where next for museum standards

Copyright Collections Trust 2011. Published under a CC license

SPECTRUM 4.0 & how standards can benefit us all

Nick Poole, CEO, Collections Trust


Where next for Museum Standards?

Nick Poole, CEO, Collections Trust


Introducing Collections Trust

• Support museums, archives, libraries and galleries in unlocking the potential of their collections, by:

– Providing know-how– Developing and promoting excellence– Challenging existing practices– Pioneering new ideas– Bringing experts together


Our work

• 5 Programmes:

– OpenCulture– Collections Link– Culture Grid– Excellence in Collections– International


Collections Link

• Social & professional networking for the Collections community – create groups, share knowledge and expertise, connect with professionals in the UK and Europe

• Preserves expertise, avoids short-termism, ensures that the sector is learning from each other and remains fit for purpose

• http://www.collectionslink.org.uk


Culture Grid

• Unlocking the potential of digital Collections for online audiences

• Brokering culture-sector content to media partners

• Developing new applications for cultural content

• 1.3m objects available for open re-use

• Incubating digital business models

• http://www.culturegrid.org.uk


Culture Grid Hack Days


Find a Library app

• Cross-platform application

• Find UK libraries by location

• Search their Collections direct from your mobile

• Connect to & support local libraries

• Powered by the Culture Grid

• http://fal.culturegrid.org.uk


Excellence in Collections• Promoting Excellence in service delivery• Supporting organisations to improve their practice• Promoting resilience and public value

How?• Development of SPECTRUM 4.0 & building SPECTRUM Community• Support the rollout of the new Museum Accreditation Scheme in

September/October• BSI PAS 197 as a tool for Strategic Collections Management• Benchmarks in Collections Care 2.0• Guidance on Sustainable Digital Content• Assessing Significance and Revisiting Collections models


Conceptual framework• In some ways, museum collections are unique

• At a process level they share much in common with other industries

• Our aim is to help museums become more efficient, more sustainable and to support them in increasing their impact for users

• Drawing on:

– Supply chain logistics– Digital Asset Management– Business Process Analysis– Knowledge Management


Conceptual model of an organisationConceptual model of an organisation

People use systems to implement processes which generate information.

It is an holistic view – each of these elements acts on the other.

Efficiency comes when they exist in balance.

Value comes when they are motivated towards an external purpose.

Sustainability comes when they can adapt in response to emergent needs.


Conceptual model of museum functionsConceptual model of museum functions

Museums have traditionally been presented as a balance between access and preservation.

This misses both the emergent/ dynamic nature of what we do, and the intellectual capital which is generated.

Cultural value emerges from the interaction of caring for material, acquiring and developing collections, promoting their use and developing new knowledge from them.


Supporting improvement

• Most of our work is geared towards:

– Helping museums maximise the benefit of the interaction between their people, their processes, their systems and their data and

– Helping them maximise the benefit of the interaction between the integrated functions of caring for collections, learning from them, developing them and promoting their use

• And then connecting these things so that the organisational structures directly support and promote the museological functions.


Strategic Planning

• Structure and business functions do not lead to success – success is achieved through vision and strategic planning

– Every museum should have a Mission – a statement of the change it is seeking to achieve

– Every museum should have a Strategic Plan – a statement of how the museum will use its assets and resources to achieve the Mission

– Every museum should have a Collecting Policy – a statement of how its collecting activity will contribute to achieving the Mission


Putting it togetherPutting it together



UsersUsers PoliticsPolitics FundingFunding CultureCulture



Organisation’s Mission StatementOrganisation’s Mission Statement





Collections Management PolicyCollections Management Policy






CareCare UseUse LearnLearn DevelopDevelop








PeoplePeople ProcessesProcesses SystemsSystems InfoInfo








Evaluation & improvementEvaluation & improvement









Rich, meaningful experiences for usersRich, meaningful experiences for users


The 10 key challenges

1. Enabling as many people as possible to enjoy their right to culture2. Ensuring that knowledge is managed and used as an asset3. Supporting collaboration and shared services4. Supporting long-term strategic development and planning5. Minimising the environmental costs of delivery6. Promoting greater use and mobility of collections7. Embracing the digital opportunity8. Developing sustainable approaches to risk9. Balancing costs and improving efficiency10.Being flexible and responding to change

