Information Studies Research

Social and Organisational Context

Principles of Public Access

9.1 Heritage information is a social and economic good which brings benefits to the public. These benefits come:

• from public access to the information itself;
• as a result of the use of this information to provide the public with access to better managed and interpreted natural and cultural heritage; or
• because the information can be used to conserve or preserve aspects of the heritage which would otherwise be lost.

Organisations such as English Nature, English Heritage, the Museums and Galleries Commission, and the Library Association have demonstrated through their work the benefits of sharing information. In many areas, such as archaeology and biological survey and record, the ability to interrelate information from a variety of resources provides further benefits to management and understanding. Interrelating such data can help the general public to contextualise aspects of the heritage. Access from home and school (see ¶s 3.4-3.6) to heritage information resources and assets would make this possible. Frameworks for public access outside the home are in the planning stages (e.g. public libraries initiatives). They should, if they go ahead, ameliorate some of the inequities of access.

9.2 Making data freely accessible is not always in the heritage interest and in implementing its ICT Policy the HLF needs to keep this in mind. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) point out in their guidance on the provision of RSPB Conservation Data that requests for access to some classes of data need to be handled with caution (e.g. rare bird records). Some of their concern stems, quite justifiably, from the fact that they hold data which belong to other organisations (e.g. Wetland Bird Survey Data, which technically belong to the Wetlands Wildlife Trust and the British Trust for Ornithology). These data were provided to the RSPB for very specific purposes. Where the RSPB’s own data are made available, it is done under a strict set of terms and conditions: these govern or limit uses, control their publication, restrict data retention, guarantee or clarify their accuracy, and stipulate the contractual terms covering redistribution of data. In the case of SMR data there are good reasons to restrict access to them. Such access might provide information to hoards of metal detector users and, as a result, threaten unrecorded or incompletely studied archaeological sites; but, on the other hand, it is important that metal detector users should contribute the information about the materials they collect.

Where access to data may put the heritage at risk, these data should not necessarily be freely accessible.

9.3 Charging remains an emotive issue, with the politics a more difficult problem than the technology. In some instances the sustainability of projects in the post-funding stage might depend on their establishing and running chargeable services. There are ways to combine free access with chargeable access. For example, a whole series of layered chargeable services could be constructed on top of a free information resource about the country houses of Britain. The public might be given free access to low resolution images of the cultural heritage held by these homes, but if they wished to have access to higher resolution images they might be charged for these. General views of individual objects might cost less than detailed views, and varying charges might be levelled depending upon the eventual purpose for which the image will be used. In parallel with the layered charging model it would be possible to run an organisation-based charging scheme. Under this scheme different charges would apply, depending upon whether the data were requested by:

a. consultants, commercial organisations, or industry;
b. government bodies, local authorities; and
c. general public, including students and academics.

There would be high charges for group (a) and data provided free of charge for group (c). The eventual value or commercial impact needs to be fed into the equation. For example, detailed biological records might be of value to a researcher trying to understand and inform policy-makers of the impact of habitat change on particular species, and, for different reasons, of value to housing developers planning investments in land.

Recommendations
 
32. The HLF should require that access to all ICT-based resources created with its support should be free at some level.
 
33. The HLF should accept that all data might not be suitable for general release.
 
34. The HLF should accept that charging should be acceptable where the funds are going back into making certain that the resource is sustainable.

Broadening Community Participation

9.4 There is a wide range of projects which would benefit from community involvement; these include collection of data for sites and monuments records, biological recording activities, and the development of large cultural heritage databases. The HLF has already supported a pilot for an Images of England project, which used local amateur photographers to capture definitive images of listed buildings in their community. While the pilot was evaluated/tested in only three areas, it demonstrated the effectiveness of this mode of working and it could easily be extended on a national basis. In the biological recording area vast amounts of community labour are regularly harnessed to produce detailed records of specific species. These activities form a vital role in the creation of new heritage resources. CEDaR (Centre for Environmental Data and Recording) manages a number of natural and biological recording projects and associated databases. Local people collect data using application software—Recorder—given to them for the purpose, and they remain the owners of the data; all the data collected are then incorporated at a central level.

