Digitisation in Scottish museums: A user impact evaluation Dylan Edgar ICT Adviser, SMC Making an impact

Aims of the project Develop case studies for museum digitisation projects that exhibit current best practice in terms of user impact Identify common success factors: what makes a good digitisation project?

Best practice criteria The overall objectives of the project are relevant to this study The project objectives relate to clearly defined user groups and are SMART Data is available to measure the impact of the project on user groups RGA can access end users if the existing data is not sufficient Contact details are available for the project manager The establishment and project manager have the time to meet and provide the relevant data The project is recent

Measuring impact Project objectives Web site statistics Enquiries and feedback from users User consultation Revenue generation Requests for prints Logging query terms Direct end user research

Am Baile 85% said that Am Baile would improve their understanding of Highland culture. Nearly two thirds said it would help them improve their Gaelic language skills.

Aberdeen Museum & Art Gallery: Explorer The total number of visits to the Art Gallery and to the web site has increased since Explorer was launched.

Hunterian: Pilot Whistler Project Almost half of respondents were not aware of the Hunterian before they visited the web site. 75% agreed that visiting the web site made them more likely to visit the Hunterian for themselves.

Shetland Photographic Archive The web site receives high ratings from users, with an average score of 4.6 out of 5. 72% said that viewing the collection online would encourage them to visit Shetland Museum in the future.

Digital vs. physical collections It is easier to use a web site like this than to go to a museum directly 3.9 This web site makes me want to visit the museum and find out more 3.8 Using web sites like this is better than visiting museums = Agree strongly 1 = Disagree strongly

Common success factors The digitised material is relevant to the audience Some monitoring of impact on end users took place User comments were acted upon Skill retention and project sustainability were addressed Positive impacts were reported on internal users

Best practice checklist Clearly define user groups and objectives Involve all museum staff Test with end users Promote the project to drive interest Monitor and evaluate properly Dont just rely on web site hits to measure impact Be flexible Keep the content relevant Plan for the future

Dylan Edgar ICT Adviser, SMC