Going Digital

Going Digital: A Guide To Get Not Only Your Content But Also Your Staff Online
Christian van der Ven
Blog: www.digitalearchivaris.nl
Twitter: @cvanderven
Digital Strategies for Heritage (DISH)
Preconference Workshop
6 December 2011
What do you mean, “I’m in a hurry”?

Time Schedule
13.00 – 13.10 Introducing and Introduction
13.10 – 13.40 Presentation: "Chat with an Archivist"
13.40 – 13.50 Questions and Discussion
13.50 – 14.10 Coffee Break
14.10 – 14.30 Presentation: "Forums for Reference and Crowdsourcing"
14.40 – 15.00 Inspiration: "South Land"
15.10 – 15.30 Drinks

About Me
Christian van der Ven
Coördinator Reference and Digital Services @ BHIC
Digital Archivist / Blogger Archives 2.0 / Social Media
Let’s Connect & Share!

About You

Quick Survey
Would you like to have succesful digital services?
Would you like to have succesful digital services staff?
Which one would you like best?
(I bet you’d like the staff best, right?)
Then why do we always focus on the services first??

Going Digital
Why would your staff go digital?
Because it’s their job?
Because you say so?
Or… because they believe in going digital?!

Going Digital
I don’t focus on (setting up) digital services
I focus on (training) staff believing in digital services

Going Digital
It’s the staff, stupid!
(Attitude is King)

What is chat?
“ Online chat may refer to any kind of communication over the Internet, that offers an instantaneous transmission of text-based messages from sender to receiver ”
Source: Wikipedia

Goals
To prevent people from clicking away from our website, by offering a direct, easy accessible help service via chat from each webpage
The digital archivist as moderator, oracle, support and anchor, as the digital face of the website

Simultanious chats
Direct email access
Access to BHIC network

Strategy
From the end of September 2009: Pilot
Do patrons use the service? And when do they most?
Staff worked voluntarily on evenings & during weekends
February until June 2010: Extended pilot
Scheduled for weekday evenings
Staff received a small fee per shift
From July 2010: Regular work
Staff worked for normal compensation (salary/vacation)
From January 2012: Extra staff hours

Strategy
Help is on each webpage, only one click away
Staffed by archivists Reference Desk
Online status staff member always visible
Photo staff member as avatar
No login, acceptance or submitting forms needed
Welcome new chatters
Schedule: weekdays 7 – 10 PM Avarage availability per month: 63 hours

Results

Total amount of chats in 2010: 1.217 Amount of chats per month

Avarage amount of chats per shift

Topics Genealogy Research General Local History Source data: 2009/2010

Avarage amount of chats per weekday Source data: 2009/2010 Monday Friday Thursday Wednesday Tuesday

Handling Answered Followed up via email Invited to research room Invited to submit email Forwarded internal Referred Not answered Other Source data: 2009/2010

Impact
Most questions can be answered directly
Live digital contact, new way of communicating
Mix with other service channels
Online contact becomes even more social and personal
Working evening hours from home
Start of a ‘real’ virtual research room?
Patrons are very, very, very happy with the service
Staff members became ambassadors for the service

Questions & Discussion

Coffee Break

Goals
Create an active community for local history and genealogy in North-Brabant
Crowdsource for new information related to stories and photos
Create an alternative for reference

Overview
Forums local history and water
Forums per municipality and for section water
New messages/questions and replies
Comments on stories website
Comments on photos in local newspapers
Last two categories are somewhat atypical for forums
Forums genealogy and research
Forums for sections genealogy and research
New messages/questions and replies

Overview
2006: Start forums local history
2007: Start forums genealogy and research
September 2009: Start forum water
Notifications
From 2006: rss feed for new messages per forum
From 2010: email notification for new replies per message
Forum management
Start from 2008, as regular work from 2009
Staffed by archivists Reference Desk
Management via rss feeds in Google Reader

Strategy
Moderate constantly
Reply, reply, reply! Even when there’s no question
Challenge patrons for new comments and information
Stimulate connections between patrons
Explore new frontiers services, without charge (at first)
Let the community rise first, only then pull back a little
Be nice to ‘regulars’ (extra service, Christmas Cards etc.)

Results

197 605 1966 3451 4611 6179 t/m september New messages local history & water Comments local history and water New messages genealogy & research Comments genealogy & research

Share of messages Patrons BHIC

(and she doesn’t even live in Brabant) Core community in 2010 Messages Users 1 user posted 201 messages 577 users posted 1 message

Forums: the hat
Don’t start a forum...
Start community building!

Forums: the rabbit
“ Ik vind het wel een beetje een sport om info op
“ internet te vinden, of in geval van de digitale
“ archieven, uit databases ”
“ I find it to be a bit of a sport to try and find info on the internet, or in the case of the digital archives, from databases ”
Dorethé Kuijpers, 29 January 2009
Forums: the rabbit Forums: the rabbit

Impact
Loss of monopoly and natural authority
Higher flow rate than regular reference
Mix with other service channels
Online contact becomes more social and personal
Change in work space and time
Rise of community and new type of volunteers
Archivists as community managers

South Land A project to let my colleagues go digital

To discover is not just about the find, but also about the search
(Theme of my blog)

South Land
11 September 2006: Kickoff meeting
To inspire
To concrete
To initiate
Focus on a new attitude and a new possible role in online communities
Raise questions about what value we can add as professionals
Who wants to join me in a voyage of discovery?

South Land
Small project teams (Limmen, Sea Gull, Bracq)
Blogs, photo- and story databases
News groups and forums
Digital study rooms
Brainstorm
Find inspiring examples
Check for information and experiences
Work on ideas and pilot project
Share feedback with larger group (presentations)

South Land
29 October 2007: Back in the harbour
Profile page opportunities “My BHIC”
Communities around photo databases
Maintenance of local history pages
Websites as neverending stories
Added value of archivists in online communities
Tone of voice and style in communicating online
Borders in providing services through communities
Handling user comments
Clarity about and on forums
Virtual archivists and digital public areas
Digital access and help tools
Didn’t really matter

South Land
We mapped new coast lines, took some strange plants and animals home and survived a couple of storms
Staff members from front- and backoffice have been working and learning together
Staff members have been discovering and experiencing how the internet is changing
Staff members were now convinced about the need for digital services, but even more convinced about the need for a new attitude and changing role online
Above all staff members were enthusiastic and motivated for further explorations!

Always when you think This is the end You’re standing on the frontier Of what begins (Stef Bos, Thousand Years)

South Land
28 january 2008
Explorers (far ahead)
Pioneers (at view distance – deploying social media)
Colonists (pretty close – preparing ideas community website)
2009: 23 Things for Archivists
“ South Land” merging into regular work
Staff eagerly follows online developments, picks up new ideas and starts pilot projects

Some Advice
Care for people
It’s the staff, stupid!
First of all change is a social process
Focus on attitude
Create space for experiments
Give room to startups and pilot projects
Show genuine trust and interest
Plenty of room for targets, regulations and evaluations later!
Focus
You can’t always do everything for everyone, right
Make (painful) decisions

If you want to go fast Go alone If you want to go far Go together (African proverb)

Thanks for your input! www.slideshare.net/cvanderven [email_address]

Going Digital

by Christian van der Ven

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