Crystal structure determination has become a high-throughput activity, and even at the level of the departmental laboratory, automation is increasingly important in managing the experiment and, crucially, the data collected from the experiment and its subsequent processing, analysis and dissemination. The UK National Crystallography Service is a medium-scale facility which needs to address issues of data management, accountability and dissemination, on top of its efforts to achieve best experimental practice. In providing a service to chemists as well as crystallographers, it has amassed considerable experience in cross-discipline ontology building, data publication via repository platforms, and integration with laboratory management systems.