Presentation from Digital TRansformation: Supporting Culture Shift in Museums by John Ferry, Digital & New Media Manager at Glasgow Museums

1. John Ferry, Digital & New Media Manager
Glasgow Museums
DigitalTransformation: Supporting Culture Shift in Museums

2. Challenging Established Ideas & Changing Perceptions

3. • Who we are
• Riverside
• Current work
• Wikimedian in Residence
• Kelvin Hall Project
Presentation overview

6. Digital & New Media
• John Ferry, Digital & New Media Manager / 2012
• David Scott, Digital & New Media Curator / 2012
• Tracey MacDonald,Assistant Curator, Kelvin Hall Project /2014
• Kirsty Bell, Systems Developer, Kelvin Hall Project, jointly managed with UoG / 2014
• Craig McInally & HollyTakenzire, Heritage HorizonsTrainees / 2015
• SaraThomas,Wikimedian in Residence, jointly managed with MGS / 2015

7. Remit
• Cross-service, interpretive remit – commissioning and creating content
• Development of strategy & clear objectives
• Development of a culture of digital
• Embed practice within our work / in gallery, mobile, online
• Working with collections curators and wider Museums teams

8. Responsibility
• Capital Projects: Kelvin Hall Project, The Burrell Collection Redisplay
• Social Media Management across all 9 venues, in partnership with Marketing Dept
• Digital Interpretation for temporary exhibitions / Redisplays
• Developments with Learning teams
• Story Player - Riverside Museum, Content Management System
• Mobile
• Web

9. 2010
• Development of Riverside Museum
• Glasgow Life 2010
• First steps in Social Media

11. • Riverside / Challenging Established Ideas and Changing Perceptions

12. DIGITAL & NEW MEDIA AT GLASGOW MUSEUMS
•Digital as primary form of interpretation
•All digital interpretation is for everyone - but every display has a target audience
•All address the physical needs preferred learning styles of different audiences
•Building on best practice and prototyping
•Pushing the boundaries of how digital interpretation is used in museums

13. Digital at Riverside
• Digital as primary form of interpretation
• All digital interpretation is for everyone - but every display has a target audience
• All address the physical needs preferred learning styles of different audiences
• Builds on best practice and prototyping
• Pushes the boundaries of how digital interpretation is used in museums

14. Primary interpretive types:
• Touch interfaces
• eStorybooks
• Games
• Video
• Large scale ‘shows’
• Mobile
DIGITAL NEW MEDIA - IN-GALLERY INTERPRETATION

15. Primary interpretive types:
• Touch interfaces
• eStorybooks
• Games
• Video
• Large scale ‘shows’
• Mobile
DIGITAL NEW MEDIA - IN-GALLERY INTERPRETATION

16. Story Player Content Management System
• Template based CMS
• Fully managed and updated in-house
• Full suite of staff trained in use

17. Primary interpretive types:
• Touch interfaces
• eStorybooks
• Games
• Video
• Large scale ‘shows’
• Mobile
DIGITAL NEW MEDIA - IN-GALLERY INTERPRETATION

18. Primary interpretive types:
• Touch interfaces
• eStorybooks
• Games
• Video
• Large scale ‘shows’
• Mobile
DIGITAL NEW MEDIA - IN-GALLERY INTERPRETATION

19. Primary interpretive types:
• Touch interfaces
• eStorybooks
• Games
• Video
• Large scale ‘shows’
• Mobile
DIGITAL NEW MEDIA - IN-GALLERY INTERPRETATION

20. Lessons Learned
• Robust Content Management System,
• Staff development for Riverside has been successful in nurturing skills and expertise,
increasing digital literacy – creating a model of excellence for our other museums to learn
from
• Our story display philosophy and identified target audiences offered strong foundations to
future developments

21. Moving forward
• Not immediately the case that the whole museum service ‘bought in’
• In 2012 this was still new to many
• Wider issue of advocacy – important to win hearts and minds
• Strategy from 2012 was to extract the philosophy of Riverside

22. • Cross-service, interpretive remit – commissioning and creating content
• Since 2012 have contributed digital interpretation to approx 40 exhibitions and redisplays

