Dear Tehmina,
Many thanks for a very considered appraisal of the position, and for your support for the Digital Britain response.
We do regularly make the case for culture both as an intrinsic public good and as a basic right in a stable democracy - although we don't often say so (because it sounds so cheesy) much of our work is drawn from Article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which holds that everyone should 'have the right freely to participate in the cultural life of their community'.
The difficulty is, as you say, that this kind of argument hasn't had much traction with the current (or previous) administration - particularly given that Treasury currently holds such a strong authority over the other Whitehall departments, including those for culture and education. This may change, of course, although we are always more likely to have Ministers who take an instrumental view of culture (in that it is valuable chiefly for what it can do for other agendas such as education) than people like Chris Smith who had a stronger belief in the value of museums in their own right.
This is about balance, though. If you solely speak to politicians in the language of politics, they'll stop listening. If you articulate a strong, clear and unique vision of what the sector can do for society and stick to that message, eventually that message starts being repeated back to you. I would argue that this means we need to do both - be politically engaged, but also very clear about our unique value and the unique qualities which differentiate museums from the rest of the public sector.
Just to respond to your specific points:
a) Case Studies - you're absolutely right and it's not great that it was such a last-minute dash to pull these together. In future, I would hope that we can promote a more active approach to sharing knowledge and information across this community of practice so that it's not so much a question of issuing an appeal next time as choosing the best examples from a general and collective ongoing fund of knowledge.
b) Business Modelling - the Strategic Content Alliance (which is generally doing some fantastic work at the moment) has commissioned a really interesting report Sustainability and Revenue Models for Online Academic Content:
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/themes/eresources/sca_ithaka_sustainability_report-final.pdf
This report is well worth a look for the ways in which different economic models, including micropayment, can be leveraged into real-terms value for publishing organisations.
c) More practical, grass-roots support for smaller organisations
This is a critical area which is coming under real pressure as the sector develops and diversifies. On the face of it, there is actually more support available directly to institutions than there was when you were working in the mill. Renaissance (alongside other sources) has funded a huge infrastructure of Museum Development Officers, Hub staff and others whose role it is to provide support to sector organisations.
This has presented both a challenge and an opportunity to organisations such as the Collections Trust. The challenge is to avoid duplicating this infrastructure. The opportunity is to work with it effectively to ensure that best practice is available sector-wide and that these new advisers have access to the information resources they need in order to give the right advice.
There are two tensions here - the first is that nobody has enough money anywhere (with the possible exception of the funded museum development reviews and visits in Ireland) to maintain staff to provide ongoing, onsite support. The second is that as the business of museums becomes more complex and integrated, the range of subjects you would need to cover becomes impossible to manage.
Our response to this, on the one hand, is to continue to build on Collections Link as an online and offline service which provide access to all of this knowledge and information. On the other hand, we will be investing very actively in developing networks and communities of practice throughout the UK which ensure that, even if there isn't enough money for someone to come and effectively do an onsite consultancy, you will nevertheless be connected to networks of colleagues who have addressed similar issues to your own.
I have to take issue with the widely-held view that 'all the money is poured into strategising'. I can't speak for anyone else, but in the case of Collections Trust, all the money is poured into doing stuff which people in the sector tell us would be useful at a national scale (obviously, we have a view on it as well). Responding to consultations is very much an ancillary activity which we do once the day-job is done.
There is always a risk of thinking that money which goes into strategy is wasted, and money which goes into delivery is good, solid, sensible investment. In reality, neither is always true. The problem is that the outcomes of investment in strategy are opaque, long-term and hard to see in concrete terms. When people are struggling with 5 consecutive years of budget cuts, anything which is hard to track is going to be aggravating, but the reality is that the strategic investment is necessary to keep us in the game and heading up the political agenda. I hope one day we can reconcile the two!
All best,
Nick
-----Original Message-----
From: Museums Computer Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Tehmina Goskar
Sent: 16 March 2009 10:08
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Collections Trust response to Digital Britain Interim Report
Dear Nick and all,
I have just read Collections Trust's interim report concerning the
Digital Britain report.
It is to be highly commended, in my view. The report conveys most of
the must crucial problems that cultural organisations have faced in
the 7-8 years of 'digitisation', of whatever form, of museum, library
and archive content.
While I have significant problems with the way in which the language
of cultural politics, for want of a better term, is so severely
entrenched in economics, these are more philosophical than practical.
