organisational transformation and sustainability

The Strategic Content Alliance Museums on the Web:

Organisational Transformation and Sustainability

Mission…

www.jisc.ac.uk/contentalliance | Slide 27 April 2023

If the UK is to realise the full potential of the web and every citizen to realise their own potential - in the workplace, in their places of learning and in the home - the full range of digital content needs to be made available to all, quickly, easily and in a form appropriate to the users’ needs.

Our supporters…


Our work…

Inform Mindsets

Influence Policy Agendas

Develop Digital Strategy

Enhance Skills With Tools

Foster co-innovation…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NC9tK1APvc8


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NC9tK1APvc8

Museums and Digital Sustainability… collaboration...convergence…competition


RSS

http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=270290406

http://oxford.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2566711287

http://www.youtube.com/user/ww1lit

http://www.flickr.com/groups/greatwararchive/

Our definition of sustainability is…


the ability to generate or gain access to the resources—financial or otherwise—needed to protect and increase the value of the content or service for those who use it. Credit: Iithaka

Is sustainability a ‘buzz word’ of the moment…

It’s not just about the money…

It’s not just about ‘getting by’…

It’s all about identifying the value …

To a specific stakeholder or group.


Some basic – but critical—steps sustainable collections and services take


Empower leadership to define the mission and take action

Create a strong value proposition – audience, marketing and outreach

Creatively manage costs

Cultivate diverse sources of revenue

Establish realistic goals and a system of accountability

Nat Torkington ‘Libraries: Where it All Went Wrong’ (2011)

If I ask you to talk about your collections, I know that you will glow as you describe the amazing treasures you have. When you go for money for digitization projects, you talk up the incredible cultural value.

But then if I look at the results of those digitization projects, I find the shittiest websites on the planet. It’s like a gallery spent all its money buying art and then just stuck the paintings in supermarket bags and leaned them against the wall.

Source: http://nathan.torkington.com/blog/2011/11/23/libraries-where-it-all-went-wrong/


Most visited Museum websites FY 2011….


Most visited Museums FY 2011…


Online income generation?


Compared to…


Total membership revenue was $623,826, up 58% on 2010-11

Donations generated $148,151, up 8.3% on budget ($136,800)

The study sought to understand the following:

What the assumptions, expectations, and obligations are that govern support of digital resources from the point of view of project leaders as well as “host” administrators and management;

In what ways – and to what extent – institutions are supporting and enhancing the on-going value of the digital projects they and their staff/faculty create;

And whether or not the current system is working.


Methodology: Deep Dives at the…


National Library of Wales (11 interviews)

UCL (28 interviews)

Imperial War Museums (7 interviews)

Two very different types of models


Observations of the Higher Education sector

Decentralised activity undertaken by the library, IT, campus museums, digital humanities centres, and academics in pretty much every department

No means to factor in long-term sustainability planning, despite otherwise very rigorous grant-review processes

Discovery is difficult. Very rare to have a campus-wide aggregation or directory of content

Strong emphasis on creation; little on outreach and impact

What else could be done to draw together resources to support this activity and maximize its impact?


Observations of Museums, Libraries

Mission aims already support fundamentals of collection development, preservation and access

Moving towards central coordination of digital content creation and management

Core technical infrastructure supporting preservation and access

Emphasis on thinking about users … in person. More to do to assess needs of online users

Is creating the online catalogue enough?

What else could be done to encourage further use and re-use of digital content, post-creation?


Clarity concerning project aims/needs


Maintenance vs. Growth Projects

Some are closed-ended Fenlandia Montefiore Testimonials For these, sustainability may mean simply finding a safe and reliable deposit

place.

Others want or need to continue to develop CEELBAS Transcribe Bentham For these projects, no “finishing point” exists; in order to retain their value, they

require ongoing development or curation

And this distinction of intention determines the sort of support the project will require going forward

Source: UCL


Some Recommendations…

Many universities are starting to move towards creating either central sources for information, hosting, and discovery solutions for digital research content

They are asking themselves:

Where is the content being created on my campus today, and how much don’t I even know about?

What impact is it having today, and how could it be made more useful to the academy and beyond?

What structures can support basic needs at scale? What expertise do we have on campus to support further growth for those project leaders whose work shows real promise?


Some recommendations…

Many museums and libraries are beginning to further centralise core functions around creating and supporting digital content

They are asking themselves:

Which activities are best done centrally?

What problems does this solve for us?

What might we still need to do, “beyond the catalogue”?

Specifically, how well do we understand how our online users benefit from our online content?


Organisational trends

A degree of unified and centralised workflow to streamline production

A move away from departmental to digital cross team work A recognition that ‘digital’ will reach new global audiences A shift onto the social web and user engagement is critical Adoption of ‘dashboard’ near and real time data analytics to

support development, ‘impact’ and gap analysis Appointment of digital curators and digital education officers A move towards API development Adopting new models of

collaboration for WW1 centenary Realisation that ‘mobile’ is where it is at….


Organisational trends…

How organisational change means that some functions are best done in a manner that scales, such as the platform and digital workflow…

Cloud based services. Open and linked data/metadata. OERs. MOOCs. ‘Freemium’ online income (open content + value added services). Website ‘make-overs’ based on user centric design. Working with technology companies and start-ups (near field

communication etc.)

How the importance of defining sustainability more broadly relates to impact and usage and not just preservation….

Crowdsourcing, social value and skills. Social web, outreach and marketing – it’s global. Data driven analytics and data management.


Available now…

Audience – building and engaging online communities

Income – new revenue streams, new business models

IPR – copyright, licencing and rights management

Web optimisation – everything you wanted to know….

Freely available from:

http://sca.jiscinvolve.org/wp/



Framework for Post-Grant Sustainability Planning


1. Define desired post-grant impact

goals for your project2. Work through these steps

Coming soon….

A Final report

Toolkit:

‘Campus Survey’ Tool

‘Health Check’ Tool

Briefing Paper:

Guidance for PI’s

Video Interviews:

Diane Lees, Andrew Green and Prof David Price

Available from January 2013….and Ithaka S&R will be taking a closer look at the museum sector and the lessons learnt in Canada available later in 2013. www.jisc.ac.uk/contentalliance | Slide 277 April 2023


Thank you for listening and questions....

‘ For further information please visit the Strategic Content Alliance at http://sca.jiscinvolve.org/wp/

[email protected]
