2003 - Autumn meeting

Tate Modern: Thursday 23rd October

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Timetable

10.00 - 10.30 Registration and coffee

10.30 - 11.00 Welcome and Introduction Simon Grant Head of
Information Systems and Debbie Richards MCG chair

11.00 - 11.30 Collections Management Collections Management
Systems: after implementation Jon Thristan, TMS
Project Manager

11.30 - 12.00 Some assembly required: using collections management
information Claire Sussums, Collections
Information Manager

12.00 - 12.30 .Museum Dr Nick Merriman, Institute of Archaeology,
UCL

12.30 - 1.45 LUNCH

1.45 - 2.15 tbc

2.15 - 2.45 Partnerships and Collaborations 'Insight
into the Tate Collections'
Committing to a large scale digitisation
programme
Attracting and dealing with external funding
Issues surrounding internal and external
collaboration
Oliver Vicars Harris, New Media Consultant

2.45 - 3.15 Partnerships: creative solutions
3 case studies: Grove Art, BBC, BT
Sarah Tinsley, Senior Digital Content
Manager

3.15 - 3.45 Tea

3.45 - 4.15 Content channelling E-learning: towards
defining a Tate strategy
Summary of government e-learning objectives
and role it sees for cultural sector in achieving these
Background of e-learning at Tate
Defining a Tate e-learning strategy - key
challenges and questions.
Dr Annetta Butterworth, E-Learning Curator

4.15 - 4.45 Multimedia tours for hand-held computers -
pilot projects at Tate Modern 2002-3
Developing a mobile multimedia tour
Key findings from the first pilot project
How we've moved forward to phase 2
Gillian Wilson Assistant Curator, Resources

4.45 - 5.00 Close

Report on Museums Computer Group Meeting Autumn 2003

MCG Autumn Meeting - Tate Modern, London
23 October 2003

Jon Thristan, TMS Project Manager, Tate
Collections Management Systems: after implementation

The Tate's collections management system (TMS) was rolled out in 2001. It was an attempt to rectify the following weaknesses:

· Processes were being done manually
· Data entry was carried out locally
· Existing tools did not allow flexible access to information as there were several local databases
· Existing tools could not support change in the organisation

The objectives for the new TMS were:
· Single, accessible resource for all information
· Operational efficiency
· Higher productivity without the need for more staff
· Efficiency of exhibition planning
· Public access

Initial workshops on existing procedures lead to the creation of a specification and after a lengthy procurement process, TMS was rolled out in 2001. There are now 300 users across 5 sites.

An important feature of the system is that it is accessible via to the museums intranet. This means that you do not have to be a trained user of the system to get information out of it. For example, art handlers use TMS via the intranet.

Have the initial objectives been achieved?
· The museum was too slow at putting in place a core team to manage the system
· After initial instruction in how to use the system, subsequent training was too ad hoc
· Reports have been delayed and as a result people do not always see TMS as useful
· Procedures that were modeled did not always work in practice

What has been the net result of this?
· Inconsistent implementation of TMS
· Because of this inconsistency, there have not been the accompanying efficiency savings

As a result of these issues, it was decided to "re-launch" TMS in the following ways:
· Workshops to review procedures
· New and revised reports produced
· Revised system documentation in improved, more user friendly formats
· More training at regular intervals
· A variety of re-launch activities including briefings, presentations and regular updates

Claire Sussums, Collections Information Manager, Tate
Some assembly required: using collections management information

Tate uses three systems for managing information:
· The Museum System (TMS)
· iBase Manager
· Collections Information System (CIS)

TMS is used for storing the core collections data. An entry record is made for new acquisitions and once accessioned, the object is made available on the web. Data input is done by the relevant department and information is input with the public in mind and intended for the general viewer. iBase Manager captures images of works in the collection as well as subject information and copyright details (i.e. whether it is cleared for the intranet or internet). The CIS was built in 2000 and is a web and intranet delivery application. It dynamically delivers collections information through scripts which export data from the TMS - these take about 3-4 hours. It was completely redesigned in 2002/3 and now supports the online shop as well as archive material for the NOF project. The benefits of the relationship between the TMS and CIS are:
· Dynamic delivery
· Improved accessibility of data
· Improved accuracy of data
· Ability to re-use information

However, there are drawbacks:
· Poor data can cause the load to fail
· Changes to fields or data entry rules have to take into account the CIS scripts

Future plans:
· Delivery of exhibitions dynamically from the TMS
· Extended capture of information in TMS to enhance structural searching, e.g additional information about artists.

