[can-talk] Museum Information Management - Course Outline and Registration Deadline Extended!

Please excuse cross postings.

A draft outline is now available for this upcoming course with Scott
Sayre and Kris Wetterlund offered through the Cultural Resource
Management Program at the University of Victoria

MUSEUM INFORMATION MANAGEMENT

Museums hold a wealth of diverse information that is increasingly
recognized as a key institutional and community resource. Recognizing
the dimensions, value, and potential of this information and planning
for its strategic integration and management provide the focus for this
new immersion course. Whether you work with collections, research,
programming, marketing and audience development, or management within a
museum or heritage setting, this course strengthens your ability to:

* define the types of information managed across your institution
* recognize its current and potential strategic value to the
  institution and to the communities it serves
* appreciate the role of computer and Web-based information
  systems to organize, process, and access information
* identify opportunities to integrate information to enhance
  its use and value, and to generate innovative perspectives
* apply principles of strategic planning to identify information
  management opportunities and strategies
* identify resources (human and other) required to accomplish
  your strategic goals 


DRAFT OUTLINE SUMMARY

Monday
Museum Information: The New Frontier
*	The importance of information management in the long-term 
	success of an institution. Expanding the definition, expanding
	the scope of museum information
*	Presentations/Discussion: Museum Information Surveys
*	Assessing the current and potential internal and 
	external audiences for museum information
*	Lab: Individual project brainstorming

Tuesday
Taking the Plunge: Developing a Project Plan
*	Developing a museum information plan - assignment
*	Lab: Surveying Online Digitization Projects
*	Digitization, advantages and challenges of converting the
	physical into digital
*	Establishing digitization project requirements 
*	Planning and budgeting for digitization projects
*	Lab: Developing a museum information project plan
*	Case study

Wednesday
Standards, Systems and Practices: Developing an Institution-wide
Perspective
*	Museum functions and the information they rely-on and generate 
*	Common current practices and roles in museum information
management
*	Collection and Digital Asset Management, what goes where and how
to decide
*	Standards, what are they? Who needs them and why? Where do they 
	come from? Common standards by function 
*	Guest Presenter: Museum Information Standards
*	Data conversion, when is it needed and how it is accomplished 
*	Lab: Developing a museum information project plan

Thursday
Collaboration and Integration: Defining a Resources Full Potential
*	Pros and cons of collaboration
*	Methodologies for access, pros and cons
*	Lab: Exploring collaborative online projects
*	Considering copyright and the obstacles it can present
*	Advances and challenges of information integration 
*	The role of Content Management Systems
*	Guest Presenter: Content Management Demonstration
*	Case Study: ArtsConnectEd, connecting disparate resources
*	Reuse and repurposing, new uses for existing resources
*	Lab: Developing a museum information project plan - Work Period
#3
 
Friday
Beyond Text and Images: Developing and Maintaining Multimedia Resources
*	Developing rich media project from museum information resources
*	Surveying opportunities for project development
*	Case study: Restoration Online, Chinese Meeting Hall two
projects 
	with multiple purposes
*	Lab: Exploring online rich media projects
*	Planning and budgeting for rich media projects
*	Digital archiving, strategies for preserving cultural history 
*	Lab: Developing a museum information project plan 

Saturday
Making Your Work Work: Testing and Evaluation
*	User-testing and evaluation strategies 
*	Case study on usability testing
*	Lab: Web site usability testing
*	Designing and maintaining a sustainable information strategy 
*	Presentations/Discussion - museum information plans 
*	Questions and concluding discussion

Comments from past participants...

"It was very useful for focusing my attention in a systematic way in
developing a project plan... I will implement this plan in real life."

"I liked the final project of a complete project proposal (very useful).
The emphasis focusing on the user and how information can be shared.  I
learned a lot about information formatting access and sharing."

"Scott and Kris were very good instructors."

Dates: September 17 - 22 register soon to confirm a space
Location: University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia
Fee: $620 CDN, includes $560 tuition and $60 materials Course
information: http://www.uvcs.uvic.ca/crmp/courses/ha488n.aspx

You can participate on a credit or non-credit basis - for more
information on this course and others offered in the Fall of 2008,
please visit our website at http://www.uvcs.uvic.ca/crmp

Cultural Resource Management Program
Division of Continuing Studies
University of Victoria
T: (250) 721-6119
crmp at uvcs.uvic.ca
http://www.uvcs.uvic.ca/crmp/