Hi there,
This has been a great thread, and thanks to Jeremy for starting it all
off! Although it began with a pretty specific query, for me it's
interesting to see how the discussion has thrown up some of the wider
issues relating to putting information about our collections online.
I'm confident that the technical will work itself out. There are great
people and solutions out there that can and will resolve these
challenges over time. But Trevor's post raised another question that I
think is still largely unresolved: understanding the point of doing all
this in the first place (whatever approach we take), and being able to
make the necessary arguments to management, funders and other
stakeholders of its value as a delivery mechanism for museums.
This is potentially a real problem, and I think that it will become more
significant as funding becomes more difficult to come by. I'm being
deliberately provocative of course, but can we really make a collective
argument about the impact that all of this work has had so far? How does
it shape up when we compare it to the outcomes of similar investments in
community outreach, educational programmes, physical access and so on?
Does it represent value for money?
Don't get me wrong, I'm sure it has had an impact. However, we do need
to be able to articulate this in a more sophisticated and joined-up way.
It's a question we are trying to answer here at the London Hub, with
work to establish better frameworks for audience research and impact
evaluation. It's still very much in progress, but in answer to Trevor's
question - and I have to stress that this is only my lunchtime analysis
of the data so far - it does seem to suggest that online access to
collections is something that our users are increasingly expecting from
us. I'm sure we all suspected this anyway, but it's useful to have some
evidence to back it up with. The main motivation for visiting the Hub's
sites still seems to be to plan a real visit though, which raises
interesting issues about projects like the EDL that don't have a single
physical presence. But that's probably another debate.
So in terms of the 'corporate firewall', I'd be interested to know how
others make those arguments to decision-makers. Would published, well
founded studies at a sector level really help you make those arguments?
Are you producing empirical evidence at organisational level to make the
case for online access? Is there just a perception that online = access,
no questions asked? Or are museum management demanding evidence from us
to back up our claims?
All the best - have a good weekend,
Dylan
Dylan Edgar
London Hub ICT Development Officer
London Transport Museum
39 Wellington Street
London WC2E 7BB
Direct line: 07711 148133
Email: [log in to unmask]
-----Original Message-----
From: Museums Computer Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
REYNOLDS, Trevor
Sent: 08 February 2008 12:04
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: APIs and EDL
Dear all
This has been a really interesting thread.
From my point of view one of the problems in persuading management of
the value of putting collections records on-line is the lack of
published, well founded studies showing that Internet users want access
to museum collections records, what sort of users want that access and
what they want to do with the information. (I must admit I haven't
looked for them for a while so I would be pleased to be proved wrong).
There would still be technical obsticals, we don't have any in-house
staff with technical web-programming skills. There is also the
corporate firewall to work across.
An example of techinical issues (quoting from David Dawson):
<once the OAI gateway (effectively
a type of API) is configured (fairly easy technically, rather more
tricky to get mappings right)>
This is the bit that sounds really simple but turns out not to be!
Looking at the two organisations and collectiosn I work with can anyone
give me step by step instructions on how to set up an OAI gateway for:
(a) PastPerfect running on a Laptop under Windows XP and connected to
the Internet via a domestic ASDL broadband link (but not always
connected).
(b) MimsyXG running on a Windows2000 server on a network that is always
connected to the Internet but inside a corporate firewall.
Trevor Reynolds
Collections Registrar
English Heritage 3 Bunhill Row, London EC1Y 8YZ
postal address English Heritage 1 Waterhouse Square, 138 Holborn, London
EC1N 2ST
Telephone +44 (0) 207 973 3482
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