Digital State of the Sector

Fiona TalbottHead of Museums, Libraries and Archives

October 2015

HLF research• July 2013 – July 2014 funded 3,800 projects. • 512 responses to survey

• Reviewed 40 projects to evaluate quality and effectiveness; and 10 in depth interviews

• Digital outputs in majority of the 512 projects,

• Only 1 considered ‘wholly digital’ • Only 1 had no digital element at all

Digital Outputs • Documents/archives being

digitised • Film/video being digitised• Sound recordings being digitised• Creating new images• Creating new film/video• Creating new sound recordings• New documentation and data sets• Web site with heritage assets • School resources • Mobile applications, games or

augmented reality

Good News• Majority digitising analogue content (e.g. photos, films,

audio recordings)

• Two thirds producing dedicated websites

• Over half of projects producing digital images and/or videos

• Around a third produced new documentation and data-sets

• Only 14% developing other digital tools like apps or augmented reality

Challenges • Understanding audiences

• Making heritage discoverable

• Developing digital skills

• Funding

• Ambition

Achieving quality?• Plan, design and deliver with

audience in mind

• Offer opportunity for people to contribute and participate.

• Allow sharing and re-use of content

• Encourage people to collect and ‘curate’ digital material

A proposition