Highlight new acquisitions: link to acquisitions records
Advertise media events: Public relations activities
Are these part of collections management system?
Museum blog
Who's who in the museum could pull from people records
highlighting staff, programmers, as well as collections and donors
Match volunteers to projects through statistics gleaned from cms
Donor/member links
Adopt an object
Show the current activity surrounding an object.
Subscribe to an item.
What about the other way around? Data collected from website is ingested into cms? Mailing list for example? Room booking? Forms/Surveys "This reminds me of..." Other details?
Permalink. Let the public add an image from museum site to their site.
Assemble your own collection.
Museum partners.
FAQs on items in the collection
Timelines
Mystery object
Select items the museum knows about as well as items it is seeking further information on (example was auto racing experts who helped identify a type of automobile in a photograph).
Map interface (kml, google earth, etc.)
Quick facts, trivia
Have you seen this stolen item?
Online store: Links between item descriptions and items in store that are similar, reproductions, in the style of, etc.
Borrowed objects: Links to the institution from which the item was borrowed
Publish content to online exhibition
Online exhibitions can be virtual representations of physical exhibitions or, a means of extending a physical exhibition.
Online exhibitions can be a means to highlight collections.
Collaboration with another organization(s)
Content development is different from traditional cataloguing for identification purposes.
Virtual docent might lead the tour, rather than voice through gallery audio guide or printed map.
Can be longer in duration than physical exhibition. This requires periodic review of voice, relevancy, persistence, etc.
Need to obtain permissions specifically for online exhibitions. Different from print permissions, display permissions, etc.
User material can become part of the exhibition. Tags, comments, forums, etc.
When to 'turn off' the exhibit. Similar to but different parameters from physical exhibition.
What about content stored in proprietary formats used in online exhibits?
How to preserve, archive, catalog these exhibits as digital objects?
Many more interpretive path options in online exhibition than physical exhibition. How to distinguish, describe the parts of the whole?
Can be template-based.
These types of exhibitions are like publications in terms of process.
Information held in cms can facilitate these exhibitions as well as be the place to catalog them.
Publish content for educational use
How do we provide access to our collections to educators?
What do they want?
A list of objects? No
Objects linked thematically to critical questions of inquiry? Yes
Objects tied to curriculum? Maybe
Importance of interoperability to increase the resource pool
Importance of trusted relationships
Need tools for interaction, to create points of entry
Need ways to build themed aggregations, as well as free form selection
Strategic line between tool creation and situation that allows/exposes tools
Annotation is important
With whom do we share annotations?
Amongst teachers?
With students?
Not at all?
Need to take advantage of existing tools such as Zotero, rather than rebuilding.
Can we mediate our materials to increase their accessibility?
Connect with past use to increase potential future use.
Ways to assist collaborators among educators.
Can we/should we allow/encourage educators to remove museum objects from museum provided context and control?
Risk of losing institutional identity
Does value > risk?
Can encoding mitigate this?
Are there structured ways to collaborate that are more palatable?
How is the collection reflected in dedicated education spaces within the museum?
What is being used?
How?
How can we encourage information exchange? To/From
educator/students, etc.
Currently, our collections are anti-social. Why is this? Institutional decision? Institutional culture? Technological barrier? Culturally required practice?
Trust
Trusting our resources
Trusting educators
Trusting other institutions
If functionality is easy, we increase the likelihood that educators will use the tools we develop for them. And, institutional identity/integrity is increased because they don't have to take the item they want and change the context because we've provided it along with the output, whatever that might be (i.e., a printout with the museum's logo on it).
Who are we talking about when we speak of educators?
Teachers (K-12)
Curriculum developers
Professors/researchers
Education non-profits
Importance of capturing the 'secret life of the object'