Meeting of Cultural Ministers Digital technologies Working Group
Digital activities in small to medium organisations
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- 4. Innovation in digital technology
- 5. Key findings: survey and feedback
- 6. Future Actions/Opportunities
- Attachment 1 Major state-owned GLAM organisations who responded to the Digital Technology survey
- Attachment 2 GLAM Digital Technology Survey of Major Organisations: Recommendations
- Attachment 3 Respondents to GLAM Digital Technology Survey of Major Organisations
- GLAM Digital Access Conversation 12 June 2015: Participating Organisations
- Attachment 4 Projects Demonstrating Excellence in Digital Innovation
3. Digital activities in small to medium organisationsSmall to medium organisations hold significant cultural collections that are important to and valued by their local and regional communities, and together are a significant component of the national collections. Digital capabilities and digital access to collections in this sector are often limited and highly variable, especially in the case of the many volunteer-run museums, other heritage collections and historical societies. A number of respondents proposed that attention be given to digitisation issues for the small to medium organisations; that they be drawn into the process of policy formulation through their peak bodies; and that their needs be considered in the development of digitisation standards and tools. The development of digitisation strategies for each domain at the state /territory level led by GLAM peak bodies in partnership with lead agencies was suggested as a means to ensure that the requirements of small to medium organisations are accommodated. Feedback from the small-to-medium sector was broadly consistent with the feedback from the major organisations. Unsurprisingly, small-to-mediums emphasised lack of resources, skills and capability as key issues. Experience with the Victorian Collections (see Attachment 3, page 19 for a brief description of the Victorian Collections initiative) project indicates that when supported, the small to medium organisations are able to engage with digitisation and expand public access to their collections. In the past two years more than 300 smaller heritage and collecting organisations have uploaded metadata on over 60,000 items, generally accompanied by digital images. Through collaboration with the National Library of Australia, the Victorian Collections project provides a link for the small to medium sector to Trove (see Attachment 3, page 20 for a brief description of the Trove initiative). The Victorian Collections model could be further developed and could be deployed in other states and territories to act as an aggregator making small to medium community collections more visible and accessible online. 4. Innovation in digital technologyThe survey also canvassed the current use of digital technology by state-owned GLAM institutions. Examples from across all jurisdictions demonstrated a wide variety of innovative ways in which institutions are currently using new technology to: extend access to collections target new audiences engage the public interactively with collections preserve and extend appropriate access to Aboriginal culture engage volunteers facilitate community engagement and collaboration target tourist audiences create engaging education program materials deepen engagement with collections use open-source resources and share data online. A selection of examples provided in the survey is Attachment 4. 5. Key findings: survey and feedbackFeedback on digital activities in the major cultural institutions was based on the recognition of its importance for both access and preservation of collections. There was a strong commitment to increasing community engagement and open access to collection data. Key issues identified included: the need for a national policy framework to facilitate collaboration and cooperation and to provide assistance in priority setting; strong support for cross-domain and cross-jurisdiction strategies and collaboration; the need to establish national standards based on international best practice; the need for collection digitisation activity to be embedded within organisations’ core activities rather than be an “add on”; the need to secure ongoing resources for digitisation in general, and digital access in particular; support for benchmarking data on digitisation, digital activity and audience reach; a commitment to sharing and building on existing infrastructure and knowledge to avoid duplication; in particular Trove being recognised as a national aggregator of Australian cultural collections, and the Atlas of Living Australia (see Attachment 3, page 21 for a brief description of the Atlas of Living Australia) as a national aggregator for natural history; identification of issues specific to the gallery sector which limit the integration of visual arts collections within currently-used aggregators; recognition that some solutions, strategies and collaboration will need to be discipline/domain based; discoverability being the key focus for metadata to facilitate open online access for the public to Australia's cultural collections; support for development of open data approaches and APIs to increase the amount of machine readable metadata to make collection data more easily accessible; the need to address the barriers to greater access to digital data, such as copyright and IP; the need to identify skills profiles, and ongoing training and support, required to support and sustain digitisation activities; and the need for further research into innovative ways to increase access to digital content. 6. Future Actions/OpportunitiesThe work of the MCM Digital Technology Working Group, responses to the survey and collaboration between the GLAM peak bodies have contributed to a shared understanding of the current state of digitisation in the GLAM sector, and of the potential for further development. There is a demonstrated need for and commitment to continuing collaboration to realise the vision of seamless online access for the public to the rich diversity of Australia’s collections. The GLAM Peak Bodies met in June 2015 as the Digital Access Conversation and, at that meeting, noted the need for national leadership in undertaking to work with government to achieve this. The Digital Access Conversation has the potential to forge collaboration and to undertake a central role in coordinating strategic planning and the implementation of digital access initiatives. Further action on extending digital access to our cultural collections is timely and should include:
