www.britainfromabove.org.uk/cy

Prydain Oddi FryBritain from Above

The Aerofilms collection

Key aims of the project

• A preservation programme to conserve, digitise and catalogue 95,000 negatives from the earliest part of the collection – 1919 - 1953

• Free online access to digital images via a dedicated website

• Virtual volunteering and outreach activities focused around the historic images

• A programme of exhibitions to celebrate the project and promote the collection

• A publication telling the Aerofilms story to tie in with the exhibitions programme

• Evaluation Strategy and Implementation Plan developed

• Evaluation activities carried out during the project

• Information gathering and analysis

• Project Evaluation Report

Measuring success

Britain from Above website

Britain from Above website - groups

Britain from Above website - adding content

Traffic to the site has exceeded expectations‘It’s been widely more successful than I thought it would be … in terms ofhow many people are looking on the website, you know it is phenomenal

and not something I would have anticipated’ [Stakeholder]

Traffic to the website

A steadily growing, committed user-base

The Activity Plan set out the work to be delivered by the three partners during the project:

– Virtual volunteering– Community group projects– Educational resources and careers events – Events and conferences– Talks and presentations– Publication – Exhibitions and related activities

Britain from Above Activities

Virtual-Volunteers

Locating unidentified images

Virtual-Volunteers

Super-Users From ‘online community’ to ‘community online’ (Kozinet 2010)

Promoting digital inclusion - Piloting the Internet

iTea and Biscuits

Engaging older users - improving web-confidence

Website user:‘A lot of gents my age were all a bit late to the computer age … so [the BfA site] came at the right time with my computer knowledge and using Google and all this business. Everything came together quite well.’

Piloting the Internet - engaging older users

The website successfully captured older users - website use by over 65s increased significantly over time

The website was accessible to older users but…..

• Heavily male dominated

user base

• Less ethnically diverse than

nationally

A diverse audience in some respects,

not in others

Geographically diverse audience with a growing number from overseas

A diverse audience in some respects,

not in others

Online motivational activities

• Feeding traffic to

the site

• Realistic resourcing

required to support

use of social media

Successful use of Twitter

Community Projects

The Lighthouse, Glasgow

Trimsaran, nr Llanelli

RHS Tatton Garden Show

Artlink, West Yorkshire

Careers Day

Exhibition programme

Cardiff Airport

Exhibition-related activities: core to engaging family audiences

~4,500under16s

Diversifying the audience through exhibitions

1 in 10 BME visitors - 5 times the proportionrecorded in web audience

A hub for knowledge sharing and developing interests

Broadening the audience through ‘user-modes’

Broadening the audience through ‘user-modes’

• 10 Year Maintenance and Management Plan sets out the partners commitment to the– Original archive material and the digital

surrogates– Website and content– Continued promotion of the website

• An Aerofilms Management Board will be formed to continue to oversee the management of the collection and website

Legacy and the future

• Visitors found the website through search engines

• Social media drives young, newer audiences

• Recommendation drives older users

A successful mixed marketing campaign

Future use of the website?

Aerofilms: A History of Britain from Above

Publication

Only £15

Angharad Williams

Arweinydd y Tîm Ymgysylltu â'r Cyhoedd, CBHC

Public Engagement Team Leader, RCAHMW

angharad.williams@cbhc.gov.uk / angharad.williams@rcahmw.gov.uk

Prydain Oddi FryBritain From Above

THE AEROFILMS PHOTOGRAPHIC COLLECTION 1919-1953

www.britainfromabove.org.uk/cy