• Our new standards must enable rather than inhibit these requirements for museums


Towards a Standards Framework

• BSI PAS 197 Code of Practice for Collections Management• Museum Accreditation• SPECTRUM 4.0• Benchmarks in Collections Care 2.0• BSI PAS 198 Code of Practice for Environmental Management• Revisiting Collections and Reviewing Significance• Guidelines on Sustainable Digital Content• Digital Content Supply Chain model for museums


A necessary pragmatism• These concepts are based on idealised models of how a museum works. We

have to acknowledge that ad-hoc, messy development is still development, and more valuable because it is real.

• BUT the principles hold true:

– Don’t reinvent the wheel– When you do something, do it for a reason– Write it down and pass it on– Silos minimise value– The best system can’t make up for a lousy process– The best procedural manual isn’t as good as motivated people


BSI PAS 197• The first cross-domain standard for Collections Management in museums,

archives and libraries

• Three fundamental principles:

– That all decisions about collections should be driven towards achieving a strategic Mission or purpose

– That improvement is a long-term ongoing behaviour, not a short-term audit or process

– That on a process-level, museums, archives and libraries have more in common than not!


Museum Accreditation

A simplified standard designed to provide a minimal indication of the key elements of delivering a successful museum service.

Each section closely integrated with the others as part of a continuum.

Centred around the defining principle of a strategic Mission – hence improvement is relative to the Mission, not to other museums.


SPECTRUM 4.0

• Not really a Standard

• It’s a set of workflows for museums to use to review and refine their own procedures

• As much about the point of intersection between Procedures as it is the flow of the procedures themselves

• Modelled around the concepts of people, processes, systems, information.

• Critically, the Procedures haven’t changed, but the way of interacting with them has


http://standards.collectionslink.org.uk


http://www.vocman.com/cultureGrid


The future for SPECTRUM

• Roadmap to be agreed at OpenCulture 2011 conference

• Localised/translated versions in Germany, Netherlands, Flanders

• Also teams in Switzerland, Croatia, South Africa

• New training tools & guidelines on Collections Link

• Expanding to incorporate new workflows for Digital Photography & Digitisation

• Thinking about Business Process Automation

• Thinking about systems integration


Benchmarks 2.0

• Range-statements giving examples of good, better and best practice in Collections Care

• Integrates physical and digital collections into a single entity

• Developed into an interactive tool which allows for weighting and scenario-planning


BSI PAS 198

OBJECT

Intended lifespan

Intended use

Material properties

Object factors

Heat

LightHumidity

Pollution

Ventilation

Environmental factors

Energy use





UseUseCareCare DevelopDevelop





LearnLearn


Revisiting Collections

• User and community-generated narratives and interpretations

• Providing an information framework for museums to internalise user-generated content

• Promoting a collaborative approach to development, supporting systematic Collections Development

• Reviewing Significance

• Providing a framework both to reassess collections, to support strategic rationalisation and to provide a better evidence-base to justify retention!


Future challenges• Staying open

• Systems integration

• Cloud

• Openness

• Social contract and UGC

• Don’t sell the managers the technology, sell them the magic

• The role of Standards is not to standardise, but to enable!


OpenCulture 2011

• Annual Great Collections Management Exhibition and Conference

• Opportunity to meet with TMS

• Seminars on the New Museum Accreditation Scheme

• Meeting on the 3-5yr Roadmap for Standards

• Speakers from the National institutions, Google ArtProject, BBC, Europeana and others

• www.openculture2011.org.uk


Contact

Nick PooleCollections Trust

[email protected]

@NickPoole1

http://www.collectionstrust.org.uk

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