=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-1336/paper2
|storemode=property
|title=Reinventing the Academic Museum: Studying the Digital Transformations at Glasgow's University Museums
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1336/paper2.pdf
|volume=Vol-1336
}}
==Reinventing the Academic Museum: Studying the Digital Transformations at Glasgow's University Museums==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1336/paper2.pdf
Reinventing the Academic Museum: Studying
the Digital Transformations at Glasgow's
University Museums
Maria Economou
HATII & Hunterian Museum, University of Glasgow
maria.economou@glasgow.ac.uk
Abstract The Hunterian is Scotland’s oldest public museum
holding large and diverse collections of national significance. These
were built on the founding bequest of Dr William Hunter (1718 -
1783), a pioneering obstetrician, teacher and passionate collector,
and reflect his Enlightenment interests. The Hunterian has just
embarked on an ambitious project that will allow it to reunite the
collections and employ new technologies to increase their
accessibility. In partnership with Glasgow City Council, Glasgow
Life and the National Library of Scotland, it will co-locate its
collections at the Kelvin Hall, one of Glasgow’s historic buildings.
A new portal will bring the collections of the three partners
together. The paper focuses on a project, which will study the use of
these online collections and large data sets for teaching, research
and public engagement with diverse communities. The project will
investigate how these developments affect the way different user
groups (students, researchers, wider educational audiences and
communities) engage with the online collections and the potential
for new types of interactions. It will also draw guidelines and
discuss the wider issues arising from this case study about how
online access and digital technologies are reshaping out
understanding of rich and diverse cultural material.
1 Introduction
The Hunterian is Scotland’s oldest public museum and holds large and diverse
collections, which have been recognized as being of National Significance. They
were built on the founding bequest of Dr William Hunter’s (1718 - 1783), a
pioneering obstetrician and teacher with a passion for collecting, and reflect his
Enlightenment interests [Kep07]. They include scientific instruments, Roman
artefacts from the Antonine Wall, natural and life science holdings, Hunter’s
own anatomical teaching collection, numismatics, ethnographic objects from
Captain Cook’s Pacific voyages and an extensive art collection with the largest
holdings of James Whistler artworks and important works of Charles Rennie
Mackintosh.
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Figure 1. Portrait of William Hunter by Allan Ramsay, 1764-65
Figure 2. Part of the Hunterian’s rich and diverse collections
The Hunterian is currently undergoing an interesting period of change, which is
affecting not only the University but also the whole cultural sector in Scotland
and beyond. It has recently created a new Student Engagement Officer post
(2012) and a Museum Studies Lectureship jointly funded with the School of
Humanities in the College of Arts (2013). These developments have increased
the opportunities for engagement with the collections [GF12] and have helped to
re-position the Hunterian as a an ‘academic museum’ service in line with the
University of Glasgow’s and wider UK higher education drivers. They are also
in line with the organisation’s strategy to place the Hunterian at the heart of the
University, to expand the use of the collections for teaching and research,
strengthen links with all University Colleges and foster collaborations and
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partnerships outside the University. The Hunterian learning offer for public
engagement and knowledge exchange includes opportunities for getting
involved in various programmes:
• MUSE (Museum University Student Educators) guides (all students)
(currently 55);
• Hunterian Associates programme (Postgraduate research students) (15 per
annum);
• MSc in Museum Studies – Hunterian Exhibition Development course part
of the MSc programme;
• Other work placements, internships (e.g. Museums Galleries Scotland
interns), fieldwork.
2 The Kelvin Hall development 2014-17
It has just embarked on an ambitious project that will allow it to reunite the
collections, employ new technologies to increase access to them and re-create
the contemporary equivalent of the Museum of the Enlightenment. In
partnership with Glasgow City Council, Glasgow Life and the National Library
of Scotland, the Hunterian will co-locate its collections, currently dispersed in
various locations in the main campus and beyond, at the Kelvin Hall, one of
Glasgow’s historic buildings. It has managed to secure external funds from the
Heritage Lottery Fund, together with the University’s and the partners’ support
for Phase 1. This will bring together civic, university and national heritage
collections. As part of the project, a new Hunterian Collections Study and
Research Centre will be built which will offer new opportunities for object-
based teaching, research and engagement with diverse communities.
Figure 3. The Kelvin Hall – model after Phase 1 of the project will be
completed.
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A new portal will also be created bringing the collections of the three partners
together (The Hunterian, Glasgow Life Social History collections, and Scottish
Screen Archive holdings) and is currently being designed. Furthermore, the
Hunterian has just transferred its collections’ data from the old in-house system
to the new KE-Emu one, which allows, among others, more sophisticated
recording of collections information, grouping and linking of objects, recording
multimedia and other interpretative information and creating digital narratives.
3 The research project
All these developments make the Hunterian a unique case study for
museological study and the understanding of the use of new technologies for
capturing, sharing, and re-shaping collections information not only for Scotland
but the rest of the world and are worth investigating in greater depth. The
research project will investigate how all these changes will transform the ways
of engaging with the collections and the effect they will have on different user
groups:
a) University of Glasgow students and wider learning body.
b) University of Glasgow and global research community.
c) Wider learning communities & groups (life-long learners, schoolchildren,
families).
d) Cultural tourism audiences.
The study will examine the different user requirements of each group and how
they currently interact with the collections both online and onsite. It will also
study the effect of particular design and interface choices in the portal and how
these affect access to the information and ways of exploring the objects. It will
investigate the information pathways different groups take through the large
collections data set and what they make of the information they encounter.
The project also offers a unique opportunity for involving the students in aspects
of the research and also the other way round, feeding directly the results of the
research in updated teaching components, particularly to the very successful
MSc in Museum Studies course.
Figure 4. Student engagement opportunities at the Hunterian
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The methodology will include interviews and focus groups with the different
user groups as well as cultural heritage staff (from the Hunterian, Library,
Special Collections and Archive Services, the other Kelvin Hall partners). It will
also include observation and visitor tracking and use of the ‘think aloud’ method
when using online resources. Finally, it will also examine the use of computer
logging for automatically recording users choices when using the online portal
and other Hunterian resources.
4 Potential for collaboration and wider impact of project
Although the project focuses initially on the specific case study of the
Hunterian, it as potential for opening up to other organisations interested in
investigate access to large diverse collections of data by different groups. The
digital revolution is constantly changing and re-shaping citizens and
communities interact with memory institution and cultural data in general,
opening up new opportunities and challenges for research. It also raises complex
issues about authorship, responsibility, curation, privacy, identity and security,
to mention only a few. The project will investigate how the creation of these
online tools and the merging of large collections from different cultural
organisations is transforming the way of organising, interpreting and using
knowledge.
The results of the project will be of significant benefit not only to individuals
and cultural organisations, but also to policy makers, businesses and creative
industries.
References
[GF12] Gaimster, D. and Fletcher, R., 2012. ‘Using collections to
enhance the student experience: developing a new learning
offer; in Stefanie S. Jandl (ed.) A handbook for academic
museums, Edinburgh: Museums Etc, pp. 38-53.
[Kep07] Keppie, L. J. F., 2007. William Hunter and the Hunterian
Museum in Glasgow, 1807-2007. Edinburgh : Edinburgh
University Press.
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