On January 18th 2024 I provided an online 30 minute presentation to the Volunteer Organisation Network (VON) for Museum Development NorthEast (MDNE).The subject is Enhancing volunteer-led museums through the use of simple I.T.. I speak with over 40 years experience in I.T. and 17 in designing and building websites and my last 5 years as volunteer Chairman of a volunteer-led small rural museum.

The attached content and the pdf of the slide set contain information/warnings on USB Sticks in organisations which was verbally mentioned at the end of the presentation when first given.

I attach the presentation in pdf format but this article adds to that presentation and provides more and supporting information. Apologies for its length but I have used a contents index to help navigate more easily. The page structure reflects the content of the presentation as best I can.

Leveraging Information Technology (I.T.) for Growth and Accessibility

Why do we use IT in Museums?

We use IT is museums for a wide range of potential reasons:

1. To manage the 'back office' - office tasks, email, risk management, finances...
2. To manage collections
3. To manage volunteers - rotas, training, skills records
4. To manage Friends - subscriptions, donations, newsletters
5. Pre-visit information, website and social media, trip adviser etc
6. The Visit itself – the Museum, exhibitions, information, surveys...
7. Shop, reception, stock, book-keeping, financial planning and monitoring
8. Post-visit, feedback, follow ups, surveys
9. For Friends and volunteers - additional content, training courses...

The Potential Problems

There are many possible problems relating to IT use in a volunteer led environment:

1. I.T. can be expensive
2. Lack of suitable Hardware
3. Lack of suitable Software
4. I.T. can require expertise beyond most volunteers or
5. There are not enough volunteers with the right skill sets to manage all of the I.T.
6. I.T may have to be outsourced which can be a large expense (so good I.T. management and upkeep may not happen)
7. I.T. is often not maintained in volunteer environments
8. Which can introduce security risks
9. Leave out of date content etc

So…

1. There are Challenges due to limited budget and resources
2. There is a need for affordable and simple I.T. solutions
3. Some training may be required

The Potential Benefits

The potential benefits of doing some work on your I.T. systems could be:

1. An Improved visitor experience
2. Streamlined administrative tasks
3. Enhanced accessibility for online audiences including sharing internally
4. Cost-effectiveness and ease of implementation

The Ubiquitous USB Stick (Flash Drives)

This includes USB attached portable drives. Large organisations will typically prevent users having access to USB ports for security. This is not feasible in small volunteer led organisations. So what to do?

1. Always scan USB sticks and drives for viruses and malware (you do of course run scheduled anti-virus checks on your PCs and laptops regularly, don’t you?).
2. If you know how, to set your devices up so USB sticks are scanned automatically.
3. Beware shared USB sticks and drives or third-party ones passed to you with data on – you simply cannot account for where they have been and what sate the other persons systems are in. There is a high probability of passing on (receiving) a virus.
4. Out of courtesy whenever you pass a USB stick to someone else please scan for viruses first.

Doing an Audit

Strategically: You could use the higher level but extensive ACE Digital Culture Compass  https://digitalculturecompass.org.uk (requires a login). The Digital Culture Compass was commissioned by Arts Council England and The National Lottery Heritage Fund as part of the UK Government’s Culture is Digital initiative.

However, the focus of this talk is to provide more tactical ideas but it is always worth doing an audit, even a basic one tabulated and easy to refer to:

1. What do you have:
2. Hardware
3. Operating System(s) 
4. Software
5. Anti-virus and other security tools
6. Web presences
7. Social media
8. Databases
9. Network(s)
10. Till(s)
11. What do you have in the ‘Cloud’
12. How old?, Up to date?, Who manages?, Any known problems?
13. Do you have backps and do they actually work?
14. Do you have a digital disaster recovery plan?

Possible Ideas?

In the next sections I will provide some ideas to cover the following areas:

1. Back office
2. Free tools, operating systems and something other than MS-Office
3. Enhance the Visitor Experience
4. Website and Social Media
5. Recycle and Re-use
6. Your carbon footprint?
7. Access for all
8. A.I.

The 'Back Office'

1. There are free alternatives to Windows and MS-Office, and these can be more secure, can be licence free and reuse older hardware (that otherwise would be recycled) e.g. Open Office for Windows, Open Office for LinuxOpen Office for Linux, Google Docs etc. just as there are many alternative to MS-Outlook or Internet Explorer as I am sure you know,
2. Especially useful if all you do is Word, Excel, email and browse
3. E.g. try installing Ubuntu and Open Office on an old PC
4. Consider using online ‘cloud’ storage for sharing/team use, archive and capacity e.g. Google Workspace and tools, OneNote, but there are lots of others. Information is then always available to whoever needs it from anywhere on most devices. You are not restricted to the office PC.
5. Network and share scanners and printers to minimise how many you have or need or have to buy different inks for etc

Other tools I have found useful:

1. Mind mapping software (mind mapping is a technique once used is never put down) https://simplemind.eu

Do you make regular backups and is one of them offsite, and/or in a safe or at a very minimum on a separate (removable) hard drive?

1. Collections Management

Website(s) and Social Media

You may have more than one website don't forget.

