Specification for new website: National Jazz Archive

Spring 2012

Contact Samuel Fieldhouse

National Jazz Archive Loughton Library

Loughton Essex

IG10 1HD 020 8502 4701

sfieldhouse@nationaljazzarchive.org.uk

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Contents Contents  ..............................................................................................................  2  National Jazz Archive  ........................................................................................  3  Who we are  ..........................................................................................................................................................  3  What we do  ..........................................................................................................................................................  3  Our mission statement  ...................................................................................................................................  3  Key words that describe us  ........................................................................................................................  3  

The Story of British Jazz  ...................................................................................  4  What is the Story of British Jazz?  ............................................................................................................  4  

Website basics  ...................................................................................................  7  Our existing website  .......................................................................................................................................  7  Domains that we own  .....................................................................................................................................  7  New website domain  ......................................................................................................................................  7  Hosting  ...................................................................................................................................................................  7  Accessibility  .........................................................................................................................................................  7  

Budget & Implementation  .................................................................................  8  Content and Features  .......................................................................................  9  Main areas of the new site  ...........................................................................................................................  9  Copy  ......................................................................................................................................................................  10  Specific needs, content and features  .................................................................................................  11  

Searchable Catalogue  .................................................................................................................................  11  CMS  .......................................................................................................................................................................  12  Social media integration  ............................................................................................................................  12  Discussion Forum  ..........................................................................................................................................  12  Transitioning content from www.jazzprofessional.com  ..........................................................  12  Visual representation of the Story of British Jazz  .......................................................................  12  Media  ....................................................................................................................................................................  12  Link to TownsWeb’s DocView  ...............................................................................................................  13  

Audience  ...........................................................................................................  14  Our target audience  ......................................................................................................................................  14  Examples  ............................................................................................................................................................  14  Three things we want our visitors to know  ......................................................................................  15  Actions we want visitors to take  ............................................................................................................  15  

Design  ................................................................................................................  16  The mood and feel of our new website  .............................................................................................  16  Our  existing  website  ......................................................................................................................................  16  Websites that are similar in function to how we envisage our new website:  ................  16  Websites we like the design of:  .............................................................................................................  16  Branding  .............................................................................................................................................................  18  

Logos  ....................................................................................................................................................................  18  Colour  ...................................................................................................................................................................  19  Style guide queues  .......................................................................................................................................  19  Other Logos  ......................................................................................................................................................  19  

Returning your proposal  .................................................................................  20  Apendix  ..............................................................................................................  21  

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National Jazz Archive

Who we are Founded in 1988, the National Jazz Archive is the specialist repository for the history of Jazz in the UK in addition to the USA and Europe. Our holdings include books, periodicals and journals, photographs, personal papers, ephemera and a small number of objects. We are a registered charity, number 327894.

What we do The Archive acts as a research centre for the history of Jazz in the UK. There is no other facility in the UK that offers the extensive collections that can be found at the National Jazz Archive. While the Archive exists to help researchers, students, the media and the general enthusiast, one of its shortcomings is its location. Based at Loughton in Essex, just inside the M25 the Archive is easily reached from central London, however it is not easily accessible for those further afield. To improve access, the Archive has been awarded a substantial grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund. The grant will enable the digitisation of a substantial proportion of the collection as well as the creation of a catalogue of the holdings of the Archive to be used for educational purposes.

Our mission statement To inspire and share the story of Jazz in the UK.

Key words that describe us

Blues

Jazz

Music Archive Performance

History Research

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The Story of British Jazz

What is the Story of British Jazz? The Story of British Jazz is the title of the National Jazz Archive’s Heritage Lottery funded project to inspire and share the Story of British Jazz. The project aims to create a website that will be the one-stop-shop for learning about the Story of British Jazz. When the application for funding was submitted to the Heritage Lottery Fund, the following criteria was given as key areas for the new website:

• Update the NJA’s profile and increase public awareness about its collections through creating a new vibrant website that will package Jazz content to a variety of different users and deliver the Story of British Jazz.