Recommendation
 
35. The HLF should give preference to ICT projects that harness community spirit and use volunteer labour to collect, collate, and interpret the cultural heritage. Projects based on volunteers should demonstrate that suspension and training of volunteers has been carefully thought-out, as well as checking/control of work produced.

9.5 There is a growing interest in smaller community-based projects. ICT can help to make them happen. Local history projects offer an excellent example: a history of the parish of Cranham in Essex was recently established on the Web. This project was a collaborative one where all the participants were not located in the same town (Rancho La Costa, California, and West Ferriby, North Humberside). One of the self-described amateur historians produced the text, while another member of the team produced the Web pages, and the scanning of photographs and illustrations was shared between the members of the team. Projects of this kind are not expensive—typically, their costs are measured in £100s or £1,000s rather than £10,000s—but they can help to give national importance to activities or resources of local importance.

Recommendation
 
36. The HLF should investigate how it might work with the DTI, and such programmes as IT for All, to improve public access to, and understanding of, ICT through the support of community-based heritage ICT projects.

Education

9.6 Education can be seen from two perspectives. The HLF can foster both through its support for the use of ICT in the heritage sector.

• On-site provision at the heritage provider, museum, archive, or local record centre.
• Off-site provision of heritage information at schools, libraries, and eventually at home. Off-site provision can play a central role in lifelong learning and education, but for this to happen, these resources need to be accessible over the networks and, in the latter case, schools and teachers need to be trained to use them.

The most effective educational exhibitions:

• speak to people in a language tailor-made to their needs;
• connect messages to their everyday worlds;
• use a variety of media—in well paced sequences—to maintain interest;
• show spectacular objects; and
• use hands-on or interactive displays/presentations.

In most cases graphics panels are not on their own effective. Audiovisual displays are often too long; they tend to attempt to handle complex ideas without the necessary attention to simplicity of presentation; and users cannot control the sequencing. Most visitors stop but do not spend long with either. Museum audiences are diverse. We cannot satisfy the different needs with only one medium. It is necessary to combine several different levels. The novelty of new technology holds the interest of visitors. The Natural History Museum’s Virtual Endeavour display and many computer-based presentations in other museums across the country have been making effective use of computer-based displays to enhance the visitor’s educational experience. The new technology brings opportunities for different levels of information about an exhibit for different audiences. But at the moment these kinds of presentations tend to be individualistic, whereas museum visits are increasingly a group activity and as such require exhibits that support group interaction. For example, even the Virtual Endeavour application has been criticised because only one person at a time can control the joystick, while others get frustrated or bored watching. This is not the fault of the technology but more of professionals in the heritage sector who are still not open-minded enough about its possibilities.

9.7 The technology tide sweeping through the heritage sector has its dangers. If not correctly applied, there is the possibility that the use of technology might undermine the traditional mission of the museum and heritage centres. This is in part a reflection of a general problem in the museum environment and in the relationship between the museum and the general public. Often museums believe that they hold expertise and that their role is to transfer this information to the general public. But this attitude does not reflect the variety of ways people actually use museums: some for enjoyment, others for spiritual development, and still others for active learning. For many visitors the most positive benefit of the museum visit involves informal learning. ICT supports two-way learning, which could be developed in genuinely new ways: iterative feedback and public participation. It also offers a number of choices from which visitors can select according to their own interests and background. The My Brighton project is an excellent example of how this interactive relationship between visitors and exhibition can be developed to maximum advantage. Similar arguments apply to other heritage spheres, including the recording of species and natural habitat data.

