Shoalhaven Museums & Galleries Breakfast Group: Digital Workshop

The beautiful Shoalhaven River

In this workshop with a range of small museums, galleries and heritage organisations in the Shoalhaven region, we looked broadly at digital as a concept and started to think about digital opportunities. A series of exercises were completed with details below. One main outcome was to generate a set of resources shared via Wakelet.

WHAT DOES ‘DIGITAL’ MEAN TO YOU?

Generally:

• Electronic forms of communication
• Engaging with a keyboard: using your ‘digits’
• Anything through a computerised system
• Not a physical entity, rather a representation of it in a pixel form
• Content that is technologically driven
• Through interfacing with a screen, leading to a fundamental change in human thought processes

For operations:

• Recording of information in a digital form for easy access and sharing
• Safety of information
• Contributing to a cohesive organisation
• Accessibility
• Inclusivity
• Ticketing
• Collection

Connecting:

• Connecting beyond the museum: a ‘porous museum’
• Community app pilot (can x see)
• Use of video and other interactives in exhibition spaces
• Audio interviews and oral histories

DIGITAL TOOLS USED

• Website
• Collections management and databases, such as eHive, MOSAiC
• Social media, particularly Facebook pages plus local history groups, and Instagram
• Video content, digitised artworks
• Email, e-newsletters
• Online store
• Google / Trip Advisor

2-3 CHALLENGES FACING THEIR ORGANISATIONS (NOT NECESSARILY DIGITAL)

Resourcing – people:

• Volunteers as a resource for fundraising, research and in operational roles
• Educating staff and volunteers to be comfortable with technology and using it in everyday (e.g., tablets in exhibitions and for guided tours)
• Members / volunteers who are not digitally literate, meaning little opportunity to share admin load
• Attracting new members / volunteers
• Declining and aging volunteers and the skills people bring

Resourcing – money:

• Finances generally are tight
• Finding resources for fundraising
• Lack of support from Council and other funding bodies
• Increased costs, especially electricity

Resourcing – Audiences / visitors:

• Getting numbers through the door
• Making connections with the public
• Lack of community exposure
• Resources for marketing and awareness
• Attracting repeat visits, getting audiences to move beyond their favourite sites

Resourcing – technology:

• Technical problems – having them and resolving them
• Metadata and following standards
• Information on objects – provenance and history
• Maintaining technologies
• Collection management and preservation

Resourcing – buildings:

• Insurance
• Limitations of buildings
• Heritage constraints
• Storage problems

HOW MIGHT WE? EXERCISE

This is a hugely useful way to think about how to harness digital tools to solve organisational problems by asking the question “Our organisation is challenged by … How might we use digital tools / technology to … So that we can …”

From the workshop the following questions emerged which we will look at in a future session.

How might we use digital to:

• Attract and retain volunteers?
• Improve our digital literacy?
• Assess and improve our digital capabilities?
• Increase funding, both diversifying sources and getting more money?
• Increase reach, attract more / new audiences?
• Replace outdated technology / equipment?
• Better manage our collections and storage pressures?

Lots of food for thought and future possibilities!