This document discusses sharing museum and collection information online. It provides examples of museums that have created online collections databases and mobile websites to provide access to their collections. It also addresses challenges around copyright, resources for ongoing maintenance, and audience engagement when putting collections online. The goal is to make more collection information and objects available digitally to reach wider audiences.

1. Sharing collections information
online
Fiona Marshall

2.  People want to know what you have…
 Public funding. ‘Open access’?
 Participation and engagement
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3.  Accuracy / completeness of data
 Copyright
 Sales potential of images
 Time to respond to queries
 Institutional policies
 Maintenance and sustainability
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4.  25-30% of website usage?
 Improves your website ‘findability’
 Increases dwell time on your site
(Collections Trust)
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5. http://collections.wordsworth.org.uk/wtweb/home.asp?page=Collections search 5

6. http://collections.wordsworth.org.uk/wtweb/home.asp?page=Collections search 6

7. http://www.bda-collection.org 7

8. 25 September 2013 http://www.egyptcentre.org.uk 8

9. 25 September 2013 http://ehive.com/account/4162 9

10. 25 September 2013 http://ehive.com/account/4162/object/189837/Church_group 10

11. 25 September 2013 http://ehive.com/account/4162/object/189837/Church_group 11

12. 25 September 2013 http://rugbymoments.net 12

13. 25 September 2013 http://rugbymoments.net/object/78633 13

14. http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/pe_mla/h/helmet_from_sutton_hoo.aspx 14

15. http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/search.aspx 15

16. 25 September 2013 http://collections.vam.ac.uk 16

17. http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O16718/queen-victoria-chromolithograph-nicholson-william-newzam 17

18. 25 September 2013 http://collections.vam.ac.uk/crowdsourcing 18

19. 25 September 2013 http://collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/18448667/ 19

20.  Most people don’t pay for most pictures
 Where they do, it’s for specific iconic pictures
for commercial use
 Nobody makes money running a picture liby
◦ Make 90% freely available for sharing
◦ Look after the 8% that might have commercial
potential and
◦ Focus licensing & distribution on the 2% that you
know will generate revenue
(Nick Poole, The Digital Agenda in Museums)
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21. 25 September 2013 http://www.memoryprints.com/gallery/birmingham/1 21

22. 25 September 2013 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Best_of_the_Web_awards 22

23. 25 September 2013 http://artnc.org/ 23

24. 25 September 2013 http://www.mylearning.org/ 24

25. 25 September 2013 http://www.mylearning.org/rise-of-the-midland-railway-/p-3903/ 25

26. 25 September 2013 https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/rijksstudio 26

27. 25 September 2013 http://www.culturegrid.org.uk/ 27

28. 25 September 2013 http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/ 28

29. 25 September 2013 http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/ 29

30. 25 September 2013 http://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/about/ 30

31. 25 September 2013 http://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/about/ 31

32.  Taking your information to places people go
◦ Wikipedia, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter
 Making contact, communicating
◦ Blogs, Facebook, Twitter
 What are people saying about your museum?
◦ Flickr, Twitter, Blogs etc etc…
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33. 24th September 2013 http://dulwichonview.org.uk/ 33

34. 25 September 2013 http://ashbydelazouchmuseum.org.uk/Talking%20objects.html 34

35.  Collections information
◦ Mobile compatible ‘responsive’ websites
◦ QR codes / RFID / NFC / BLE
 Gallery trails
◦ GPS , TAP, Everytrail etc
 Visitors creating stuff about your collections
◦ Adding photos to Facebook/Twitter/Instagram
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36. 25 September 2013 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Derby_Museum_visitor_uses_QR_Code.jpg 36

37. 25 September 2013 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Philosopher_Lecturing_on_the_Orrery 37

38.  % of V&A website visitors using mobiles:
◦ 9% in 2012, 18% 2013
 V&A 2012: 60% museum visitors use their
smartphone to access info about their visit
 C.50% visitors travel with smartphones.
◦ 60% smartphone owners use them to take photos
◦ 50% to find more information
 Tate: Some visitors strongly opposed to mobiles in
the gallery
 Tate et al: Many users expect same resources from
mobile as website
 Pattern differs between organisations
 http://www.vam.ac.uk/b/blog/digital-
media/museum-visitors-using-mobile
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39.  Evaluating impact
 Demand not supply:
◦ ‘we have these ceramics, how can we tell people about
them and improve access to them?’
◦ ‘lots of people are interested in pottery, how can we
start a conversation about our shared knowledge [based]
around our ceramics collection?’
 Audience segmentation,motivation,behaviour
 User testing
 Issues with browsing collections information
 http://weareculture24.org.uk/projects/action-
research
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40. 25 September 2013 https://wordsworth.org.uk/home.html 40

41.  Audience development strategy
 Who are you targeting?
 What are they doing? / What do they need?
 Why would they be interested?
 How will they use your stuff?
 How will you evaluate?
 How will you (continuously) improve?
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42.  fiona@fionamarshall.co.uk
 http://museumsdigital.wordpress.com/
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43.  http://www.hlf.org.uk/HowToApply/goodpra
ctice/Pages/UsingDigitalTechnologyinHeritag
eProjects.aspx#.UkL_dRlwZzk
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