Dr Nick Merriman, Institute of Archaeology, UCL
.museum

What is it and why is it so important to sign up?

What is it?
.museum is a pilot initiative in establishing an explicitly labeled niche for cultural and scientific heritage in the domain name system. An organisation called MuseDoma was launched in 2001 to run the registration scheme and is financed by ICOM and the J. Paul Getty Trust. It is a top level domain only available to registered museums and provides a platform for clearly bounded communities. Any site with the .museum domain name is telling its users that it is a museum with approved standards and ethics. Information about the system is available from http://about.museum/.

The system works on a three level name, the first part being the type of institution (e.g. art, science), the second the location, for example art.york.museum.

There is a one-off registration fee of $100 for eligibility checks plus an annual fee of between $80-100.

What are the benefits?
· Enhanced visibility on the internet
· Easily verifiable provenance
· Professional authenticity
· Contextual framework for global communities

Who is it for?
Museums, Museums associations as well as members of the profession.

Take up
Only 30 names are actively used at the moment. Why are museums not signing up in greater numbers?
· Many organisations don't want to change their web address. (However, the new name can be used as an alias)
· Some think it too expensive
· Too much trouble
· Many are waiting to see if more museums join

However, the consequences of insufficient registration are that the ICANN-MuseDoma agreement for registration may cease and the .museum name will be available to anyone who wants it. The name will become available commercially leading to its possible misuse and subsequent loss of credibility and authenticity.

Nick made a plea to those in the museums world to consider the .museum name and make efforts to join in the next twelve months.

David Dawson, Resource
ICT Update

After lunch David Dawson gave an update on the work of Resource. He was pleased to announce that the People's Network infrastructure is in place now - on time and within budget. This will hopefully impress the government when it comes to allocating more funds to similar projects. Resource is working with various Government Departments on broadband, including the Broadband Stakeholder Group – the recent DRM report stated that cultural sector is a good test bed for government services in this area. A survey of the current position is being undertaken by the Regional Agencies and this will form the basis for reporting on the e-Europe Action Plan. Broadband pilots are also being run in various museums and archives funded through regional agencies.

Cornucopia will be complete by next year and will include specialist library and music collections. The website is based on php/MySQL/OAI and will enable online editing.

Portable Antiquities. £3m of HLF funding has established a network of Finds Liaisons Officers.

Curriculum Online. This provides access to multimedia content for teachers who have been given £100m funding to buy content. Resource is keen for the cultural sector to register teaching materials designed to support the curriculum. There are currently four cultural sector pilots to identify barriers to registration as well as identify potential.

Web accessibility. e-Government website design guidelines apply across the sector and by 2005 all public sector websites will have archive WAI Level AA. At present only 50% of sites are Level A. The Disability Rights Commission is going to survey 1000 sites at random including 50 museums to pick up broad trends. As a separate exercise Resource will audit 300 museums, libraries and archives, and will consider the need for further advice and guidelines.

NOF. Many NOF-Digitise projects are coming to an end and the emphasis now is on measuring the success of the new sites. Webstats need to be collected which make sense and are easy for project's to collect. Resource needs a headline figure so that government might fund another round of projects.

Europe. In November a set of Cultural Website Quality Principles will be launched to encourage developments in the sector. In 2005 the UK has the Presidency of the EU, which will be an opportunity to set the political agenda.

Cultural Content Forum. A new report on evaluation and users is being published at www.culturalcontentforum.org

Rachel Bhandari, Tate
Partnerships and Collaborations 'Insight into the Tate Collections'

I nsight has been part of a long term programme of digitisation and access carried out in two phases:
Phase 1 - 2000/2001 funded by the HLF and involved the digitisation of approximately 50,000 works.
Phase 2 - 2002/2004 funded by NOF and attempted to enhance the work carried out in Phase 1 through:
· Special Imaging Treatments. This involved creating a "3D" image and providing a Flash interface which throws light onto the surface of the work from different angles.
· Turner Worldwide. 2000 of the artist’s works were imaged and catalogued creating an online catalogue. This was done as a partnership between public and private collections.
· Archive Online. 4000 items from the gallery's archive collections were digitised - The Bloomsbury Group, Tate History and Barbara Reise. The two major problems to overcome were the copyright implications and the need for specialist staff.

