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Showing posts from 2012

The Balanced Value Impact Model

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The Balanced Value Impact Model (BVI Model) draws evidence from a wide range of sources to provide a compelling account of the means of measuring the impact of digital resources and using evidence to advocate how change benefits people. The aim is to provide key information and a strong model for the following primary communities of use: the cultural, heritage, academic or creative industries. For the purposes of this Model, the definition of Impact is: The measurable outcomes arising from the existence of a digital resource that demonstrate a change in the life or life opportunities of the community for which the resource is intended. The outcome of this cross disciplinary research is a new and targeted model of Impact Assessment for the primary communities of use identified above. The Balanced Value Impact Model brings together aspects from disparate Impact Assessment communities into a cohesive and logical process for Impact Assessment.

Midnight Running to Explore Cultural Value

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On the 18th August I will be participating in probably the most intriguing midnight work I have ever done. I will be joining the Midnight Runners to explore my Modes of Cultural Value (explained in this previous blog post Cultural Value and Impact ). I am working with Inua Ellams (Writer/graphic arts/poet/performer) and also David Slater (Director at Entelechy Arts) within the Creative Futures programme at Kings Cultural Institute .

Cultural Value and Impact

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In this blog posting I wish to discuss cultural value a little bit and how it can fit into an impact assessment. It is is a follow up posting to this:  A New Approach to Measuring Impact for Digitised Resources: do they change people’s lives? Copyright: Jonas Raeber, Switzerland This is a work in progress - more my notes and queries. I wanted most to get this out there and to get your views, your inputs and your insights. Please comment, your thoughts are valued!

Are online aliases ever justified in academic debate?

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When a sock puppet comes calling, academic excellence is put at risk. My piece published in the Guardian Higher Education Network on the 7th June 2012 . It was interesting to see all the sock puppets who came out to play in the comments section of the piece. Seems like the Golb case is a  cause célèbre  for many out there. I would have responded with some factual corrections but I was suffering from chicken pox at the time this was published and thus hadn't the energy to get my thoughts online at that time.

Supporting culture through charitable gifts - putting ICE in the drink

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Recent news coverage of the UK Government's ill thought through cap on tax relief for private charitable donations made me consider the motivations for giving and the impact of this measure on the GLAM sector.

A New Approach to Measuring Impact for Digitised Resources: do they change people’s lives?

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This is a work in progress - more my notes and queries than a proper paper, stuff will change, references will be added. I wanted most to get this out there and to get your views, your inputs and your insights. Please comment, your thoughts are valued! My recent research with Marilyn Deegan into the value and impact of digitised collections has shown that there is a serious lack of adequate means to assess impact in this sector and thus a lack of significant evidence beyond the anecdotal, number crunching from webometrics or evaluations of outputs rather than outcomes ( http://www.kdcs.kcl.ac.uk/innovation/inspiring.html ). In short, we need better evidence of impact. How has the digital resource delivered a positive change in a defined group of people’s lives or life opportunities?

Owning Your Museum

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I was struck by this interesting video from Glasgow Museum about their resource storage facility and how it is one of the most open and publicly accessible museum storage spaces in the world and the biggest in Europe. See here for more about it . They have over 1.2 million items in their collection and as I noted in my research report into impact it is valued at over £1.4 billion, making it the single biggest fiscal asset held by Glasgow. The Scottish people own this museum, but only 2-3% of it is ever on display at any given time. That's why it is great that they are digitising portions of it so we can gain access to otherwise unseen content. But the physical access to this storage space to see the artefacts is equally important. The materiality of museums and collections cannot and will not be replaced by digital access. Recently I took my kids to the V&A museum and we had a fabulous time in the Sackler Centre and then we roamed the galleries and halls.
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Why I am a Librarian: a tale of toads, magic and little old ladies Swindon Public Library Today is National Libraries Day (#NLD12) ,  so I thought it a good day to reflect on why I am a Librarian even though I am employed as an academic in the Department of Digital Humanities at King's College London. As I stated in the introduction to my book Digital Futures I am a "lapsed librarian" - I have no library or collection to curate and look after. But you can take the boy out of the library, but you can't take the love of libraries out of the boy.

Digital Content Monetisation Conference, London

Digital Content Monetisation Conference, London Implementing monetisation models to create rapid and sustainable digital growth Last week I attended the DCM conference as moderator for an afternoon session on “Monetising through effective DAM and DRM”. It was a great conference and I’d like to thank the organisers for having me and allowing two of our MA DAM students to attend as conference helpers. The tickets were ~£1,400 each so allowing us to attend at no fee was very generous! This blog provides a summary of thoughts provoked by this event.

When Crowdsourcing was called TeleCrofting

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When Crowdsourcing was called TeleCrofting Just after the Millennium I had the opportunity to work with the Shetland Isles Museum and Archives . I specified and installed a complete digitisation studio for the scanning of all the black and white glass plate photographs on the island - all 80,000+ of them. You can see these brilliant photo's here  and I highly recommend the puffin pictures ! One of the things you might notice if you surf your way over there is the rather good (considering the basic interface) subject and index based searching of images available. Searching by Parishes, photographers and detailed subject searching is possible. The 80,000+ glass plates had minimal cataloguing information attached to them. So this detailed indexing was achieved by adding indexing search terms and tagging for each and every photograph. There was not the staffing in the museum to achieve this task in any reasonable timeframe. It was done by the local Shetland population, mainly t