• Imagery on the website, posters and leaflets will be diverse and include BME images.

• The new website will engage users with exciting and informative visual and aural presentations.

• The site will: o offer educational resources. o be used for enquiries and browsing and obtaining digitised material. o be well linked to and from other Jazz and appropriate archive sites. o offer a forum which is membership protected. o enable staff to blog about their activities to encourage community

engagement with the Archive’s activities. The Story of British Jazz has four key elements: 1) Watershed Moments 2) Social and Cultural Dimensions 3) Places 4) People 1. Watershed Moments This is a summary of watershed moments in British Jazz. As a timeline that focuses on musical history it may form a spine around which to tell the Story of British Jazz. 1885 – 1920 The earliest years of Jazz-influenced music in Britain. The ‘official’ arrival of Jazz in Britain with the (American) ‘Original Dixieland Jazz Band’ at the London Hippodrome. 1920s The development of Jazz in Britain under the aural tutelage of American Jazz on record. The emergence of the first British Jazz stars (Nat Gonella/Spike Hughes).

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1932-33 The arrival in Britain of influential American Jazz legends including Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and subsequent visitors including Benny Carter, Fats Waller, Coleman Hawkins and Garland Wilson. The rise to fame of British dances bands with strong Jazz input (Lew Stone/Ambrose/Ray Noble). The influence of the BBC. 1939-49 The consolidation of Swing-based Jazz during the war years leading to: The post-war dual (and frequently duelling!) strand of young musicians who either (a) espoused the harmonic revolutions of ‘bebop’ (modern Jazz) or (b) looked back to the ground-rules of authentic New Orleans Jazz (as played in the 1910s/20s) amid the ‘New Orleans Revival’. 1950s The parallel development of these two rival movements, climaxing (for the Revivalists) in the hit-parading ‘Trad Boom’ (1959-61) and for the modernists, the intellectual progress towards ‘avant-garde’ Jazz by 1960. 1962 The revolution of Merseymania on rock music and the rise of the Beatles & Rolling Stones which comprehensively dismissed Jazz from the central focus of popular music, its culture and its venues. 1968 The Arts Council of Great Britain recognised Jazz as an art form worthy of their support with a composers’ bursary to the late Graham Collier. 1970s The emergence of free Jazz and Jazz fusion incorporating aspects of rock music (bands like Pink Floyd and Yes) . 1980s The ‘new wave’ of Jazz performers from the 1980s (Courtney Pine, Steve Williamson, Dave O’Higgins et al). 1991 The inauguration of Britain’s first (short lived) Jazz radio station ‘Jazz FM’ and its successors. The 21st Century Jazz continues to develop with new influences and performers contributing to the story. The Portico Quartet, Hiromi, Soweto Kinch and others continue to drive Jazz into the 21st Century.

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2. The Social and Cultural Dimension This is a summary of social and cultural topics surrounding the Story. These elements might be built up by university Outreach Partners, sharing publications or encouraging student assignments. The pulses of liberalisation / repression of social mores that enabled improvisational and expressive music and dance to catch hold in British youth culture. The intensifying influence of American culture throughout the 20th Century, especially in relation to the influx of GIs in the Second World War followed by the exposure to US music and film in post-war televisual media. The involvement of Afro-Caribbean people in the development of Jazz and the role of Jazz in bypassing social segregation. The input of Jazz into the evolution of British musical theatre and TV entertainment. Waves of migration to the UK and an increasingly globalised culture, which is generating a fusion of diverse musical styles, often with Jazz a strong element. 3. Places This dimension is about the locations where Jazz has thrived (particular venues, societies or colleges, for example). It might be told through: Investigations of particular venues where Jazz has been played in Britain (such as Oxford Street’s 100 Club), whereby fans and students restage historic events or record venues before they change. Investigations of local Jazz musicians and groups, whereby project participants make oral recordings of older musicians who may be lesser known but still important. Enabling local Jazz clubs and societies to tell their own story and to upload their ephemera such as programmes or posters. Tracing connections with other places, for example, links with locations that are significant in the US or Europe. 4. People This dimension is about the people who have made British Jazz. Not only as a musician but as an enabler through the roles of producer, teacher, club manager, journalist etc. The NJA collections are very much geared around people, so this dimension might be told through digitisation and online description of NJA collections, led by NJA archivists and volunteers, cross-referencing to Places, Time (Watershed Moments) and Themes. Also important to this project and mentioned above in the Places dimension: Oral history projects led by partners, whereby young people / students interview older musicians and / or visit and record venues and events closely connected to individual musicians and other individuals significant to the music.