Sarah Tinsley, Senior Digital Content Manager
Partnerships: creative solutions 3 case studies: Grove Art, BBC, BT

Sarah Tinsley spoke about three partnerships that Tate has embarked upon in recent years:
BT is Tate's biggest sponsor. They are involved with hosting the website, providing cash and sponsorship in kind. They are the sole sponsor of Tate Online. Their support has enabled the creation of a Digital Programmes Team. The relationship was initially agreed for two years and involved Tate having access to BT's design and content studio. Projects carried out with the support of BT have included Turner Online which gives a 3D view of the gallery as well as Explore Tate Modern which is an interactive floor plan of the building.
The BBC wanted to extent the reach of its arts portal and Tate wanted access to the BBC's archive. In August 2001 there was an agreement to run a 12-month pilot to share skills, resources and ideas. The result was Tate@BBC which features news, features and an artwork of the month. The BBC now wants something more populist but Tate is not necessarily ready for this approach.

Grove Art provide a web resource of artists biographies and this was of great interest to the Tate which was lacking some of this information. Grove was amenable to the idea of allowing access to 445 articles on their site initially for six months. In return Tate was to provide a logo and link to Grove Art at various places on its own website.

Annetta Butterworth
Content channelling. E-learning: towards defining a Tate strategy

Annetta Butterworth explained the governments and museums world e-learning strategy and how the government also wants increasing emphasis on museums and galleries as education providers for the whole community. However this creates challenges for museums:
· Resources
· Costs
· Expertise
· Transfer of in-gallery teaching materials into an online context
· Vast range of learners. Where do you prioritise?
· To what extent are the resources tailored to the National Curriculum

What is the current provision for e-learning at Tate?
· Tate Collections and supporting interpretations
· Exhibition interpretation available online
· Webcasting of public programmes
· Online courses in partnerships with external intstitutions such as the City Lit

The Tate e-learning site was opened in June 2002 and an e-learning curator was employed in June 2003 to develop this. The first task was do an audit of the site and it quickly became obvious that the structure was not clear, the look and feel was not appealing and the schools section had little support for teachers or group leaders. Therefore an interim site which attempted to address these issues was created prior to a total redesign of the Tate site.

Future Plans
· An overall strategy for all 4 sites will be developed
· Money, time and resources are needed (the current budget for e-learning is only £10,000)
· Need partnerships and sponsorships
· Incorporate e-learning into staff time so it has the same level of importance as other work
· Create a "joined-up" learning and teaching experience - use and adapt existing materials.
· Ensure that resources meet the needs of learners, teachers and education curators

Gillian Wilson, Assistant Curator, Resources, Tate
Multimedia tours for hand-held computers - pilot projects at Tate Modern 2002-3

Beginning last year, Tate set up a system of integrated tours of its galleries accessed via PDAs linked to a wireless network in the building. Audio tours are not new to the museums world but new technologies mean that different types of content can be used, such as moving images. It also gives visitors the ability to access information at different levels according to their needs. Two pilot projects were devised to test this new technology, one in the summer of 2002, the other through the summer and autumn of 2003.

iPAQ machines donated by Hewlett Packard were used and 16 "content zones" were created around the building. This caused a few problems as some of them overlapped. Content was stored on servers so it was not limited to the size of the palm top's memory. This also means that changes can be made to content centrally. The content was programmed in Flash and used the Pocket PC 2003 operating system. The target age group was 16-25. Use was made of existing digital resources wherever possible.

Evaluation carried out after users had tried the system showed that 70% thought the PDA tour improved their visit. The most popular items were games, interviews, videos and on the whole they felt that it did not intrude into their visit. However, they did not like long messages, blank screens or too much text.
Future plans for the multimedia tours include a highlights package, a sign language version as well as a collections tour which will be database driven. It is also hoped that visitors will also be able to use their own PDAs.

Report by
Alex Bromley
Project Manager
TUC Library Collections