Interpretive Materials
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Text, graphics, videos, and other content that is used in gallery and exhibition spaces to guide audiences and provide learning experiences. |
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Digital Species: Museum and Gallery, Social Media |
Trend in 2024:
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Consensus Decision |
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Added to List: 2019 Rescoped: 2023 |
New Rescoped Entry |
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Imminence of Action Action is recommended within three years, and detailed assessment within one year. |
Significance of Loss The loss of tools, data or services within this group would impact on many people and sectors. |
Effort to Preserve | Inevitability It would require a small effort to preserve materials in this group, requiring the application of proven tools and techniques. |
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Examples These may include explanatory text and diagrams. This type of content typically sits alongside objects being exhibited. This information may also be used in other forms of digital public engagement, including within websites and social media. |
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‘Critically Endangered’ in the Presence of Aggravating Conditions Poor or no documentation; lack of repository and preservation infrastructure; external dependencies; poor storage; significant volumes or diversity of data; digital content being left unmanaged with Exhibitions teams (e.g., not going through any Records Management, Recordkeeping, being passed to the archives, or having preservation even considered); uncertainty over IPR or the presence of orphaned works. |
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‘Vulnerable’ in the Presence of Good Practice Strong documentation; preservation capability; good recordkeeping principles, practices, and management in place; strong repository and preservation technical infrastructure; well-developed migration pathways. |
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2023 Review This entry was added in 2019 under ‘Digital Materials in Museums and Galleries’ and previously rescoped in 2021 to ‘Supporting Digital Materials for Museums and Galleries’. The 2023 Bit List Council superseded the entry, splitting it into six discrete entries as the scope of the single entry was too broad to provide the guidance needed. The recommendation to break this entry down was also made by the 2021 Jury, as the types of digital collections content in museums can be vast and offer particular risks in museum and gallery contexts. This entry was added to focus on risks tied to interpretive materials in museums and galleries. These materials may be tailored to various audience demographics and may take into account a variety of learning styles. These materials can also provide significant insight into how display and interpretation of objects has changed over time. While some interpretive materials may be text or still image based, others may be more technically complex as they may be time-based (e.g., video) or even a complex digital object in its own right. |
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2024 Interim Review The 2024 Council identified a trend towards even greater risk. The species group noted this content may not be seen to be of long-term value to the museum, however, may be of value to the researcher and, in light of the 2023 British Library Cybersecurity incident, the Imminence of Action was changed from five years to less than three years. To add further clarity, those in the Social Media added that the description for this entry seems to address two separate types of digital content: 1) interpretive materials used to support users’ experiences of an exhibition, and 2) museum and gallery public engagement via social media. With that they have recommended that Council or species reviewers should discuss if a separate Museum (or even Collecting Institution) public engagement on social media entry should be created and sit in Social Media rather than individual organisation types. |
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Additional Comments Interpretive outputs through websites may have reduced risk as web outputs if captured as part of national web archiving initiatives. See also:
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Towards even greater risk