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Website basics

Our existing website Our existing website www.nationaljazzarchive.org.uk

Domains that we own www.nationaljazzarchive.co.uk www.nationaljazzarchive.org.uk www.jazzprofessional.com

New website domain The new website will replace the existing website at www.nationaljazzarchive.org.uk Our intention is to have all other domains redirecting to the main National Jazz Archive URL.

Hosting We would like the contract holder to organise hosting for the new website and advise us on requirements and costs. Our preference is to use ‘green hosting’ where the energy for the servers is provided by renewable energy sources.

Accessibility The new website will meet all relevant accessibility standards and enable communication with a range of under-represented groups through its inclusive design. It will meet W3C WAI and PAS 78 accessibility standards.

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Budget & Implementation The project does not have a fixed budget but we wish to seek the best value possible with a fixed quote. We do not expect the total costs to exceed that stated unless strong justification can be given, for example, the inclusion of specific content and features. All costs are ex VAT. Website build, development and deployment £9000 Hosting and domain registration £300 per annum SEO and promotion £300 Web copywriting £2000 The new website should be live and viewable by the public by January 2013.

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Content and Features

Main areas of the new site Our intention is that the user should be able to get to where they want to go within three clicks. Primarily, users will be visiting the site to search the catalogue, find out about opening hours and browse teaching resources. The landing page should include:

• Twitter feed of latest tweets • Latest news/events • RSS feed from blog/news/etc… • Links to how to get there, donations • Latest video/sound recording • Upcoming events • Contact details • Media from Flickr and YouTube/Podcasts/examples of digital content, etc… • We would also like to investigate pay per click advertising on the landing

page. We are more than happy to accept the input of the designer on the layout and structure of the site; the illustration below is simply a suggestion.

 

Landing  Page  

Learning  Resources  

Early  Years  

Key  Stage  1/2  

Keystage  3/4  

GCSE  &  A  Level  

Lesson  plans/Resourses/etc  

Reasearch  

Search  Catalogue  

Search  Tios  

External  link  to  Townsweb  

DocView  page    Research  Assistance  

Events  

 Buy  tickets(?)  

The  Archive  

Visit   Donate  

Financial/link  to  CAF/Paypal  

Material  Donations  

History  (of  the  Archive)  

Jazz  Stories    

Read,  Watch  &  Listen  

(interactive  timeline?  /  Flash?)  

Videos  

Oral  Histories  &  Interviews  

Galleries/feed  from  digitial  content?/Flickr?  User  contributed?  

The  Story  of  British  Jazz  Timeline?  Interactive?  

Contact  

Team  Blog  

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Copy  Some copy will need to be moved from the Jazz Professional website. This may include, but is not limited to:

• Interviews • Profiles • History

For this purpose we will require the support of a web copywriter. We are looking for the successful designer to lead on the design implementation of this information. We would like the developer to take the lead on whether this information is shown as pages of copy, an interactive timeline or in another medium.

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Specific needs, content and features

Searchable Catalogue A major part of the contract is to create a searchable database of information from the Archive’s catalogue. The Archive uses the CALM software for cataloguing the holdings of the archive. http://www.axiell.co.uk/calm It is the intention to make this catalogue searchable online. This will be achieved by exporting data from the catalogue into XML or comma separated, tab separated, DScribe Natural or UK MARC format. The data file will then be uploaded to the website and be hosted on the same server as the website. This data must be fully searchable by web users, allowing researchers to search for specific items or phrases/keywords in the Archive. An example of how we envisage this to work can be seen on the English Folk Dance and Song Society’s website: http://library.efdss.org/archives/cgi-bin/search.cgi As an example, use the search term ‘Hampshire.’ Try searching for Hampshire under ‘place’ and ‘title’ in the fields drop-down box. These results should also show reference and link to any related or relevant documents within DocView. The image below shows how the data is exported to a data file.

