Coming in late on this one, but I have two relevant recent experiences on this, with quite different approaches and outcomes (and motivations).

A while back we reviewed our educational material and as part of refreshing that whole area of the site a very conscious decision was made that a large section of 'information sheets' was unacceptably out of date. No resource was available to update it so it was deleted.  The impact was immediate, with many users contacting us asking where things had gone (including schools who used them as teaching materials), and many lost incoming referrals especially from organic search. There was a significant internal issue too with people who had been using these resources. Of course that doesn't mean that it wasn't right to remove them, but the question in my mind is what was the 'cost' of having done so?

On the other hand, we have recently done some work identifying key areas where we could promote public ticket sales. As part of this it was noticed that our old Henry Moore microsite (dating back over four years - www.kew.org/henry-moore) was still getting a very significant amount of traffic, again primarily through organic search. When the exhibition finished a very simple bit of 'archiving' was done to remove time-specific content. Then about a year after that, noticing the traffic, we put an 'Elsewhere on kew.org' banner across the top of that site.  But we've found despite the large numbers of visitors very few people are then coming through to our main site.  In this case there's now a piece of work looking at how we can tap into this by improving the conversion.

I guess the second example won because it was a measurable gain for relatively little cost (there won't be any time-consuming editorial updating as part of this work).

James

----------------------------------------------------------------------
James Morley                       [log in to unmask]
Website Development Manager        +44 (0)20 8332 5759
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew         www.kew.org
-----------------------------------------------------------------------


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Museums Computer Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
> Sheila Carey
> Sent: 16 March 2012 17:04
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: More on archiving online content
> 
> Hi Tracy,
> 
> Thank you for the reply.  It is interesting to see how institutions
> handle archived material and its access.  I also have a broader
> question than 'archiving exhibits'; I think I need to reword my
> original inquiry.  I'm also interested in how museums are handling the
> lifecycle of any online material.  If, for example, a museum has a lot
> of online educational material, how do they determine what they keep
> 'active' on the site, or how do they decide what to place in an archive
> or remove entirely.
> 
> Does anyone have any criteria for those situations?
> 
> Thanks again,
> 
> Sheila
> 
> 
> Sheila Carey
> Analyste des publics et des programmes | Audience and Program Analyst
> Réseau canadien d'information sur le patrimoine (RCIP) | The Canadian
> Heritage Information Network (CHIN) Ministère du Patrimoine canadien |
> Department of Canadian Heritage Gatineau, Canada K1A 0M5
> [log in to unmask] Téléphone | Telephone 819-934-5017 Télécopieur |
> Facsimile 819-994-9555 Téléimprimeur (sans frais) 1-888-997-3123 |
> Teletypewriter (toll-free)
> 1-888-997-3123
> Gouvernement du Canada | Government of Canada
> 
> ------------------------------
> 
> Date:    Wed, 14 Mar 2012 14:02:39 +0000
> From:    Tracy Wilkinson <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: Criteria for Assessing Virtual Exhibitions
> 
> Hi Sheila,
> I have a monthly online exhibition Archive of the
> Month<http://www.kings.cam.ac.uk/archive-centre/archive-
> month/index.html
> >and
> we archive each edition at the bottom of the page. I forsee us doing
> this indefinitely. I routinely get enquiries based on earlier editions.
> 
> Best wishes
> Tracy
> 
> Tracy Wilkinson
> Assistant Archivist
> King's College, Cambridge
> 
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