24. Physical

27. Burrell Digital
Labels

28. Digital Labels – Burrell Collection

38. • Defining our Digital presence for Mobile

40. Mobile

44. • Defining our Digital presence for Mobile
• Other developments with Future Cities
• High Street Walking App / Collections
• Community Mapping / Collections

47. Social Media
• Social Media development 2010
• Glasgow Life Social Media Policy 2010
• Social Media Strategy 2012
• Social Media Management Group 2012
• Venue-wide admin teams / approx 30 staff
• Supported by Marketing team

48. • Twitter: 50,481
• Facebook: 50,314
• Flickr
• YouTube
• Instagram
• Pinterest

65. Challenging Established Ideas Changing Perceptions
• Good evidence of growing staff confidence in approaching the use of
digital within our work
• Many new skill sets have been developed
• Colleagues proactive in approaching with ideas
• Slow progress in website development but new developments will
improve this / Kelvin Hall / Learning

69. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:GLAM/Museums_Galleries_Scotland
Sara.thomas@glasgowlife.org.uk
Contact details:

70. Kelvin Hall Project

71. Kelvin Hall Project
• This project involves the innovative partnership use of a landmark building to
create a cultural hub for collections storage, teaching and learning, research and
public orientation and engagement, combined with a sports and leisure facility
• It aims to bring together the world class collections of the city and university of
Glasgow and the national Scottish Screen Archive to create a single cultural and
intellectual resource for the public, locally and globally

72. Kelvin Hall Project
• The project will take Glasgow’s experience of engaging communities with
collections to a new level for the general public, students and scholars
• The Kelvin Hall project focuses on four main elements of heritage: the collections
of Glasgow Museums,The Hunterian, Scottish Screen Archive and the Kelvin Hall
building

73. • Orientation Area
• Heritage Arcade
• Flexible Learning Space
• Café
• Glasgow Museums Stores
• The Hunterian Stores
• Charles Rennie Mackintosh Conservation Workshop
• Collections Study Centre
• SSA Moving Image Research Centre
• Online Portal
• Gym, Dance Studios, Sports Halls and Spa

76. Digital at Kelvin Hall
• Online Portal
• Navigator
• Digital Interfaces/Interpretation
• Mobile
• Online Learning
• Wi-Fi
• Social Media

77. Online Portal – Systems Developer Kirsty Bell
• As an integral part of the Kelvin Hall redevelopment project the partners will develop an
online portal to the collections of Glasgow Museums,The Hunterian and the National
Library of Scotland Scottish Screen Archive
• The portal aims to become a virtual museum in its own right, ultimately providing online
access to the collections of all of the museums in Glasgow
• In the first phase of portal development covered by this proposal the project team will
focus on providing unified searching of the collections of Glasgow Museums,The Hunterian
and National Library of Scotland Scottish Screen Archive

78. Kelvin Hall / Assistant Curators
• Portal and the mapping of the collections
• Digital interpretation – Heritage Avenue
• Digital learning – creation of mobile learning resources
• Development of downloadable ESOL/Adult Learners resources
• DigitalVolunteers
• Crowdsourcing

79. Volunteers
• Riverside example/Social Media
• Burrell Blog
• Temporary exhibitions / currently St Mungo Museum Kelvingrove

80. • Defining our Digital presence / Online

83. GLASGOW LIFE - DIGITAL ASSET
MANAGEMENT SYSTEM – PHOTO
LIBRARY.
Launched, January 2014
The Glasgow Life Photo Library holds
images from the unique collections of
Glasgow Museums and Glasgow Libraries.
With paintings from all the major European
schools - including Old Masters, French
Impressionists, Glasgow Boys (and Girls) and
the pre-Raphaelites - to social history images
and historic photographs of shipbuilding on
the Clyde, we offer opportunities to add a
fresh look to your product range,
publication, project or campaign.

85. Going Forward / Challenging Established Ideas Changing Perceptions
• Seeing benefits of broadening scope of digital across Museums
• Colleagues positive and embracing of change
• Continued nurturing skills and expertise, increasing digital literacy across all departments
• Capital Projects: Kelvin Hall Project, offers many exciting challenges and changes
• The Burrell Collection Redisplay will expand our ambitions

86. Contact:
Email: john.ferry@glasgowlife.org.uk