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CMS The website will require a strong CMS to enable Archive staff to:

• Add/edit pages • Change copy • Update the XML file for the catalogue • Upload images/videos/sound recordings

There is no budget for continued support from the web developer so all essential site maintenance must be able to be undertaken by ourselves.

Social media integration The Archive uses Twitter to network with audiences, partners and the media, so twitter should be tightly integrated with the home page.

Discussion Forum The discussion forum should have limited access to those who have signed up. This may work in conjunction with a membership or friends programme. A freely available and easy to manage system such as phpBB would be preferable.

Transitioning content from www.jazzprofessional.com Jazz Professional was purchased by the National Jazz Archive in 2010. . The content has remained unchanged since 2005.There is a great deal of useful content on the site that needs to be incorporated into the National Jazz Archive’s new website. This content includes interviews, papers, galleries and reviews. Most of this material and copy will need to be transitioned to the new Archive website in liaison with Archive staff. Any material not moved over will need to be saved as a pdf file and given to the archive for future reference. It is envisaged that the support of a copywriter will be needed for this task.

Visual representation of the Story of British Jazz The copy and media relating to the Story of British Jazz will need to be represented in an engaging and exciting manner. The designer will take the lead on advising how best this information should be displayed whether as separate pages or within an interactive timeline, perhaps using Flash or Java.

Media Media will play an important part in creating an engaging atmosphere on the site. We would like to make extensive use of YouTube and Flickr to provide interactive content. Allowing users to upload their own images of gigs, events and concerts via a Flickr pool would be advantageous to providing a social experience. Ideally we would like to provide links to recordings of music and we would like advice on the best way to provide this.

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Link to TownsWeb’s DocView TownsWeb Archiving Ltd have been contracted to digitise a significant proportion of the Archive’s holdings. 30,000 pages of journals will be scanned and hosted on TownsWeb’s servers as well as 1000 items of ephemera including posters, booklets, tickets and programmes. These images will be browsed using TownsWeb’s proprietary software DocView. The front end for this software will be branded to match that of the new website. A link will need to be provided from the new site to the DocView front end in a manner that means the user is not aware that they are navigating away from the main site. Examples of DocView can be found here: http://www.royalleicestershireregiment.org.uk/journals/ http://www.sedberghschoolarchives.org/ In summary, it will not be the responsibility of the developer to brand, set up or implement the DocView software, simply to provide a seamless link to it from the website.

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Audience

Our target audience Our existing audiences are primarily:

• Writers for Jazz publications • Musicians in the 50 – 70 age bracket • Traditional Jazz enthusiasts

We would like our new website to engage with teachers, students and those wishing to learn more about Jazz, particularly young people, students and BME groups.

Examples Researcher from a UK Jazz publication He visits the website looking for specific information on a performer in the 1940s. They search the catalogue looking for a publication that the Archive holds. The search returns information about the location, publication dates and availability of the result. The researcher then views this information, or could print off this information, email it in a form to the Archivist as a request or view a linked file on DocView. Teacher from Primary School A teacher from a primary school wants to use Jazz as a topic for the term. They go to the website and download a pdf format lesson plan. The lesson plan also points the teacher towards videos and images that they can use as part of the lesson. Some of the images will be within DocView whilst others may be on YouTube or Flickr or hosted on the website. GCSE Student A GCSE student has an assignment to research Blues in Britain. They search Google for ‘history of blues in Britain’ and see the Archive’s website in the top eight results. On visiting the website they visit the media area to look for interviews with famous musicians. They might also visit the archive material held on DocView. Casual Browser Just having a look, stumbles upon the Archive’s website. Might want to watch some videos or read a little of Jazz history. They should be able to find exciting and engaging content easily. Ticket Buyer Having seen an event advertised a couple wish to purchase tickets for an event. They should be able to find the event, date and time and ticketing information with ease. The Archive would be interested in a basic online ticketing facility that quickly and easily enables the selling of tickets online – could this be done with an eBay type shop?

