090127 MLA-SE Museums and the web
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MUSEUMS AND THE WEB Mark Walker Robert Taylor
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Delivered in Henley on Thames by Mark Walker and Robert Taylor
Transcript of 090127 MLA-SE Museums and the web
MUSEUMS AND THE WEB
Mark Walker
Robert Taylor
About SCIP
• Not for profit social enterprise– Training inc Net:Gain– IT Support– Web Design– Databases– Community Projects
SCIP support for museums in south east England
• Funded through Renaissance SE• Working with Museum Development Officers• Initial health check
– Diagnose key issues– Quick fixes
• Ongoing technical support• Training • Projects ends 31 March 2009
This workshop
• Review key issues for your organisation• Help you review your own website• Identify specific actions for using the web
– to promote your museum– make your collections available
You and your organisation
• Your name and your role• Current number of staff and volunteers• Current turnover• Your role in relation to website in the organisation• Current website budget
Why are you here?
• What do you want to know?• Specific questions• Knowledge and experience
Why have a website?
• Exercise in pairs
• What can a website do for your museum?
• What do you think is the most important thing that people will want from your website?
Why have a website?
• Promote your museum• Encourage visitors to come to your museum • Make your collections available• Engage new audiences• Receive comments and feedback
Your options
• Build your own• Pay someone
• Advantages and disadvantages?
Key steps
• Define what you want = the brief• Design a solution• Build the site• Test the site• Update and amend the site• Sign off• Ongoing updates to the site• Review and improve the site
Preparing a website brief
• Not a technical task but needs some technical insight• Involve other people
– Staff, volunteers, trustees– What do they think you need? How can they help?
• Link it to your overall planning process“In the next 12 months we want to increase the number of visitors to our museum by 25%. To help achieve this we will use our website to raise our profile amongst families looking for a day out.”
A website brief
• Summary
• Current Situation
• Aims and Objectives
• Budget
• Timescale
• Audiences
• Functionality
• Design Requirements
• Managing the Site
• Domain Name
• Suggested Site Map
• Promoting the Site
• Training
• Next Steps
www.ictknowledgebase.org.uk/websitebrief
www.ictknowledgebase.org.uk/websitebriefwww.ictknowledgebase.org.uk/websitebrief
Budgeting
• What do you think you can get for your money?– Nothing– £500– £1,000– £5,000– £10,000
What makes a good website?
• Up to date• Opening times• Contacts• Accessibility• Ease of use• Clarity
• Preferences• Search engine
friendly• Links to other sites• Standards• Easily updated by
us
A ‘good enough’ website?
• Exercise in pairs
• Identify three things that you think your website MUST do for your museum
• Identify three things you WOULD LIKE your website to do for you museum.
Where are we going?
• Accessibility - DDA• Interactive sites - Amazon, Facebook, etc• Online participation - communities• Search engine optimisation• Content management systems• Mobile information• Online payments• Blogs and wikis• ….?
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Why have a website?
• Promote your museum• Encourage visitors to come to your museum
• Make your collections available• Engage new audiences
• Receive comments and feedback
Promoting your museum
• Tourist siteswww.visitsoutheastengland.com
• Local authority sites• www.visitwinchester.co.uk• www.visitbrighton.com• www.buckscc.gov.uk• www.visitbuckinghamshire.org
• Popular public sites:Wikipedia and YouTube • 24 Hour Museum
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Wikipedia
• A free encyclopedia with millions of articles contributed collaboratively using Wiki software, in dozens of languages.
www.wikipedia.org
• Why use it?• How to use it?
YouTube
YouTube is a video sharing website where users can upload, view and share video clips.
www.youtube.com/
• Why use it?• How to use it?
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24 Hour Museum• new funding to develop as a ‘cultural sector broker’
– Promoted as a main public ‘museum’ site – For teachers to locate the education resources from
the cultural sector online content, educational workshops and visits to exhibitions
• open source, open standards• able to support web services / Web 2.0• www.24hourmuseum.org.uk/
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Making your collections available
Existing MLA Knowledge Web– Cornucopia, MICHAEL and the MLA Institutional server.Cornucopia covering physical collections and MICHAEL, in the
UK,focuses on digital collections.
New strategy, now led by Collections Trust– No new data to be added to Cornucopia and MICHAEL– Provide data for People’s Network which will be
developed– Feed collections data into Google– Link to Europeana
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Cornucopia
• online database of museum collections• system for collection descriptions
www.cornucopia.org.uk/
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MICHAEL
• A software platform that signposts data to other public sites
• Digital collections:– Web accessible collections– Standalone collections – CD, DVD, organisation based.
• The public:– Directly via the UK site, particularly for teachers
www.michael-culture.org.uk/teachers– Directly via an international site (will be searchable in
14 languages). www.michael-culture.org/
– Indirectly via sites using MICHAEL data.
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People’s Network Discover Service
• harvests other databases (OAI, web services)– MICHAEL and Cornucopia– BL Collect Britain, Fitzwilliam
• being used as basis for other projects– 20th Century London, NE ‘Single Point of Access’
• access to object / item level content• www.peoplesnetwork.gov.uk/discover/
Europeana
• New project from July 2007• Prototype website giving users direct access
to 2 million digital objects– including film material, photos, paintings, sounds,
maps, manuscripts, books, newspapers and archival papers.
• By 2010 , target of 6 million digital objectswww.europeana.eu/
SSNConnect • SSNConnect is a service produced by Collections Trust
on behalf of the MLA. • Each Subject Specialist Network will have a simple
platform to:– Publish a website – Share files and information within the SSN – Keep users and stakeholders up to date with their
work – Map collections relating to their subject specialism – Develop terminologies for their subject specialism
• www.portraits.specialistnetwork.org.uk/• Details from:
www.collectionslink.org.uk/find_a_network/subject_specialists/ssnconnect
Where to get help
• What help does your organisation need with its website?
• Who currently provides that help. If anyone?• Where can you get more help?• Practical help.• Strategic planning.
Types of help for groups
• Volunteers - one off projects + ongoing• Accidental Techies• IT Support Companies• Web Designers• Database Consultants• Circuit Riders• Net:gain Centres• UK Online Centres
Working with volunteers
• Need to think about job description and recruitment process
• May have technical skills• May be administration eg data entry• What support and training do yu need to offer?• How do they link to staff?• Passwords and security issues
Who can help?
• National– Digital Services for the Cultural Sector [DiSCS]
www.discs-uk.info– AIM Focus Paper - ICT for Museums– Collections Link www.collectionslink.org.uk
• Local/sub-regional– MDOs + museum Hub– IT support companies, volunteer bureau, university, private
companies
Who can help?
• ICT Hub: www.icthub.org.uk– Knowledgebase - www.icthubknowledgebase.org.uk– Suppliers Directory– Publications
• IT 4 Communities: www.it4communities.org.uk– Volunteers
• AbilityNet: www.abilitynet.org.uk– Accessibility
Any more questions?
• Mark Walker• www.scip.org.uk• [email protected]• 01273 234049
• Robert Taylor• [email protected]• 01798 839580
