Museums sector: on the road to digital transformation! !
On October 5, 2018, the “Digital Strategy in Museums” professional day was held at INHA. On the program: exchanges between directors and museum professionals, sharing experiences of several institutions such as the Louvre, the National Museums, the Museum of Toulouse …
For Jean-Michel Loyer-Hascoët, Director General of Heritage, “nowadays, it is a commonplace to say that digital is everywhere”. More than ever, the museums sector needs to adapt to the new uses of its public. For this, their digital transformation must be taken in hand by all of its agents.
How to make it possible ?
1/ By all services,
In an institution, Digital transformation is everyone’s business. It must be done in every aspect of the museum: communication, mediation, ticketing, human resources … Indeed, it is necessary to create a common digital culture within the institution and in all its teams. For example, Françoise Banat-Berger, director of the National Archives, showed how the institution has been able to support staff in their digital transition, in particular by providing a rise in skills. She explains that the missions of the archivists are the same but the technical specifics of the natively digital archives differ from those of the paper archives. In this case, it is necessary to accompany the staff, to question its habits, to learn to treat new things: there must be a specific training plan.
2/ By an individualized approach of each museum,
In England, it is thought that we must restore the confidence of organizations not on a large scale but one by one. Dr. Ross Parry from the University of Leicester and Dr. Sally-Anne Barnes from the University of Warwick were present to talk about the One by One project : a study on mapping digital skills and professionals in English museums in order to understand the conditions required for digital skills to develop in an institution. Their ultimate goal is to build a single national document for organizations to refer to. A document that could be transposable in French institutions.
3/ Through collaboration between the services,
Museums must promote a global digital approach. For that, it is no longer necessary to integrate digital through a case-by-case or opportunity but to create a real digital strategy. For the CMN, its strategy leads to an internal transformation of trades and practices. At the Louvre, a digital committee has been set up to bring together all the directorates of the institution, with the aim of coordinating the strategy. Marion Oechsli, financial, legal and resources director at the Louvre Museum, explains that this gives a global vision of all the museum’s projects.
To adapt to a new audience
The public practices change (👉 to see our computer graphic on the subject).
Today, the public is informed and connected, it demands from you a new strategy. Digital implies a change in the relationship between works and visitors. The web becomes an extension of your museum through social networks but also by the dematerialization of your collections and digital tools. The online visibility of your works is a way to arouse the desire of the surfer to visit your museum.
In summary, today, the works must be inside but also outside the walls. It has to be noted that a digital tool doesn’t compete with your collections, it comes to complete them. If you are afraid of a drop in attendance and sales, consider rather the opposite: a digital tool allows a mediation in the museum but also outside of it and can make the reader wants to go there. The Alfred-Danicourt Museum (Péronne) has even benefited from other advantages such as an increase in loan applications and private donations.
And if you think you don’t have the necessary skills to face the digital transformation, read the article by Correspondances Digitales “ Numérique : quelles compétences nécessaires pour les professionnels des musées”. It will give you solutions to work around some barriers 😉.
