The document discusses the importance of public access to digital cultural collections and outlines the challenges and opportunities in making such collections widely available online. It highlights consumer trends towards participatory services and the need for effective partnerships and standards in the digital infrastructure. The document also emphasizes future directions for cultural organizations, including the need to adapt business models and focus on audience engagement and content accessibility.

1. PNDS and EUROPEANA: Bringing Public Access to Online Collections into the Mainstream 05.02.09

2. UK Social Enterprise Independent 12-15 staff Based in London & Cambridge About us...

3. We believe that everyone everywhere should have the right to access, use and benefit from cultural collections. Our aim...

4. Collections Law Commerce Technology Knowledge Consumers Collections Trust

5. To maximise usage of, and hence return on investment on, Digital Cultural Content The Challenge...

6. The Digital Agenda Consumer Trends Collections Online EU Cultural Frameworks MLA Digital Strategy OpenCulture Policy Environment

7. Consumer Trends Move from consuming services to participating in them Consumers are better informed and information is becoming democratised Personal interconnectivity is on the rise (social networking, communication) Filtering the information is becoming a bankable service On-demand and always-on

8. Putting Collections Online The story so far... Inventory-level records Retrospective cataloguing/retro-conversion of paper systems Narrative documentation Using an electronic Collections Management System Creating digital surrogates of real stuff Importing/linking digital images into the CMS Web-enabling the CMS Integrating Collections search into websites

9. Next steps for Collections Online Creating more interesting interfaces/presentation Smarter information creating more meaningful thematic connections Moving towards Digital Asset Repositories Digital Asset Management Participative classification (folksonomy & social tagging) Participative interpretation (User Generated Content) Moving into rich media, digital storytelling and collaborative curation

10. What do we know about the demand? Clear demand from education and research communities Some evidence of demand from personal/family history & informal learners Almost no clear evidence of general public demand for online collections BUT clear evidence of user demand for accurate information about visits Evidence of demand for editorial content both directly & indirectly (BBC & Google) Some demand for content from content service (e.g. Mobile platforms) but only if it’s a fit-for-purpose product All evidence around commercialisation of content points to 98:2 rule

11. National & International

12. Policy Environment OfCOM Review of Public Sector Broadcasting Cultural content fragmented, often inaccurate Hard to find simple information about the sector Digital Britain A joint DCMS/BERR action, led by Stephen Carter Creative Industries as a key element of the Digital Economy Other DCFS/Becta Strategy Research Information Network

13. EU Cultural Frameworks Focussing on: Mobility of collections Mobility of skills and knowledge Mobility of people Technology is regarded as a key enabler of all this mobility. MINERVA – Standards and relationships I2010 Digital Libraries European Digital Library Europeana A vision of widespread access to multilingual cultural content

14. MLA Digital Strategy Across all MLA-funded contexts: Consolidate the last decade of content Avoid duplication of platforms and infrastructure Develop consumer-facing priorities Add value through national relationships (Google, BBC, C4, VisitBritain) Aggregate cultural content Broker content to consumer-facing channels Exploring the business model for cultural content The primary issue of whether what we produce is fit-for-purpose Beyond copyright, into sophisticated rights and licensing deals

15. OpenCulture Open as in ‘Open Source’ Bringing together DCMS, MLA, BBC, London2012, C4, C24, Arts Council etc. Looking at the ‘Digital Agenda’ in its broadest sense Sharing intelligence about future priorities Building on the PNDS http://openculture.collectionstrustblogs.org.uk

16. Mass-market audiences Mass-market services PNDS Cultural databases Sector-specific services Sector-specific audiences

17. Inside the box... Service-oriented architecture: API, OAI, REST, RSS, XML Data Entry & Management Stuff comes in... Stuff is stored... Stuff goes out... API, OAI, REST, RSS, XML Digital Object Metadata Persistent Identifiers Terminology Server Collections Level Desc. Digital Asset Repository Address Server

18. The point... It is never going to be realistic for every cultural website to reach a mass audience This is a system for marketing the sector to the online mainstream The deal: if you let us come and get your data, we will show it to lots more people, a proportion of whom will find their way back to your website. Ultimately, we hope that significantly increased use will lead to significantly increased investment, quality and coverage. Plus...it’s not a command-and-control model. You do your thing, we will add value to it by bringing it to a wider audience.

19. What you need to do... Manage your collection Use a standards-compliant Collections Management System Work on old backlogs Avoid creating new backlogs Get your information online, however incomplete License rights for web use

20. What we need to do... Aggregate metadata from your web-enabled systems (Thumbnail, title, URL) Structure it using industry standards Broker it via structured feeds & API into mass-market services (Google) Maintain stats and evidence of the usage of this material Feed (a) traffic and (b) statistics back to you Lobby for preferential copyright legislation Develop business models which drive value and revenue back to you

21. A look to the future.... Cultural organisations are becoming known as valuable publishers Moving towards the ‘utility computing’ model – Software as a Service ‘ Semi-Semantic’ – no fixed points, just connections between databases Digitisation and Documentation-on-Demand, no more ‘mass’ anything Relationships between the UK museum sector and public sector broadcast Business models – nobody pays for content any more, but they will pay for trust and participation.

22. THANKYOU!

23. Contact... Nick Poole Chief Executive Collections Trust 01223 316 028 www.collectionstrust.org.uk www.collectionslink.org.uk www.culturalpropertyadvice.gov.uk www.discs-uk.info