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Three things we want our visitors to know • Why we exist • That the website is the best place to come for researching the history of

British Jazz • How to access material from the Archive

Actions we want visitors to take • Sign up to our mailing list • Browse journals on DocView • Download a lesson plan • Search the catalogue • Engage and contribute to media, ie Flickr pool, sharing videos via YouTube • Maybe:

o Buy tickets for an event o Make a donation

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Design

The mood and feel of our new website The design of the site should reflect the great wealth of information held within it. The site should feel engaging and fun, the viewer should instantly know that they are looking at a music archive’s website. The National Railway Museum website instantly inundates the viewer with railway related imagery, using the collections in a subtle manner as artwork around the site.

Our  existing  website  What we like What we don’t like Clear navigation links at the top of the page

White logos on blue backgrounds

Lots of copy on landing page Inversion of logo Lack of images and imagery Lots of copy but no real information

Websites that are similar in function to how we envisage our new website: English Folk Song and Dance Society http://www.efdss.org/ National Sound Archive http://sounds.bl.uk/ The National Archive http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ Horniman Museum http://www.horniman.ac.uk/

Websites we like the design of: http://www.20thcenturylondon.org.uk/ Very browsable, easy to search content right across the website so although photos are under themes, you can search across different references. http://www.rmg.co.uk/national-maritime-museum/ Very atmospheric, museum-esque, easy to navigate. A bit stoic, perhaps intimidating for non-museum audiences. http://www.nrm.org.uk/ Clean, fun, bright and appealing. Particularly like the ability to upload own pictures to a Flickr pool. ‘Railway Stories’ is a very accessible hook. A nice design feature is using a different image from the collection as a background image on each page. Nice font, curvy and clear.

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http://www.efdss.org/ Modular landing page with interesting social network and media integration. Looks professional and engaging. http://www.millsarchivetrust.org The landing page represents similar objectives to that of the NJA and is a good comparison for how information is displayed and website laid out. http://historypin.com This clever site encourages social contribution to create an interactive resource whilst promoting collections. http://www.horniman.ac.uk/ As well as being similar in function, we really love the design of this site. It’s easy to navigate to relevant areas of the site, i.e., collections, learning, etc.… The modular layout of the landing page is clear and attractive as well as creating a mood of interest and reflection. http://www.historytoherstory.org.uk This site has very similar aims as intended for our new site – clear information on learning resources, catalogue searching and the story. We also like the layout, although the colour scheme is somewhat drab.

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Branding The new site should promote the Archive’s logo. There is currently no style guide or specific colours or fonts, but the design of the new site should reflect and complement the colours of the logo.

Logos

The only colour used in the logo is a Blue, Adobe RGB: R89, G161, B216.

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Colour We are open to suggestions on colour schemes, taking the lead from colours that complement the logo and aid the atmosphere of the site.

Style guide queues Capitalisation Titles should not be capitalised. Sentence case should be used

throughout in body text. Logos Should appear only as given, not inverted or flipped. Voice We, our, us Jazz Should always be capitalised, as should Story of British Jazz.

Other Logos The website will also need to show the Heritage Lottery Fund logo and Essex Libraries logo in accordance with their own branding guidelines.

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Returning your proposal Proposals must be returned by Wednesday April 18th at 12 noon either by post or in PDF format to sfieldhouse@nationaljazzarchive.org.uk Proposals should incorporate:

• An overview of how the requirements of the spec will be met. • A breakdown of how specific needs, content and features can be included

within the budget. • A timeframe for creation, liaison, delivery and testing. • Examples of work and references from two clients. • Examples of initial thoughts on graphic design. • An explanation of the manner in which a searchable database can be

created. If returning by post please feel free to include a CD or DVD using common file formats compatible with Mac OS X. We are happy to accept proposals from partnerships between multiple companies or developers. Thank you for your interest in our project, we hope to hear from you.

