Increasing the digital literacy of museum professionals: digital innovation in the museum sector

Abstract

As digital technologies increasingly shape the way we work, play and learn,museums are faced with the challenge of strategically responding to the demandsof digital culture. This thesis argues that small, digitally conservative museumsrisk being left behind if they do not tackle this challenge. While there is a largebody of literature on museums and digital technologies, little has been written ondeveloping the foundations that support digital practice in museums. As such thefocus of this thesis is on those museums taking their first digital steps, opening aTwitter account, or thinking about creating a new job role, with a mainly digitalremit. Furthermore this thesis questions the role of museum studies as anacademic discipline in supporting the development and implementation of digitaltechnologies and emerging practices within small museums.

Taking the museum sector in Northern Ireland as a context specific scope thisinvestigation proposes a model of museum studies as critical praxis, and firstlydefines barriers to digital practice within the museum sector in Northern Irelandand secondly designs practice based responses to disrupt these barriers, namely:skills, confidence and a risk adverse culture. Through critical praxis thisinvestigation proposes context specific models for digital skills development,research and development, and digital literacy training for emerging museumprofessionals. Taking a methodologically inventive approach, practice basedresearch (the development and implementation of events, training and sitespecific research and development prototypes), audits of policy and practice, andemail interviews are used to form a mixed methods approach within thisresearch. This thesis demonstrates that skills and confidence are more importantthan funding and access to technology when it comes to developing a moreprogressive approach to digital practice in small, digitally conservative museums.

Date of Award	Jan 2014
Original language	English
Sponsors	Department for Employment and Learning, Northern Ireland
Supervisor	Elizabeth Crooke (Supervisor), ANTHONY MCCANN (Supervisor), Alan Hook (Supervisor) & Ian Thatcher (Supervisor)