Digitizing collections is a perpetually trending topic in the museum sector, brought forth in part by technological advancements and an increase in screen time for … basically everyone. To be sure, having items in an electronic format allows for broader access and a different kind of preservation. The process of digitizing is not without challenges, but that’s a topic for another day. Right now, let’s look at the benefits of digitizing, including quite a few under-the-radar positives.
Access
Having a digitized collection online means the public can enjoy reduced barriers to access, from geographic to physical to financial. More people will get to see and examine your items — and more closely than they’d be able to in person thanks to high resolution and zoom functions. You can use this kind of digital access to stimulate interest in your museum and boost engagement.
But what about segments of the public you may not have considered, those whose access could particularly benefit your institution: writers, journalists, filmmakers, and marketers. When these groups have better access, opportunity to get your name out there increases.
To fully realize the potential of this newfound access, proper cataloguing of your digital items is paramount. That means using metadata to make everything intuitively searchable. Back-end efforts like this will save time in the long run and allow for “generous interfaces” that let people creatively explore and engage with your collection.
Another group that stands to be well served by digitization is the scholar/researcher. You’ll be enhancing educational opportunities by allowing others to research your collection from anywhere in the world. And that metadata? It means items can be linked in multiple ways, leading scholars to material they may have never found through a physical search. Digitizing will also, of course, reduce staff time and mistakes related to physically retrieving and re-filing requested items.
Real world application: Concordia College in Moorhead, MN has undertaken a project to move 1.7 million species — from plants to insects to birds and fish — from basement shelves to an online collection. Some of the specimens go back to the early 1800s.
Digitizing the ever-growing collection “allows anyone in the state or anyone in the world to have access to these specimens, which previously had been kind of hidden away,” [Tim Whitfeld, collections manager at the Bell Museum in St. Paul, a partner in the project] said. “We’re trying to bring them out into the light and make them much more accessible to everybody that’s interested.” (Source: Minnesota Public Radio News)
Fundraising & Revenue Opportunities
Here’s where museums can begin to think outside the box a little. Digitizing the unique items in your collection opens the door to opportunities in licensing and branding. Since the pandemic, deals between brands and museums to license their cultural IP for use on products (physical or digital) have increased dramatically. An example of that pivot: The Louvre branched out licensing efforts during the pandemic and generated almost $5 million in 2020, compared with $2.9 million in 2019.
Related reads:
Art Galleries and Museums: The Final Frontier of Brand Licensing
Museums v Business: The Growing Market for Cultural Digitization
What’s more, with a library of digital files at your fingertips, you’re ready to launch new marketing campaigns, ads, social posts, etc. And digital fundraising can be effectively enhanced by digital assets. For more on how digital collections can help you fundraise, check out this excellent report from the Smithsonian:
The power of images to evoke emotions and memories can be a powerful driver to give, especially when accompanied by compelling narratives on the reason to give… (Source: Digitizing the Donor Experience: Exploring the Use of Digital Collections to Engage Donors in the Museum Sector)
I recommend reading the full report; the case studies are enlightening, and the entire concept of The Gift Project (starting on page 29) has the future of museums and museum fundraising written all over it. Talk about a novel way to cultivate personal relationships with museum stakeholders.
Exhibition Capabilities
We’ve already pointed out that with digitization, researchers all over the world can make connections that may not be made when limited by physical searches. Well, same goes for a museum’s curatorial endeavors — you’ll use that enhanced ability to find links between potentially forgotten items in a collection to tell new stories. Digitization opens collections up to new combinations of objects and new narrative pathways. As writer Maxene Graze astutely points out:
It is much easier to pull new relationships and ideas from your collection if you’re equipped with data visualization tools and therefore the means to experiment freely with collections. While this is possible with a standard Excel sheet, it is arguably more difficult and time-consuming to find such relationships, as Excel sheets demand more manual work and a lot of uninspiring patience. (Source: Museums Are Going Digital — and Borrowing From Data Viz in the Process)
Real world application: The National Gallery was able to see its 20 most viewed paintings online during lockdown. What could you do with that kind of information? Where could it lead you?
Digitization also helps with multisensory exhibition design and museum event planning. Traditional methods of exhibition have their limitations, like the barrier of a display case or mandated physical distance from an object. Mixing in digital media can offer more interactivity and a way for visitors to get closer, in multiple senses, to what you’re sharing.
You could even digitally display otherwise inaccessible objects, things too fragile to be handled or exposed to various museum conditions. Did you know there is tech that can produce exhibition-quality facsimile prints of fragile documents? This means visitors could still take a look at objects that are too sensitive for long-term display or loan.
No one is trying to replace the authentic experience of viewing cultural heritage items. Think of digitizing as a way to add value to your collection. As you ponder the path to digitization, stay tuned for our upcoming look into the challenges involved and advice for how to tackle those issues.
