Behind the scenes

I have been dipping the very end of my little toe in the (currently for me at least) cloudy waters of Twitter over the last few days for a few reasons. One is pure curiosity, I am nosey – what is it, and why do people do it? Another reason is my brother Tweets, rather than using Facebook, so this is a way to catch up with him. Finally though more and more cultural institutions Tweet and I want to know if we should think about doing it to. Why do they do it? What do they Tweet about? Does it lead to more users, more visitors, more hits on the website? I am not really any wiser yet I must admit, but that might be something to do with having been diverted by Stephen Fry and Derran Brown….

The National Museums and National Library are on Twitter and seem to talk about events and activities – would this be welcome from us too? Or would it be good to have a combination of the blog and FB as well, so events, activities and general thoughts, ideas, things we love, things that inspire us and things we want to do? What do you think? Do any of you Tweet and can I ask, without seeming too indelicate, how is it for you?!

I’ve come across lots of interesting things online over the last few weeks so I thought I’d let you all know about them:

 First of all, I’ve pleased to announce we made the ’50 awesome art museum blogs’!! We are in the ‘international’ category.

I also just came across the Royal Pavilion and Museums, Brighton and Hove blog. It has such a pretty banner! They are similar to us in that volunteers and staff post online and that they are part of a Council too.

 For those interested in social networking things and museums, you might be interested in the ‘Ask a Curator’ day on 1st September. We’ve registered to take part. It’s basically a day you set aside for answering questions online. Sounds fun!

 One thing we missed out on which sounded like a challenge was the ‘Life in a Day’ project. It was a worldwide project to capture user generated content – basically make a documentary about your life on 24th July. Did anyone take part? I’ll need to put it in the diary for next year.

 And finally, for those of you in Scotland, you might have heard of the NEoN festival taking place in Dundee. It’s a digital arts festival, but this year they are focusing a debate on technology and museums. It’ll be looking at the newly refurbished McManus Galleries, which uses lots of great technology. They had a really good write up recently in the Museums Journal.

Please do share what lovely things you’ve found online recently!

 I’ve jumped blogs this week to be a ‘guest blogger’ – not a very attractive title, I know. This blog is being simultaneously posted on both this and Museums Galleries Scotland’s blog.

Recently, we were lucky enough to have one of our objects chosen to be part of the initial collection on the BBC’s History of World site. Our Bronze Age Beaker is amongst the earliest version of its kind in Britain still intact. You’ll probably have heard about the BBC’s project in one way or another, it’s basically about creating an online database of objects which represent…‘The History of the World’ (cue dramatic music).

Objects are now being uploaded from museums and individuals. Even Neil Oliver is getting involved by choosing his personal object (I know, it’s like he’s never off the TV). So I tried uploading another object to see how it would work.

I registered as a user on the website which was really simple. (Hint – make your username your museum name!)  I instantly received an email which meant I could register an object. I chose a Mak’Merry bowl because I knew a bit about it already and thought it had an interesting story. I was asked for some details which I already had on our collections database – size, colour, material, age of object and so on. The BBC have made it really simple – lots of tick boxes and drop-down lists. I also had to write 150 words on the ‘story of the object’. You might find some of it a bit too simple for museum standards, for example when choosing what size it is you might be debating between “Tiny – it fits in my hand” or “Medium – I can put my arms around it”. (I suppose it depends on the size of your body parts). From my education point of view, it’s a perfect way of getting the general public thinking about how to categorise their personal objects as part of history.

What are the benefits for you of putting an object up online? We use a lot of different sites to promote our collections – Scran, Flickr, Facebook, YouTube, Blog, plus our own website. If you don’t or can’t use any of these, the BBC is a really easy way of sharing your collections instantly, without worrying about the issues of copyright and managing such a site. As an experiment I did a Google search for ‘Mak’Merry bowl’, the BBC page came up third, after Flickr and our own online exhibition about pottery. Scran came up 5^th. I imagine most people around the world would recognise and trust the BBC brand meaning they are instantly more likely to look at this search result. As an added bonus, you can also put links to your own website beside your object so that interested parties can link directly back to you. So go on, you’ll be bowl-ed over by how easy it is!!

  Calling all photographers (good or otherwise), social networking followers, or anyone who has ever used Wikipedia to look up some obscure topic….That’s nearly everyone then. Well, we are very excited as Prestongrange Museum and John Muir’s Birthplace are taking part in a special Wikipedia initiative being held in February 2010.