1. Are there any security vulnerabilities on your website(s)? e.g. https://pentest-tools.com/website-vulnerability-scanning/website-scanner
2. Are you using a good quality, well supported Content Management System with regular updates?
3. Do you have backup and security (Web Application Firewall) addons e.g. Akeeba for Wordpress or Joomla  https://www.akeeba.com/products.html , or a static site with security addons - examples: https://www.zenarmor.com/docs/network-security-tutorials/best-open-source-web-application-firewalls )?
4. Do you have Strong passwords and do not share them? “Eight-character passwords are insufficient now… and if you restrict your characters to only alphabetic letters, it can be cracked in minutes." In any case, to be on the safe side, a password length of 12 characters or more should be adopted. Try https://www.passwordmonster.com  to check your password strength.
5. IS THE SOFTWARE RUNNING YOUR WEBSITE UP TO DATE? You may have a hosting contract but nothing else….
6. Are there backups of your website – regularly?
7. Is there a place to collect and present Stories, images, audio, video? Consider a Wiki even if it is 'internal for volunteers etc? it is a knowledge base.

Website performance and Accessibility

Is your website accessible to all. Use Chrome Developer Tools and Lightspeed (or easier Google Pagespeed) to get a basic report. This will refer to structure of the site and page, alt text on images and links and possible tools to help users.

It provides information and scores out of 100  in 4 areas:

1. Performance
2. Accessibility
3. Best Practice
4. Searc Engine Optimisation (SEO)

e.g for my own website:

Enhance the Visitor Experience

1. Pre-visit:
   1. Who are your audience(s), do your digital offers inform them of Who, What, Where, When
   2. Do you monitor and manage your reviews on TripAdvisor, Google, Facebook?
2. Visit:
   1. What I.T. helps the visitor?
   2. Try signage displays for images and video
   3. PCs and tablets in kiosk mode (guided access on an iPad) for security or use Proteus on desktops
3. Post Visit:
   1. In person and online surveys (Same form) – in person on exit at an old tablet in Kiosk Mode using a  Google survey form, MS-Office form or similar
   2. Manage your reviews

Recycle or Re-Use?

Moderate to high skills required depending on what hardware you use. Simple skills required for tablets.

1. Old hardware can be re-used – tablets and desktops or laptops. Try Ubuntu and Open Office, Porteus on a desktop or laptop as appropriate
2. Try Kiosk mode on an older iPad (e.g. for Surveys) or desktop (easy) - Google "Kiosk mode on an iPad". There are also free kiosk based browser apps which are very simple to install and use.
3. Add a touch screen to an existing PC for customer interaction with the PC in Kiosk mode
4. If you buy new, can you just buy the PC and not the monitor, keyboard. Mouse – buy from cheaper or refurbished sources – it is highly likely to be OK for your needs and cheaper. E.g. https://www.backmarket.co.uk/en-gb/about-us

Carbon Footprint

Measure your website carbon footprint at: https://www.websitecarbon.com

1. You could use greener providers for hosting and cloud services but in some cases, you have no choice e.g. Social Media
2. Data Centres worldwide use nearly 40% MORE electricity than the whole of the UK and AI will increase this substantially!
3. I.T. consumes an estimated 7% of global electricity
4. Out of date software running your website tends to be poorer performing therefore consumes more electricity as well as being potentially vulnerable.

A.I. - The Future?

There are lots of tols available now - but we are in the takeup phase and lots of tools will disappear (quite soon).

1. A.I. is here now!
2. I have tried ChatGPT and my jaw dropped in amazement
3. It is not the answer, but it can get you started and put you on the right track – saves work and effort but you need to add value
4. The better you define your request the better the answer
5. E.g. “write a spectrum compliant access policy for a type 1 independent museum”

Some things to do Immediately - all for free

Run the Carbon Footprint Checker

Run your website through a vulnerability checker

Run Chrome/Lighthouse on your website (Mobile first / desktop second)

Run a Crawler / link checker e.g.  Download https://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/seo-spider/  or use https://validator.w3.org/checklink online

Accessibility checker – Chrome or Firefox have good built in or add on extensions – there are some automated checks, others are manual or subjective, guidance usually provided. Or use Google Pagespeed for accessibility and three other measures.

Review any third-party website provider contract (are updates included)

Password strengths

Try https://www.passwordmonster.com to check your password strength and consider using a Password Vault or two factor authentication system. These are now usually built into operating systems as options. A minimum password length is now regarded as 8 characters (and better if a mix of cae, special characters and alphanumeric characters.

There is a built-in password manager in Windows 10, but it's named “Credential Manager.” You can view your saved passwords any time by searching in settings for the credential manager. To view a password, you need to enter your PC's PIN. It's easy to use, but it might not be the most secure option.

The Apple password manager, known as iCloud Keychain, is an option built into every Mac, iPhone, and iPad which can be used to generate random passwords, store passwords and usernames, store credit card numbers, and autofill information when you return to the same website.

For Manage your saved passwords in Android or Chrome based devices passwords are securely stored in your Google Account and available across all your devices.

On Ubuntu, you can also manage your passwords and secure your online activity by using the built-in password manager. This will help you to better organize your passwords, create secure passwords as needed, and lock down your accounts with two-factor authentication.

Other password vaults and two factor authentication tools can be separatley sourced and may have other options with more functionality.

Make sure you use a screensaver with a password required option set and a short duration period say 5-15 minutes, so when you leave your PC unattended the screen will lock and require a password to open back up.

Others

Manage your reviews

Does your website support a Friends / Members area?

Try ChatGPT (requires you to register but free at the moment)

Sumary

1. There are lots of free or inexpensive tools available
2. Existing technology can be repurposed
3. There are possibilities for a range of volunteer skill sets as well as for (semi-)professionals
4. The visitor, volunteer and Friends/Members experience can be enhanced
5. As a starter, pick one area, get some advice or do some research
6. Conduct an audit and plan some improvements.
7. Gain confidence and move on to another area.