Dear all,
The intractable local authority issue! I agree with Nick that national
guidance will not penetrate on a local IT management level probably
because the needs of a cultural service are way down the list for local
authority delivery (and possibly rightly so). Howver, national guidance
is still needed.
Now I am going to sound like a smarty pants. After a year and a half of
trying, I have had an agreement from our IT services that we can go it
alone. Why the change of heart?
* dogged persistence on my(and my senior manager's)part
* a council web advisory group that wasn't made up of techies
* making the argument that there is a difference between finding out
about when you bins are emptied (information about the service, but not
the service) AND a museum website which is on the one hand a marketing
tool to tell you about the service as well as a REAL virtual service.
* disenchantment over the whole Council about the service that our
website provider is giving.
Don't give up.
Hope this helps. cheers
Jerry Weber
Collections & Information Access Officer
Northampton Museums Service
Guildhall Road
Northampton
NN1 1DP
01604 837633
-----Original Message-----
From: Museums Computer Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
Nick Poole
Sent: 29 September 2009 21:15
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Statement from MLA concerning the Digital agenda
Dear Trevor,
Many thanks for your response, and for your suggested additions.
The Local Authority IT problem is one of the great intractables in this
area, and it is not for want of trying that it remains such a
constraint. Approaches to the Local Government Association, the Society
of IT Managers and to those in charge of Local Authority performance
have all so far failed.
It is a problem uniquely (in my experience) immune to national action.
Ultimately, the devolved nature of decision-making about technology in
Councils makes it nigh on impossible to articulate compelling national
arguments on this point. It is a minor miracle that the Peoples Network
happened at all in Public Libraries, and even then it did so in
different ways in different Authorities.
The problem is only partly one of information security and policy.
Behind this are some deeply-held beliefs about branding and the
marketing of the Authority and all its services as a unified offer. Of
course, this is not universally true - there are many good stories of
positive and constructive relationships with LA IT managers, but in
general it is certainly true that Councillor's perceptions of the nature
of museums have failed to keep pace with our emerging online persona.
If recent press reports are to be believed about the fact that
Authorities are targeting museums for a night of the long knives
(http://www.lgcplus.com/finance/efficiency/museums-top-councillors-hit-l
ist/5006526.article) then one possible answer is that if they want
museums to be more creative, innovative and reach more people they
should emancipate them from the constraints of a 3rd-level set of web
pages buried in the Local Authority website.
On eHive, I couldn't agree more. If you are interested, Paul Rowe, CEO
of eHive and architect of the NZMuseums project will be speaking at our
session at the MA Conference on Aggregation for Museums (Tuesday 6th
October).
Best regards,
Nick
-----Original Message-----
From: Museums Computer Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
REYNOLDS, Trevor
Sent: 29 September 2009 20:38
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Statement from MLA concerning the Digital agenda
I can't say there is anything worng with anything on the lists (although
some of them make me twitch nervously) there are however key things
missing:
Encouraging and supporting a culture of innovation and risk taking
in local authority IT departments
Supporting the development of low cost, easy to use solutions for
the volunteer run sector
Local authority IT departments provide the IT services for most of the
libraries and archives that the MLA care about and for a good chunk of
the museums. For good reasons they tend to be risk adverse
(applications like voter registration, housing benefits and council tax
payments require that approach). Providing training and funding to the
IT professionals and IT strategy makers in Local Authorities (and indeed
organisations like English Heritage) so that they can understand the
reasons why museums, libraries and archives can benefit from a risk
taking approach is key to the development of digital services for the
sector.
For the latter see as an example http://www.nzmuseums.co.nz/ and the
related ehive product. The many small volunteer run organisations need
products that are, cheap, straight forward to use, are not dependant on
the expertise of particular individuals, and do not force them to change
their mission to follow any particular government agenda.
As an aside I a great fan of ehive. For the South Georgia Museum
http://ehive.com/account/3408 it allows them to have access to their
collections database at the museum in the Antarctic and and at their
head office in Aberdeen. For the Tolkien Society
http://ehive.com/account/3437 it allows us to distribute the cataloguing
of artefacts between many volunteers all working in their own homes
without the need for expensive software licences.
Trevor Reynolds, Registrar
English Heritage, 37 Tanner Row, York, YO1 6WP
+44 (0) 1904 601905
________________________________________
From: Museums Computer Group [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Nick
Poole [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 29 September 2009 17:25
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Statement from MLA concerning the Digital agenda
Dear MCG'ers,
Forgive the intrusion into your working day, but I thought that some of
you would be interested to know that the Museums, Libraries and Archives
Council (MLA) has published a new set of web pages highlighting its
policy for the Digital agenda in libraries, archives and museums.
There's also a set of documents showing how they are working with the
Collections Trust, Culture24 and UKOLN to take this policy forward. The
pages are at:
http://www.mla.gov.uk/what/programmes/digital
I'd particularly commend to your attention the following set of
priorities for MLA, and both I and they would welcome your thoughts and
comments on them.
MLA's role is to provide strategic leadership to the sector in relation
to the digital agenda through:
* Developing a vision for the sector's use of digital
technologies
* Supporting and promoting the development of quality standards
* Encouraging innovation to enable inclusion of all communities
* Promoting understanding and skills development
* Facilitating partnership work to add value and avoid
duplication.
MLA has commissioned digital services from a number of organisations to
help to deliver:
* More and better quality information on cultural opportunities
to the public
* A coherent portal for cultural resources for teachers and
learners
* Greater interaction with individuals and communities through
use of Web 2.0 and social networking tools
* High quality standards in the management and preservation of
digital resources
There is some excellent policy information, particularly around the
impact of Social Media for museums in their strategy document Leading
Museums:
http://www.mla.gov.uk/what/strategies/~/media/Files/pdf/2009/MLA_Museum_
ActionPlan_final
While I am writing, I'd also like to invite list members to participate
in the discussion about the appropriate role for DCMS in the Digital
Agenda, on the OpenCulture blog at:
http://openculture.collectionstrustblogs.org.uk/2009/08/26/what-role-for
-dcms-in-the-digital-agenda/
Best regards,
Nick
Nick Poole
Chief Executive
Collections Trust
Follow the Collections Trust on Twitter:
http://twitter.com/collectiontrust
The new BSI/Collections Trust Code of Practice for Cultural Collections
Management and the accompanying Collections Management: A Practical
Guide are now available via Collections Link -
http://www.collectionslink.org.uk/news/004912.html
Registered offices: 22 Hills Road, Cambridge, CB2 1JP
Registered Charity no. 273984
Company Registration No: 1300565
Telephone (switchboard): 01223 316 028
www.collectionstrust.org.uk
www.collectionslink.org.uk
www.culturalpropertyadvice.gov.uk
www.discs-uk.info
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