If we are to be understanding our work as part of a 'Digital Economy'
then we need to be very clear about a) what economy means and b) what
is the quid pro quo?
However, I do admire the persistence in using the language that the
current government seems to understand to the exclusion of all else.
In other words, to make them listen, one has to speak in their own
tongue.
Nevertheless, I hope there remains a strong sentiment within the
sectors concerned that cultural heritage is important for a the
'well-being' ;-) of a civilised society for its own sake particularly
in relation to promoting cultural organisations as 'safe spaces'
within which to better understand social and political issues.
I have a few specific points of criticism and questions.
.Use of case-studies
I hope a fuller report might highlight more non-national projects, and
also be more open about the legacy of, for example, the content
creation side of People's Network and what is being done to remedy
this. So much fantastic information was digitised which still remains
online but difficult to access in any meaningful way. However, I do
know that in their localities especially, these resources are being
used in the kind of digital skills training that is referred to in the
report. It was certainly something I started up immediately after the
launch of the Hantsphere project (http://www.hantsphere.org.uk/),
itself part of, an albeit loose, alliance of projects across South
East England (http://www.sopse.org.uk/). There are so many other
examples.
.Digital rights, income, access
This, for me, was the most important part of the report. The plea for
a more balanced approach is essential, indeed it is fundamental to
creating the kind of digital content that is meaningful and has high
impact, as has been debated in fine detail over the past couple of
weeks, particularly in the light of then creating APIs and using other
methods of exposing content to WWW more efficiently.
I would like to see overt and practical support for small to large
organisations to adopt micro-donations as a way of providing an
income.
I think this will not only provide more income than many current IP
and reporoduction protocols (which themselves need review as pointed
out) but will also improve and strengthen the relationship between
'users' and organisations.
I would like to see the relationship develop more as that between
supporter/donor and custodian, rather than just producer and consumer.
I would hope this attitude may also be complementary to increased
public access to images, ebooks or whatever.
.More practical grass-roots support for smaller organisations
When I started out my museum career in documentation at a tiny mill
site which was battling a no longer viable commercial future, for one
as a heritage site, the single most important factor in determining
success was being able to call upon, the then Museum Documentation
Association (latter day mda, now CT) for help. Yes I had the basics
of using spectrum and the collections management systems available but
without a trainer coming to our site and helping me set up other
'systems' such as accessioning, etc, that place would have had no
chance at all of achieving its then, aim to become a registered museum
and enjoy the attendant benefits.
Similarly, I was able to call upon the then Museums and Galleries
Council (? can't even remember if that is what they were called) guide
to industrial and large object collections to form the basis for a
collecting and curating policy.
Where has this grass-roots support gone? Are hubs providing this now?
Is MLA providing it in any meaningful way? How is CT supporting
organisations in terms they can understand and on an in-person basis?
And other national-level standards organisations, what are you doing?
Who knows you exist? Is it enough just to provide support through web
pages?
Particularly with regard to the legacy problems of early digitisation
projects, where organisations did not sustain staff or other resources
to maintain a resource, this kind of support for the 'core staff' who
are left holding the baby is really very important.
If standards and a good /brand/ are so important then surely the best
way to achieve these are to provide the requisite support at a
national level rather than just pouring all resources into
strategising, consultation that are long and ornery and frequently
miss the boat (I over-simplify but the point remains).
Once again, I would like to reiterate my own support for this
response, for what it might be worth, particularly taking the long
view.
Wishing us all the best,
Tehmina
2009/3/11 Nick Poole <[log in to unmask]>:
> Dear MCG'ers,
>
> With many thanks to all of you that sent in examples of the things you are currently working on (and apologies that there wasn't space to get them all in!), we have now submitted the Collections Trust's response to the interim Digital Britain report.
>
> To read our submission, go to http://www.collectionstrust.org.uk/consult. To comment on it, please comment on the related post about Digital Britain at http://openculture.collectionstrustblogs.org.uk
>
> We will, as promised, digest the many exemplar projects we were sent by MCG list members and I will circulate a URL for this information soon.
>
> Yours sincerely,
>
> Nick Poole
> Chief Executive
> Collections Trust
>
> Registered offices: 22 Hills Road, Cambridge, CB2 1JP
>
> Registered Charity no. 273984
>
> 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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>
--
Tehmina Goskar, MA AMA
[log in to unmask]
Historical and Museum Research
Web Communication and Learning Development
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