Grappling with Angry Elephants Linda Spurdle and Lucy Blakeman Collections online and the...

Grappling with Angry Elephants

Linda Spurdle and Lucy Blakeman

Collections online and the Collections Management System

2014/15 new BMT website● Bringing together BMAG and Thinktank in a

unified site● Providing a better visit experience

○ Opening times, cafe, what’s on,etc● Bringing collections to the fore - integrating

online collections● Integrating online learning resources● Responsive website - for PC, mobile, tablet

Why collections? Why now?

• Ageing collections websites, no longer able to update, add to or change

• Overtaken by the rise of mobile devices - these sites work best on desktop

• Not integrated with social media• Not how people search for images• Plummeting numbers of visits and visitors

Ageing websites...

Inability to update websites

Not best suited for mobile

BMT responsive website

Falling visitor numbers

Social Media - Facebook

Social Media - Twitter

Social Media - Instagram

BMT collections online

Your Paintings


Google Art Project


Flickr

Social Media Reach

Facebook - with one post an object image can reach more people than in a year on a collections website.

Social Media ReachTwitter - people like images but don’t often follow links.

A life beyond our sites… Frequently unattributed!

People discover via using image search on google etc that never takes them to your site... or just copy from other posts.

BUT...

Interest and enthusiasm

• Social media engagement• Sharing / pinning• Blog posts• Communities of interest• Academic research shared• Genuine excitement at discoveries

Online collections have the potential to reach further than ever.

Collections on new site● Not a digitisation project, aim was to work

with current “web ready” objects on database and build on this later.

● Collections search plus ability to use object information on other relevant pages, making them more discoverable

● Viewable via mobile devices● Sharable via social media● Picture Library details on every object page

Which leads to...

How I gave Lucy a

headache… Problems = grappling with angry elephants!

EEEEEK!

A LOT OF QUESTIONS

???

EMu

New website Website database

Data display issues:

1. there weren’t as many results showing on the new website as there were on either EMu or BMAGiC

2. not all the selected data in EMu was displaying on the website

Data display fixes:Issue 1:● Data in EMu is more recent = more results● Data in BMAGiC is static

Issue 2:● Tick ‘Publish to Internet’● Jazzy bit of API change to Narrative● Further testing and technical wizardry

THE END.

Any questions?

@lspurdle

@BMTMCC

@axiellalm

#EMuconf2015

Grappling with Angry Elephants Linda Spurdle and Lucy Blakeman Collections online and the...

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