 What’s it all about, I hear you cry! Get out of those wellies, knock the snow out of your ears and I’ll tell you more…

Wikipedia are holding a photography competition called ‘Britain Loves Wikipedia’. The focus of it is that people will be encouraged (through prizes) to take photographs of their local museums and their collections and post them onto Wikipedia, hence generating much more interest and information surrounding museums in general. So we decided to run an event to coincide with this.

It’s called ‘East Lothian Photographers LOVE Wikipedia’ and its on Sunday 14th February at Prestongrange Museum and John Muir’s Birthplace.  We’re also offering free tea/coffee/tours at both venues from 1-4pm! It sounds like it could be really successful and a good, fun event to get new people into and using our venues. I just hope we get enough people who are interested…Please do help us by passing the details onto anyone you know who might be interested. Can you beat our rather stunning photography attempts? (This was taken by the passenger, I promise)

More details on our event: www.eastlothianmuseums.org/content/pages/events-and-activ…

And on the wikipedia competition which you might be interested in anyway:
uk.wikimedia.org/wiki/Initiatives/Britain_Loves_Wikipedia

 And lastly, what did I last use Wikipedia to look up? The Glasgow Police Museum which I visited over the holidays. A very friendly reception so do pop in if you’re passing.

 As the ‘noughties’ draw to a close, it’s time to look back over the last 10 years. Do you remember the Millenium bug which was going to wipe out all computers? Or the Sydney Olympics? Unbelievably that was 10 years ago!

Talking in the office today, all museums staff have done various different things over the past 10 years from French Degrees to working in the Secret Bunker. And here we are, ending up with mainly female team heading into a new decade which will see the opening of 2 new museums – Musselburgh and the John Gray Centre. Plus the refurbishment of Dunbar Town House and various ongoing improvements at Prestongrange and John Muir’s Birthplace. There’s enough to keep us busy for the first few years anyway…

The BBC have compiled a list of the 20 most important objects of the last decade as well as a very clever illustration. These include a ‘Bag for Life’, iPod, Credit Card, Hoody and hair straightners. What would be your object of the last 10 years? Personally, mine would be my laptop.

Finally, on behalf of the Museums Service, I’d like to wish all our blog readers a merry Christmas and a happy new decade. Thanks for reading and for commenting throughout the year.  We hope to welcome you back to our sites next year – either web or museums!

 Talking to various museums people at a conference recently, it’s interesting the amount who haven’t started using social networking sites as yet, or indeed the wider internet in general. I thought I’d just remind people of what we’ve done and what’s worked well…

We launched our Facebook site a few months ago. It was easy peasy to set up and it’s now one of my favourites to update as it just takes 2 seconds, reaches everyone immediately and is a good way of sharing info. We now have 42 fans on Facebook! Please follow us if you haven’t done so already – search for ‘East Lothian Council Museums Service’. We used the Museum of the University of St Andrews as our model for this so check them out too.

Our websites are operated using Website Baker. It’s just like using a word processor to update your pages. I just trained two people on it this morning so we can update the John Gray Centre website.

 Our YouTube site definitely needs more work. It’s one of the things I’m going to get round to after Christmas – I promise! At the moment it has a variety of films, many to do with the loco No 6. We’ve had a little spurt in people subscribing and requesting to be friends recently without us doing anything really!

Flickr remains as one of our most used sites. We recently posted photos of the Suffragette March and Multi-Cultural Day, both which were attended by lots of people and it was a really easy way of sharing the photos. One tip – always give each photo a title and description. I hate it when photos are up but you have no idea what they are of!

Survey Monkey has also been our saviour on many an occasion. It’s a website which lets you carry out questionnaires free of charge online. We pay for the more advanced service because of the amount we use it. We’ve used it many times this season to analyse visitor surveys, carry out consultation with communities and to gain feedback from events. It’s so simple to use and you can download reports containing graphs, percentages and pie-charts which make reporting back much easier. Perfect for those strapped for time to do proper evaluations.

Our collections are also on Scran – you can access this free from any library and it contains collections from museums, galleries, archives and libraries from across Scotland.

We haven’t branched out to using Twitter yet. I don’t know if it’s really for us, but we’ll see…

Any other suggestions as to sites other people have used that are useful, please leave a comment and spread the word!