9.8 Similarly, heritage sector institutions must not be bound by the concept of place. ICT frees them from this restriction. Networks open the possibility to heritage organisations, and especially museums and bodies curating the natural heritage, to make their rich, but underused, contents accessible from the home or classroom.

9.9 In projecting the impact and expectations of the use of ICT in the heritage setting it is worth bearing in mind the changing educational landscape. The Qualification and Curriculum Authority, formerly the School Curriculum and Assessment Authority (SCAA), is concerned that schools and teachers make effective use of IT. The SCAA published a range of materials to help schools fulfil their duties under the National Curriculum Order for Information Technology (IT), which focuses on developing IT capability in children: ‘Teachers will need to allocate time to ensure that every child develops IT capability. This time is required both for teaching IT skills, knowledge, and understanding, and for practising and consolidating them.’ The concentration will not be on hardware and software, but on generic IT skills:

• communicating information—presenting and transmitting information in the form of words, numbers, pictures, and sounds for particular purposes or audiences;
• handling information—selecting, retrieving, collecting, analysing, and storing information for particular tasks;
• controlling and measuring—writing and developing sets of instructions to control events, making use of feedback from sensors, and monitoring events and measuring physical variables such as temperature; and
• modelling—investigating patterns and relationships by using computer models that simulate real or imaginary situations, changing the data and rules in existing computer models and creating new models.

9.10 In considering the future developments of heritage information systems it is worth bearing in mind the increasingly sophisticated IT skills that children will be able to bring to bear on IT activities. In the SCAA’s Key Stages 1&2: Information Technology, the new requirements indicate that the IT skills children will acquire will make them better able to use heritage information systems and that, rather than needing to be spoon fed information, they will be able to take raw heritage data and put them together in order to better understand our heritage. It is also the case that, in order to undertake much of this IT-based learning in the educational setting, schools need access to raw data which they can make available in the classroom. As more and more resources are generated in digital form across the heritage sector, they will provide materials which students can use as part of exercises in developing their generic IT skills.

Recommendations
 
37. The HLF should encourage the use of ICT to produce content that can support the educational activities of heritage organisations.
 
38. The HLF should make certain that any digital resources created with its funds are freely available for educational purposes.

Collaboration

9.11 Collaboration forms the cornerstone of content creation activities. There are at least three areas where collaboration is productive: collaborative agendas, collaborative projects, and the sharing of expertise between heritage organisations. Collaborative agendas can involve heritage organisations, the HLF, government agencies, and other funding bodies. Areas where the HLF might collaborate include:

• Research Councils already actively support the application of ICT in the heritage sector. The HLF needs to be kept informed about the projects receiving support and the implications that they may have for IT-based heritage projects. Some projects currently being funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) have direct relevance to future projects which the HLF might support in the areas of access to information, creation and retrieval from image databases and interactive systems, and visitor management systems.
• There is clear evidence of a need for projects which demonstrate the benefits of using multimedia in the heritage sector. The DTI’s IT for All programme might provide a point for collaboration, but there are others.
• If the opportunity should arise for the HLF to co-fund a collaborative venture to develop a UK Cultural Website, similar to the Australian one, the HLF should seriously consider acting as a co-sponsor.
• European Union funding has supported work in heritage areas through programmes such as GABRIEL, VAN EYCK, and RAPHAEL. For example, projects will be possible under the INFO2000 programme which focuses on supporting information content providers in making better use of Europe’s public sector information and enabling access to its multimedia potential.
• Companies often find museums and heritage institutions excellent providers of content to test their technology.

This better sharing of information between the various organisations sponsoring activities in the use of ICT within the heritage and new organisations is especially crucial if funding bodies are to avoid overlap.

Recommendations
 
39. The HLF should develop a working relationship with funding agencies which are supporting pure research to identify areas where synergy is possible.
 
40. The HLF should work with other organisations such as the DTI and the EU to develop a joint programme supporting projects developing digital resources and multimedia projects that make that content accessible.