the Digital Access Conversation facilitating a federated approach to development of principles and a framework to expand and enhance digital access to collections; the development by each GLAM peak body, of a digital access strategy linked to the national framework and set of principles; and investigation by peak bodies of options to facilitate digitisation of and digital access to collections of small-to-medium organisations in State and Territory jurisdictions. September 2015 Attachment 1Major state-owned GLAM organisations who responded to the Digital Technology survey
Attachment 2GLAM Digital Technology Survey of Major Organisations: RecommendationsAcross jurisdictions: Implement a national standard and system for reporting on and benchmarking digital activities within publicly funded collecting organisations. Across GLAM sectors through peak bodies and lead institutions: Develop cross domain and cross jurisdictional digital strategies. Engage domain peak bodies to develop greater sharing/standardisation of technical standards for the creation and storage of digital assets; descriptive metadata; reporting and tracking collection items and metadata records online; and discovery metadata. Evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of different digital distribution channels. Further support API (Application Programming Interfaces) development for making collections data more easily available. Develop and implement national cross domain procedural guidelines for the application of Creative Commons licensing as a preferred licensing option, unless special circumstances apply. Within publicly-funded GLAM institutions Encourage all collecting institutions to develop and report against a formal digital strategy and digital plan. Encourage all collecting institutions to engage with or develop collaborative cross institution / domain / jurisdiction open data initiatives. Implement uniform accessibility standards for collections content such as those from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Further investigation and work required Undertake further research to establish how greater resourcing and increased innovation in increasing access to digital content can be achieved. Undertake cost benefit analysis of opportunities for sharing skills and facilities across domains, and for more widespread outsourcing of collection digitisation; analyse investment required for shared systems and services. Further identify the skills profiles required to support and sustain digitisation activities within cultural institutions and to provide ongoing training and support. Further identify ways to increase the use of machine readable metadata. Further investigate the accessibility of collections information made available online. Undertake further research to identify: utilisation of digital collections, key markets and users, barriers to access, and reach and impact. Attachment 3Respondents to GLAM Digital Technology Survey of Major OrganisationsAustralian Government Libraries Network Australia ICOMOS National and State Libraries Australasia Australian Library and Information Association Australian Society of Archivists Council of Australasian Archives and Records Authorities Council of Australian Art Museum Directors Council of Australasian Museum Directors Council of Australian University Librarians Federation of Australian Historical Societies Museums Australia Digital Working Group NSW comprising: State Records NSW State Records, NSW Art Gallery of NSW Museum of Applied Arts & Sciences Museums and Galleries NSW Australian Museum State Library of NSW Museum of Contemporary Art Museums Australia NSW GLAM Digital Access Conversation Cultural Development Network History Council of Victoria Museums Australia (Victoria) Public Galleries Association of Victoria Regional Galleries Association of South Australia Royal Historical Society of Victoria TasTAFE Libraries TAFE Queensland Libraries Hunter Institute / TAFE Illwarra Libraries GLAM Digital Access Conversation 12 June 2015: Participating OrganisationsMuseums Australia Council of Australasian Museum Directors Council of Australian Art Museum Directors National and State Libraries Australasia Council of Australian University Librarians Australian Library and Information Association Australian Society of Archivists Council of Australasian Archives and Records Authorities National Film and Sound Archive Federation of Australian Historical Societies National Research Collections Australia (Atlas of Living Australia) National Library of Australia (Trove) CSIRO (Atlas of Living Australia) Museum Victoria (Victorian Collections) Attachment 4Projects Demonstrating Excellence in Digital InnovationStreet History: Hoddles Grid iPhone app Directory: sites -> files sites -> Memorandum of agreement files -> Information security policy university administration and services (uas) files -> Chris ham: reforming the nhs lessons from the past and pointers to the future files -> - files -> A guide for parents and carers files -> Ariel M. Sheetrit files -> Chapter Calendar of Events –July 2017 For the benefit of our members and customers please coordinate the scheduling of dates to prevent overlapping events. In the event of conflicting dates it is recommended to personally notify the other chapter of the files -> Collective redress in england & wales files -> County No Treasurer’s Elderly and Disabled property tax credit request affidavit Download 6.1 Mb. Share with your friends:
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