Presentation to the 2014 'Sharing is Caring' event in Copenhagen, Denmark

1. Why people love museums
Nick Poole, CEO
Collections Trust

6. “It’s marvellous. People will see. It’s not about us. It’s about another generation that will
come, who are preparing a fertile ground for the generations to come. So that they can
learn from this institution around them. Not going far away. This institution is not in town,
but in front of their doorsteps.”

7. I want everyone to feel about every museum
the way the people of New Brighton feel about
the Red Location.

8. Why do you work in museums?

16. The same thing that inspired you to do this for a job
is the thing that people love about your museum.
The way you feel when you walk into your museum
in the morning, or take a stroll round the store
during your break, or discover something in a
drawer is the feeling your users are searching for.
We just need to let them share in it.

17. Things are sustainable when people protect
and use them.
People protect and use things they love and
value.

18. What kind of
museum
professional are
you?

19. Objects Experiences
Facts Stories

20. Objects Experiences
Facts Narratives
“Our first duties are to collect,
conserve and display material
culture, to protect the
nation’s treasures and to
showcase the high points of
human creativity”

21. Objects Experiences
Facts Stories
“Our first duty is to create an
open, welcoming
environment in which people
can come and enjoy the
experience of beautiful,
inspiring things”

22. Objects Experiences
Facts Stories
“It is not the objects
themselves, but the
connections between them
and the stories they can tell.
Our duty is to weave stories
and objects together to help
people understand the world
around them”

23. Objects Experiences
Facts Narratives
“Our first duty is to provide an
authoritative record of the
development of the natural
and man-made world. We
must collect and preserve
type specimens and objects
based on our authoritative
and scientific knowledge.”

24. Objects Experiences
Facts Stories

25. People love museums not because we are one
or the other of these – it is because they trust
us to do all of them on equal terms

26. What is sustainability?

27. Only the finest handmade Buddhist temples for
1436 years (40 generations)

30. Apparently, the 29th
oldest continuously-
operational company in the world is Danish...

31. Sustainability is not something you can make –
it is what happens when we do something
people love and do it well.

32. We live in a connected age, and in a connected
age, your value is not in what you contain, but
what you share.
This is a fundamental part of user-centred
design.

34. The ‘traditional’ museum...
Museum cultures can sometimes become ‘vertical’ silos
Education Management Collections Retail IT

35. The ‘user-centred’ museum...

36. Did you #MuseumSelfie?

37. From
this...

38. To this...

39. And this...

40. And this...

41. And even this...

43. Not sharing is incompatible with our mission
and values as cultural heritage organisations.

45. “As cultural institutions, we constantly find ourselves
divided between two different objectives: On the one
hand, we must honour society’s demands that require
us to be relevant, useful and efficient[..]On the other,
we have a duty to future generations, which means we
are duty-bound to take a long-term sustainable view of
things.”
Sharing is at the core of both of these missions.

46. Confidence, Influence, Evidence

47. Evidence without confidence or influence is
pointless.
The more that people love what we do, and the
more they tell people that they love what we
do, the more confident we are and the more
influence we have.

48. First the love, then the stats and then finally
the money

49. The more we care about our users, the more
we will share with them.
The more we share with them, the more they
will care about us, and share our work with
their friends.
The more they share, the more relevant,
vibrant and sustainable our museums will be.

50. Come to OpenCulture 2014!
400 international delegates from 20+ countries
25-26 June 2014, Kia Oval, London
www.collectionslink.org.uk/openculture2014