Revisiting Collections pilot project 2009-10

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Revisiting Collections is an innovative collections development methodology which provides museums with a fresh approach to engaging their local community with collections, and to enabling the creation of user-generated information, knowledge and interpretation. Developed by the Collections Trust and extensively piloted in England, it has the potential to help museums develop new audiences and align their product development to meet the needs of those audiences, thus taking Museums Galleries Scotland a major step forward in delivering on its priorities of product, audience and business development.

The aim of the pilot project was to encourage MGS’s member museums to revisit their collections towards the wider goals of connecting with communities, developing new audiences, and aligning their product development to meet the needs of those new audiences; effectively broadening the appeal and long term usefulness of their collections.

East Lothian Council Museums Service
East Lothian used the Revisiting Collections Methodology to develop the community engagement element of the new John Gray Centre’s Museum display, paying particular attention to the designated communities display. The idea was to showcase the different ways in which East Lothian residents have come together, initially focusing on local Friendly societies and, specifically, the Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffalos (R.O.A.B). They conducted three focus groups with museum volunteers, high school students and members of the represented community and asked participants to respond to a select group of relevant objects. Their intention is to incorporate participants’ responses into their interpretation of the collection for the museum display, scheduled to open in 2012.

Museum of the University of St Andrews (MUSA)
MUSA planned to use the methodology to discover anecdotal and new information about various student traditions and iconic images relating to the University of St Andrews, in order to develop the ‘Living and Learning’ gallery. The project was intended to be a cross-over between the Learning & Access and Collections departments, with tangible outputs to include improved collections records embedded within a new collections management system, a small exhibition in the foyer of their new open access store and revised interpretive material in response to visitor feedback. Staff conducted focus groups with current students and alumni but owing to the nature of their project, found that participants focused less on objects and more on traditions, posing the interesting challenge of how to capture emotional and narrative responses.

Almond Valley Heritage Trust
Almond Valley’s project highlights a different approach that can be taken to using the Revisiting Collections toolkit. In their case, the methodology was used to underpin and enrich an ongoing programme of work to augment the Scottish shale oil industry collection records, towards achieving Recognition for this significant collection. Collection records were to be reviewed and augmented through referencing existing collections documentation and published resources; whilst additional information, where required, was to be sought from individuals with expert knowledge of the industry and other aspects of local history, including ex-industry employees, authors and researchers. In practice, the Collections development officer found that much of the data was enhanced through consulting with staff and visiting researchers on an ad hoc basis. In addition, a formal interview was arranged with one of the trustees, a former employee of BP with a particular interest in the shale oil industry. In this instance, use of the methodology was integrated effectively into Almond Valley’s everyday collections work and will hopefully prove most useful in terms of providing a framework in which to capture new information as they continue with the project.

Scottish Railway Preservation Society (SRPS)
Although unable to complete their project this year, the Scottish Railway Preservation Society hoped to use Revisiting Collections to engage community support to research and capture local information through focus group sessions. This information was intended to inform a temporary exhibition demonstrating the impact of railways on the history of the town and its people. A joint project with Almond Valley Heritage Trust was also under discussion, to expand the capacity of their open-source collections management software to meet the needs of the project, enabling improved retention of collections knowledge in a digital format for future access and use.

Participants generally felt that Revisiting Collections was adaptable and sustainable, as once familiar with the methodology it can be easily replicated for future projects.

All agreed that the most successful aspect of Revisiting Collections was engaging with new groups in the communities. Those that were involved enjoyed playing a role in a wider project, were appreciative of the opportunity to participate in behind-the-scenes and object-handling sessions, and felt heartened that their contribution had been acknowledged. East Lothian’s analysis of their evaluation feedback returned the results that 100% of the participants (including staff) felt that they learnt something knew from the project, and 100% of focus group participants felt that the Museums Service had learnt something from them. In addition, staff felt that they were better equipped to develop new exhibition-planning methods and to respond to user-needs, and encouragingly, felt that it had had a positive impact on perception of the sector as a whole.

Overall, participants were most enthusiastic about the opportunity their projects provided for genuine cross-departmental working as Learning & Access and curatorial and collections staff came together. At the end of the project feeling was that they had gained a greater awareness of the value of different perspectives.

The aspect of the pilot which participants found most challenging was the capturing of data. Templates for data capture were provided in the toolkit; however it was generally felt it was confusing to work out what fields should be used, and that they could be restrictive. The Collections Trust intended these spreadsheets as a tool to help participants break their data down into searchable fields and consequently they cover all possible units of information – participants are intended to fill out only those fields that are relevant to their experience. However, how these sheets are used could be reconsidered in the future as many participants found it more useful to develop their own methods for data capture. Both MUSA and East Lothian found it helpful to amend or add to the existing supporting documentation – MUSA, for example, developed their own evaluation framework to focus on planned outcomes for participants, staff and the unit as a whole; whilst East Lothian learnt to tailor the format of their focus groups to the needs of their audiences and developed separate participant evaluation forms accordingly. Practical aspects of using the toolkit could therefore be tweaked for future projects. In addition, the issue of how to record intangible information – i.e. non-object related and emotional responses – is still unresolved and is something that the toolkit might look to address in future, as it entailed an interesting discussion amongst participants surrounding the merits of preserving memories as “objects”.

Revisiting Collections methodology encourages curators to think laterally about collections, which is then informed by engaging with people who bring a different perspective on collections. As the Revisiting Collections methodology is increasingly recognised as a valuable collections development tool, it is important that MGS continues to support our members in enabling greater community involvement in core-collections activity, in line with the UK-wide sector.

Encouragingly, each of the pilot museums are committed to using the Revisiting Collections methodology in future projects – MUSA, are planning to use the results of the pilot project to re-create labels and improve the interpretive materials in their galleries. Long-term, they expect to use the methodology to plan their exhibition programme. East Lothian Council museums service plans the continued use of Revisiting Collections as their standard formula for interpretation of the biennial communities display in the new John Gray Centre. Finally, Almond Valley Heritage Trust’s Collections Development Officer has found that consulting with external specialists has added value to the work already being done to enhance their collections records and in future, where time and resources permit, would hope to consider external input as a matter of course when accessioning new objects into the collection; whilst SRPS hope that they will be able to complete their project in the near future.

Future collections development projects might look to focus on complementing the existing toolkit with the production of advice resources for our members, drawing specifically on the experience of the Scottish pilotees and their feedback.

MGS have been working with Collections Trust to promote Revisiting Collections on both our own website and Collections Link, but we hope to go one step further for 2010-11 and will be running an additional training workshop in how to use the toolkit, facilitated by a Collections Trust consultant. More information will be available shortly on the Collections development pages of our website, but in the meantime if you have any questions or would like to register interest in attending the workshop, then please contact the Collections Development Manager.

MGS has completed an evaluation report of the pilot project and intends to monitor activity surrounding Revisiting Collections for the coming year, to enrich the training workshop and to inform future MGS collections development projects.

To download the toolkit and accompanying resources, please go to the Collections Link website or if you have any questions about Revisiting Collections please contact the Collections Development Manager.

Categories
Collections
Access

Project Start
1st Sep 2009

Project End
1st Mar 2010

Published
10th Jun 2010

Who Led?
Collections Trust

Who else took part?

East Lothian Council Museums Service, Museum of the University of St Andrews, Almond Valley Heritage Trust, Scottish Railway Preservation Society.

Who Paid?
Each participating organisation was offered a small amount of funding from MGS towards their project