Where next for Museum Standards

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 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 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 together

Putting it together Users Politics Funding Culture

Putting it together Organisation’s Mission Statement Users Politics Funding Culture

Putting it together Organisation’s Mission Statement Collections Management Policy Users Politics Funding Culture

Putting it together Organisation’s Mission Statement Collections Management Policy Care Use Learn Develop Users Politics Funding Culture

Putting it together Organisation’s Mission Statement Collections Management Policy Care Use Learn Develop Users Politics Funding Culture People Processes Systems Info

Putting it together Organisation’s Mission Statement Collections Management Policy Care Use Learn Develop Users Politics Funding Culture People Processes Systems Info Evaluation & improvement

Putting it together Organisation’s Mission Statement Collections Management Policy Care Use Learn Develop Users Politics Funding Culture People Processes Systems Info Evaluation & improvement Rich, meaningful experiences for users

The 10 key challenges
Enabling as many people as possible to enjoy their right to culture
Ensuring that knowledge is managed and used as an asset
Supporting collaboration and shared services
Supporting long-term strategic development and planning
Minimising the environmental costs of delivery
Promoting greater use and mobility of collections
Embracing the digital opportunity
Developing sustainable approaches to risk
Balancing costs and improving efficiency
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 Light Humidity Pollution Ventilation Environmental factors Energy use

Putting it together Organisation’s Mission Statement Collections Management Policy Use Care Develop Users Politics Funding Culture People Processes Systems Info Evaluation & improvement Rich, meaningful experiences for users Learn

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 Art Project, BBC, Europeana and others
www.openculture2011.org.uk

Contact
Nick Poole
Collections Trust
[email_address]
@NickPoole1
http://www.collectionstrust.org.uk

Where next for Museum Standards

by Nicholas Poole

Accessibility

Upload Details

Usage Rights

Statistics

Where next for Museum Standards Presentation Transcript