 And it’s not even a trick title! Arun Manilal Gandhi is the fifth grandson of Mohandas Gandhi. As part of Black History Month 2009, Arun Gandhi is visiting the Brunton on 12th October and delivering a talk on his views on non-violence. It’s bound to be fascinating. Details on how to get your free tickets can be found here.

At Prestongrange, we have a few events for Black History Month too. Sheila has a talk and tour on the Wedderburn Brothers on 8th Oct at 7pm, free tickets are available from the museum. 

On the 18th of October we have ‘Welcome: East Lothian Multi-Cultural Day’ from 12-3pm. It’s going to be amazing – just a few of the highlights are: a French Puppet show, Seeds of Thought Poetry Group, Live Music, Burns Recitals, Indian Dancers, and local artist workshops! We’ll also have stalls on Fairtrade, Edinburgh and Lothians Racial Equality Council, Family History and much more. Full details of all events can be found in the Black History Month programme for East Lothian.

 Apart from all that, we’re also coming to the end of another summer season. Dunbar Town House has remained busy with the exhibition Harvest of the Sea generating a wealth of paper fish! It is planned that the Town House will be closed next season for the refurbishment so make your last visits to the ‘old’ town house now!

A Museum for Musselburgh is coming along – you may have noticed the shop front on the High Street with all the lovely old photographs in the window. It will become a museum next year, run by Musselburgh Museum Committee.

Apart from all that, the other big news is that we’re now on Facebook! Become a fan and share your comments please!

Or share your comments with us on here, we’re awfully pleased to hear from you, whatever you’ve got to say. It’s something to keep us occupied over those long winter months… 

It seems to me that the relationship between East Lothian Council Museums and their communities, Dunbar, Musselburgh and Prestonpans is very close. Museum services can be beneficial to the development of communities in different ways, for example, educational functions (loan box delivery and workshops), preserving their cultural spirit, entertainment and town image improvement.  The museum also provides collections and research functions for the public. The East Lothian Council Museums Collections Database, which I have mainly worked on during my placement, can let people see images of objects and obtain relevant information. People, who are interested in social history, art and local culture in East Lothian, can search their information by accessing the system. I am glad that I have a chance to contribute to this site and many thanks to my supervisor, Sheila. She has been patient, showing me how to set up, update and edit the system, which I have never worked on before.

In addition, I have had a variety of work experiences apart from the database, like involvement in education activities, handling, packing, numbering and meeting with an artist and movers. Very interesting! The museum makes efforts to broaden their services with new media strategies, such as the collections database system, mobile tour, Flickr and this Blog. It means the museums can engage with more potential visitors. I have created an account on Flickr, where I can upload many amazing photos, related to our museum services and add comments. The museum blog is the place where curators, volunteers and visitors can convey their ideas interactively. Anyway, I would like to say that I have learned a lot and enjoy working in the museum during this time. Everyone is so nice and I have gained a lot of fantastic experiences in East Lothian. 

 If you are wondering where to play hide-and-seek, Prestongrange Museum may be a good idea. Prestongrange is the industrial heart of East Lothian in the story of Scotland’s Industrial Revolution. I took part in a workshop about how to make a ‘gas mask’, which was very interesting, and was run by Sarah Cowie on the site this summer. Children also played hide-and-seek on the green grass in the sunshine. It was very impressive to see that kids can play and learn at the same time around the industrial heritage at Prestongrange museum.
Furthermore, Prestongrange Museum has a coal mining heritage. The gold mining museum in Taiwan popped into my mind suddenly when I visited this museum. Well, as the guided tour said, it’s not just a museum, where people can visit, it’s a part of local history from the 18th -19th centuries about the industry revolution. The large steam engine is very impressive. I can imagine how difficult it must have been to move it from the port in the 19th century. I can’t believe that workers could stand the noise it made whilst running.

Curious thing, the Web. The Blogosphere. An occasional wander around can often throw up, um, unsolicited comments all over the place. Take John Muir’s Birthplace as an example. All these are from a wee trawl recently:here and here and here. There’s another, with a pretty horrible picture of me that I don’t even remember being taken: here.

They all have their own reasons for featuring the Birthplace – tourism, work, pilgrimage – but from our point of view it’s interesting to see what folk take away, what the hits and misses are. As we’re not standing asking the posters to fill in a ‘visitor survey’, then perhaps these are our real reflections?