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Apendix The following extract is taken from Flow Associates Education & Outreach Plan Final Report prepared for the National Jazz Archive in December 2010. © Flow Associates 2010 3.2.2 The digital landscape

3.2.2.1 Overview

Digital strategies evolve with new technologies and the practices of using them. Today, we are moving from a straight publishing model of web content on specific sites to one that considers how to manage a flow of data across the web, ‘feeding’ and aggregating data as appropriate.

In the cultural heritage sector, practice is moving away from creating a virtual replication as an alternative or a teaser to a real cultural encounter, towards:

1. Delivering culture directly or primarily online (e.g. music). 2. Enhancing the interactivity of a real world cultural experience, allowing a

combination of user-generated and organisational or expert content.

In the education sector, effective learning online is now more about enabling interaction with content across many online and real places where learning takes place and less about creating dedicated ‘e-learning’ websites or ‘virtual learning environments’.

When the NJA thinks of digital it must think about how to get archive content out and into as many relevant places as possible. The digital channels associated with organisations in the jazz eco-system discussed above offer fertile grounds in which NJA material can be deployed along with sites such as Wikipedia (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Jazz), and numerous jazz history sites (see http://www.harlem.org/index.html which uses archive photography to explore jazz history). As well as proactively ‘pushing’ digitised content, NJA must also allow it to easily be found and ‘pulled’ from the archive (see ‘Digital and the NJA’ below).

3.2.2.2 The commercial web

Public expectations are rapidly changing in relation to accessing information and entertainment/culture online due to the changing commercial landscape. It has proved difficult for publicly funded institutions to react effectively to the developments of the internet and the changes it has prompted. This is especially true since the emergence of ‘Web 2.0’, ‘social media’ and the ‘semantic web’ circa 2004-06. Even the terms we use seem fluid and volatile, always catching up in an environment where gifted individuals, small organisations and ‘the crowd’ appear to hold the initiative. In a number of sectors (publishing, music and others), established industry players have found themselves outflanked by others with a deep, intuitive understanding not of the technology so much as its implications in serving the interests of their audiences.

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The past 3 years have seen significant improvements to mainstream and commercial services, mainly because the release of ‘open API’s’ (by Amazon, Google and Yahoo etc) has led to the creation of many more services and ‘mash- ups’. These mainstream improvements are leading to expectations that information will be:

• Visual: e.g. that you will be able to find an image of anything in Google Images

• Contextualized: e.g. that you will be able to find anything on a Google map

• Accessible: e.g. that you will be able to understand it, to easily translate it into your language or adjust settings to suit your needs

• Free: or at least available at some level/at a certain quality, giving you the choice to pay for premium services

• Feed-able: e.g. that you can find tools easily to share information or set up ongoing feeds into social networks, blogs or personalised pages

• Feedback-able: e.g. that you can comment on elements of content, make choices and provide reviews and ratings

• Tag-able: e.g. that you can add your own tags and share these to create a social taxonomy around content

• Playful: e.g. that the web is a place for leisure, for exploring alternative realities, for playing games with others and being creative. �

3.2.2.3

The social web

�People are spending an increasing amount of time in a smaller number of web spaces, mainly in spaces that are densely populated. 75% of Europeans who have web access use social networking sites. The UK has the highest proportion of social networkers in Europe, the majority using combinations of Facebook (500 million users at last count), Twitter, Ning and Flickr. �If NJA only focuses on developing its own website (and/or a new project microsite), future success will depend on allowing users to generate content on NJA social media pages, and to share NJA content on their own social media pages.

