Initiated in January 2015, the Scottish Network on Digital Cultural Resources Evaluation brings together academics from a variety of disciplines and professionals from Scotland’s key cultural and heritage organisations to investigate the use of digital cultural resources by diverse user groups. The two-year project is coordinated by Dr Maria Economou, Joint Curator/Lecturer in Museum Studies, based at HATII in the School of Humanities, and The Hunterian, and is funded through an award of £19,875 from the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
The network explores and analyses how digital cultural resources impact learning, research and community engagement within cultural heritage organisations. What is the impact of these resources, and how can this be quantified and recorded in order to help organisations use them to their fullest potential?
The project’s main case study is the re-development of the Kelvin Hall in Glasgow, which is due to open in 2016. This mixed-use space will house the collections of Glasgow Life, The Hunterian of the University of Glasgow and the Scottish Screen Archive of the National Library of Scotland. The network will consider the applicability of digital technologies to the Kelvin Hall project, and also study the characteristics of Glasgow’s wider cultural landscape. By using a variety of methodologies and perspectives drawn from museology, computing science, the digital humanities and the social sciences, the project places Glasgow’s cultural offerings within a wider, international discussion concerning how and why digital cultural resources are used by both cultural heritage organisations and their diverse audiences.
Over the two years of the project, network partners will organise a variety of events including workshops, a knowledge exchange forum for cultural professionals, an international symposium and a public open day for exploring the digital collections at the newly-opened Kelvin Hall.
Contact details and links
Email: ScotDigiCH@gmail.com
Twitter: @ScotDigiCH
University of Glasgow webpage:
http://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/humanities/research/hatiiresearch/projects/currentresearchprojects
Scottish Network on Digital Cultural Resources Evaluation 