NEW YORK, NY.- The Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum today announced the release of its collection dataset, which will broaden access and allow for increased analysis of the museum’s object holdings. Basic museum data for more than 60 percent of the collection (more than 120,000 records) is now available as a single downloadable file at cooperhewitt.org/data. This open data release is the first of its kind for the Smithsonian Institution. “Following the lead of NYC’s Open Data and Data.gov in driving transparency and access, Cooper-Hewitt’s data release connects to a philosophy of publicly shared information, collaboration and inclusive participation,” said museum director Bill Moggridge. “The data release will heighten awareness of the museum’s rich resources and connect a potentially new and larger community to the collection