�The rise of social media doesn’t mean that particular brands are inviolate: MySpace has declined to the extent that it may soon be shutdown, despite its recent reinvention as a network around music. �Social media has had a significant influence on the music industry. Downloading music based on personal recommendation (either from pure social networks such as Twitter, or from music social networks such as Last FM, Spotify or Apple’s Ping with I-Tunes) now exceeds purchase of CDs in terms of traffic. �Young music fans in the UK favour sites that are less commercial, more led by amateur musicians and fans. For example, Soundcloud allows people to share and network around their own music-making. �The NJA project can tap into these networks, for example, by promoting key British jazz classics that can be obtained via I-Tunes and encouraging young people to interpret them and share their versions on Soundcloud. This process is simply about linking to content and motivating people to spread the word.

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�3.2.2.4

The government web

�The previous Labour government closely scrutinised how public sector IT infrastructure could provide the best value. The last government, and it seems this one, have chosen to promote open source software and the provision of open data as the most affordable approach. The implication is that public organisations are likely to be asked in future not just ‘how many FOI requests did you respond to?’ and ‘how many web visitors did you get?’ but ‘how much data did you make available for free use?’ �The Digital Britain report (2009) outlines more than 20 actions for shifting culture, broadcasting and creative innovation into the digital realm in a way that will stimulate the economy rather than drain it. However fully or quickly it is enacted, we will inevitably see some increase in converged media (i.e. rich media such as TV more easily available through the internet) and more interactive public services online. �Falling out of Digital Britain was the National Plan for Digital Participation. This is being enacted mainly through RaceOnline2012, an initiative led by Martha Lane-Fox, focusing on bridging the gap in access to broadband and access to internet on personal computers. The plan calls for partners, such as libraries and archives, to extend this plan to develop digital literacy skills, especially for typically excluded audiences such as older people, and to engage them through relevant content and online services.

3.2.2.5 The education web

There is an increasing focus on a range of benefits afforded by e-learning (rather than or enhancing real-world learning) including cost savings, the elimination of distance barriers and time flexibility. Whilst many ‘first generation’ e-learning programmes often did not provide ‘sufficient choices, engagement, social contact, relevance, and context needed to facilitate successful learning and performance’1, the arguments in favour of e-learning per se have been won.2 The challenge for any successful digital learning programme is to find ways to provide a rich and meaningful digital offer that complements the ‘real-world’ experiences of the audience.

3.2.2.6 Open Culture and the Culture Grid

Originally an MLA initiative, Open Culture looks to collaborate with heritage, arts, media and education bodies to gain efficiencies and maximise the social impact of digital culture. It is managed by the Collections Trust, in partnership with Culture24 and a wider group of stakeholders. It includes discussions with Wikipedia and Google, work with the JISC Strategic Content Alliance, collaborations on European digital cultural access and a proposal to DCMS to create a sector transformation fund to ensure the effectiveness of digital programmes. The Culture Grid is a key concrete outcome, essentially ‘digital plumbing’ that aggregates digital content from museums, galleries, archives and libraries and allows any organisation to feed the content into other channels. In particular it allows content to be reinterpreted to a mass audience through channels such as the BBC and made more findable by Google. The approach is based on the principles of open access to dynamic linked data.

3.2.2.7 Understanding the HLF’s requirements regarding digital access

Whilst it is clear that the NJA should seek funding to digitise its collection, any request for funds that promote digitisation for digitisation’s sake will be viewed dimly. Indeed Flow Associates, along with the Collections Trust recently advised the HLF against “funding projects that only set out to digitise content” (as part of a project to ‘Map the use of digital technologies in the heritage sector’, see: http://www.hlf.org.uk/aboutus/howwework/Pages/digitalheritage.aspx)

Because ‘digital’ is becoming the primary mode of content delivery across the public and commercial sectors, it has a significant role to play in increasing knowledge transfer between

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heritage bodies and in widening public access to heritage. The NJA therefore must demonstrate a clear strategy and intent to distribute any digitised content widely. This must go beyond the idea of ‘putting it on the website’ (although improving the NJA website would no doubt be necessary and useful) and finding ways to channel content to users via myriad routes (discussed below).