Invitation to participate: Benchmarking online collections
We're running a benchmarking project to answer some broad questions about how the online collections of museums and galleries are accessed and used.
We’re now inviting others to take part.
Update: Recruitment for the study has now closed and the Benchmark Report is now available.
We work with many museums and galleries that have done the hard work of digitising their collections and making them available on their websites. That work is often done with the intention of increasing access to those objects and artworks, to increase their value to researchers and the public at large.
However, when it comes to discoverability and usage, we know there’s some uncertainty as to what constitutes 'good' or even 'normal'.
Do you really know how well your online collection is performing?
Are you able to identify where improvements can be made?
What can we learn from the organisations that are already excelling?
At One Further, we’re in the privileged position of having access to website analytics for a great many online collections, and over time we’ve built up a sense of how people discover and use them. For some time now we’ve wanted to do a more systematic study.
So that’s what we’re doing now.
What we’re doing
We’ll be looking at:
The role online collections play in bringing people to an institution’s website (% of sessions & the mix of traffic sources)
The extent to which usage is driven by the most popular object/artwork pages
Where they’re accessed from (% from home country vs international) and how (by device type)
What we’re hoping to achieve
The aim is that the information we uncover will help institutions to make decisions about the management and development of their online collections.
Later this year, we’ll produce a report that details our findings, draws some meaningful comparisons, and provides actionable recommendations to enhance the usage and discoverability of online museum and gallery collections.
Who’s taking part?
So far, the institutions taking part are located in the UK, USA, Australia, New Zealand and Denmark. They include…
ACMI, Amgueddfa Cymru, Art UK, Ashmolean, Bristol Museums, British Museum, Cleveland Museum of Art, Henry Moore Foundation, Museum of London, MOCA, National Museums Liverpool, National Museums Scotland, National Portrait Gallery, Royal Academy of Arts, Royal Collections Trust, Royal Museums Greenwich, Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, Spencer Museum of Art, Tate, Te Papa, The Whitney, and the V&A.
…plus a growing list of others. If you’d like to take part too, then read on.
What does it cost?
Nothing at all.
How can my museum or gallery take part?
Recruitment for the study has now closed. Subscribe to the newsletter and we’ll let you know when the results are available.
If you’d just like to hear about the results of the study then please sign up to our mailing list or follow us on your preferred social network.