9.12 The HLF should encourage heritage organisations to seek collaboration with commercial organisations which do not jeopardise the long-term rights of the heritage organisation. Collaboration can take place in areas such as content creation, dissemination, or establishing technology infrastructure. The Roman Baths Museum and Pump Room project to introduce hand-held audio guides into the Museum was a joint venture with Acoustiguide, funded through a royalty arrangement. While until recently many heritage sector projects tended to have little commercial potential, there are others that could be effectively marketed if developed as a consortium between the heritage sector and publishers or software development companies. Publishers can bring expertise, add value, and recommend how value could be added to multimedia products or online services. However, collaboration tends to favour the commercial company and many firms engage in ‘cherry picking’ when selecting projects, with little regard for the implications to the heritage. Other joint ventures might include:

• collaborative development of simulations which have wider market appeal;
• interactive presentations;
• partnerships which involve the use of heritage materials to experiment with technologies and serve as the environment to test applications on those attending cultural institutions and heritage sites; and
• partnerships to produce ‘digital publications’ of heritage data—images, sounds, or databases.

Recommendations
 
41. The HLF should only fund ICT-based heritage sector projects which have limited commercial viability.

9.13 Instead of bids which involve one asset/one owner, the HLF needs to encourage consortia bids. Collaborative projects between museums, libraries, and archives will be key. Interoperable catalogues, which allow users to search across a variety of different kinds of holdings for heritage material relating to a particular topic, will become increasingly necessary as the public interest in interdisciplinarity increases. If these are to be viable then more work needs to be done in the definition of data standards to ensure interoperability and in the creation of general system and interface standards. Standards such as Z39.50 show much promise. In the biological sphere, for example, collaborative work would ensure that data collection:

• is carried out in a consistent and coherent order;
• is carried out to comparable standards;
• is shared between heritage organisations;
• is available for reuse; and
• can be used to support comparative analysis.

9.13 Heritage organisations can, and in many cases do, benefit from sharing ICT experience. They collaborate on the development of standards, and share the results of projects and research into viable technologies and their uses. These activities tend to be in vertical heritage areas (e.g. museums, libraries, archives) and rarely involve cross-sector sharing. This is unfortunate because in every area—data collection practices, ICT project management, training and support, the strategies for evaluating the effectiveness of interactive displays—all the heritage sectors included in this study had something to contribute to, or learn from, another sector.

Recommendation
 
42. The HLF needs to encourage consortia bids.

Training

9.15 In few heritage sectors are there sufficient numbers of professionals proficient in ICT. Museum, archival, and library sectors have invested poorly in training and as a result many institutions are not equipped to lead ICT-based projects. Even where organisations use contract employees or software development companies, in-house ICT specialists play an essential role if ICT projects are to be adequately designed and managed. ICT projects carrying a continuing support commitment to any of their deliverables will have additional and essential training requirements. Training might include: ICT project management; functional requirements analysis and specification; or skills in support of project-specific hardware and software.

9.16 There is a very general need for improved ICT training of heritage specialists. The shortage of skilled staff is acute in areas such as libraries and archives and becomes especially apparent when these organisations begin to embark on retroconversion and digitisation projects. Few courses in the UK provide opportunities for students or professionals to acquire the necessary skills. With the increasing use of technology at university, greater numbers of students entering the heritage job market will have ICT skills, and postgraduate programmes are adding ICT components. The increased demand for heritage professionals with ICT training will gradually encourage those training courses without ICT components to add them. This will lead heritage training courses to begin to produce students with the necessary skills. Instead of funding the development of these programmes the HLF will foster an increasing number of ICT skilled professionals entering the marketplace by making more funds available for the development of IT-based projects in the heritage sector.

Recommendations
 
43. The HLF should support ‘project-targeted’ ICT training on those ICT-based projects it funds.
 
44. The HLF should not fund postgraduate or professional training programmes.