hosted on Dspace and Invenio software, and assigned IGSNs.

Key activities of the project include metadata review and information gathering, repository use and administration training for museum staff, IGSN and repository integration testing, uploading digital artefacts to an online repository, and minting and assigning IGSNs.

The Open Access Repository has been deployed at https://lagosmuseum.ng, with IGSN assignment automated via DataCite APIs. The project is expected to promote Open Infrastructure and PIDs adoption in Nigerian museums, contribute to Nigeria’s cultural heritage preservation, and demonstrate the benefits of Open Access repositories and PIDs to Nigerian universities and research institutions. The initiative aims to expand the use of DOIs, IGSNs, and Open Infrastructure across all Nigerian museums and increase adoption in universities and research institutes.