CHIN 2004 National Membership Study—Summary Report

January 2004

Introduction

The broad themes of the research include:

• General awareness/ knowledge of CHIN and its current mandate,
• Awareness, use and satisfaction with CHIN Virtual Exhibits programs,
• Awareness, use and satisfaction with CHIN products and services,
• Member communication,
• Future direction.

• Both the surveys and the executive interviews were strategically conducted to ensure national representation and appropriate representation across the types and size of members.

• Roughly 38% of respondents say their organization has either no or one full-time or part-time employee. About 42% of respondents say they have from 2 to 5 full time employees, while 36% say they have from 2 to 5 part-time employees.

• About 75% of members have 6 or more volunteers on staff.

• Over four in five respondents say their organization belongs to a provincial museum association.

• Half of respondents (49%) say the organization where they currently work has dial-up Internet access and close to another half (46%) say they have High-Speed Internet access.

Executive Summary

Study Findings

CHIN Mandate and Benefits

Although survey respondents were not entirely clear on what CHIN’s mandate is, many were nonetheless able to provide meaningful insight. Respondents seem to primarily perceive that CHIN’s mandate involves communicating Canadian heritage information, providing access on Canadian cultural heritage by electronic means, representing and supporting heritage through a network of organizations, uniting museums, increasing professional performance and communication, and promoting new technologies such as the VMC.

Members also emphasized that CHIN allows them to fulfill their own mandate because of the access it provides to databases, publications, collections, tools, and catalogues. CHIN is also seen as a networking leader and motivator by providing the opportunities to bring museums closer together despite their geographical dispersion.

When asked if there are similarities between CHIN and their organization’s mandates, respondents feel the similarities are mostly with respect to the conservation, interpretation and dissemination of heritage, in either digital or non-digital format. Some organizations feel CHIN’s mandate is associated with their own organization’s mandate through the sharing of artefacts in the VMC, the introduction and promotion of local history, and the promotion at an international level – “CHIN is our international window”.

Upon being provided CHIN’s mandate1, executive interview participants agreed that this mandate is being met successfully. When asked to explain why CHIN is successful in meeting certain aspects of its mandate, many attributed it to the financial support offered. Others felt their success is attributable to the participation from multiple museums, CHIN’s up-to-date knowledge of technology, the encouragement given to museums to share information, the promotion of CHIN as an organization across its membership, and the coherence of its website.

When specifically asked to rate CHIN membership advantages in terms of importance, at least three quarters of respondents found the advantages listed very or somewhat important. A vast majority (92%) considered the possibility to be part of a community of practice that allows sharing of thoughts and ideas on information technology and digital heritage very or somewhat important. Similarly, 91% considered it is an important advantage to have priority access to all CHIN services and activities. The exposure of their institution’s collections and activities online through the Virtual Museum of Canada was deemed important to 88% of respondents compared to 85% for the collaboration with museum professionals in the development of digital heritage, and 85% for CHIN publications.

In terms of being a primary source for digital content across its membership, it is worth noting that approximately a third of respondents use CHIN and its services more than any other source for digital content. Other sources include local and national museums and associations (such as: the Société des Musées Québecois, Horizon Zero, Verizon, Canadian Council of Archives, the web in general, the Getty Institute, city archives, National Archives, etc.).

Interestingly, some members felt CHIN was weak with respect to areas where CHIN has not traditionally been active. For instance, some members would like CHIN to be involved in non-digital related areas of museum management and administration, such as physical exhibit planning, display area planning, filing, etc.

CHIN Virtual Exhibit Programs

Respondents were asked a series of questions on the three following CHIN Virtual Exhibit programs:

CHIN Executive produced Virtual Exhibits: Through the executive production of virtual exhibits for the VMC, CHIN uses its expertise to ensure that multimedia knowledge and skills are available to Canadian museums, providing them with the tools needed to effectively use technology within their own organizations. CHIN’s executively produced exhibitions encourage partnerships and opportunities for continued exchange and learning within the Canadian and international museum communities, by bringing together varied organizations to work collectively on the creation of virtual exhibits of mutual interest. VMC Investment Program – Virtual Exhibits: The VMC is a collaboration between Canadian museums and CHIN. The VMC Investment Program is open to all public, not-for-profit museums that have demonstrated their commitment to work collaboratively with colleagues across the country by becoming members of CHIN; and to organizations that have an ongoing role in representing museums or managing several institutions and that are making proposals on behalf of multiple museums. Community Memories – Investment Program: The Community Memories program strengthens the capacity of smaller museums to create content for the Web by supporting their development of online local history exhibits. Museums whose proposals are selected are supplied with user-friendly software and a standard investment of $5,000.

In general, familiarity with the programs does not breed usage, however usage does breed satisfaction. Awareness of the three Virtual Exhibit programs was 51% for the CHIN Executive produced Virtual Exhibits, 72% for the VMC Investment Program and 81% for the Community Memories Program. Among those familiar with CHIN Executive produced Virtual Exhibits, 37% have accessed the program. This compares to 32% among those aware of the VMC Investment Program and 29% among those aware of the Community Memories Program. Satisfaction is high among those having accessed each of these programs – at least 80% among those having used each of the programs are either somewhat or very satisfied with the programs.

Analysis for each of the programs with respect to relevance reveals a strong relationship between usage and relevance. On average, 95% of respondents having used a program within the past 3 years feel the program is relevant to their organization. More interesting though is the fact that an important proportion of non-users still feel the program is relevant. More specifically, 59% of those familiar with CHIN Executive produced Virtual Exhibits and not having accessed the program within the past 3 years still feel the program is relevant for their organization. Equivalent results for the VMC Investment and Community Memories Programs are 77% and 76% respectively.

Participants feel the CHIN Executive produced Virtual Exhibits and the VMC Investment Programs are more appropriate for larger institutions – there is a sense the programs should be better adapted for smaller institutions that are faced with more limited resource and time constraints. Despite a high level of satisfaction with Community Memories specifically, a few program enhancements as proposed by members include more technical support and guidance throughout the “production” process since the process is both long and occasionally technically challenging.

Generally, usage of CHIN Virtual Exhibit programs likely depends on members’ awareness of them and their ability to dedicate resources towards them.

CHIN Products and Services

Artefacts Canada
The most popular section on the Artefacts Canada website seems to be the Humanities section (87%), followed by Archaeological Sites (20%) and Natural Sciences (13%). It appears that users refer to Artefacts Canada mainly to conduct research for exhibitions, and would like to see more links to other sources as well as curatorial information. Again among users, the majority (61%) often find what they are looking for when they visit the site and another 28% “occasionally” find what they are looking for.

In terms of why certain members are not contributing to the site – results show that the main reasons are their lack of an automated collections management system, poor perceived quality of automated data, insufficient quantity of automated data, an impression that the process is complicated or they are simply not aware they could contribute.

In terms of potential improvements, those who are aware of Artefacts Canada recommended adding more information about the records, an easier way to conduct a search, easier navigation, better organization of the catalogues, more images, and better technical support.

Virtual Museum of Canada
This initiative is greatly appreciated by members. The online survey results show respondents are satisfied with the VMC’s content, its various services and the quality of its featuring.

The survey also probed for additional types of information that members would like to see added to the VMC Image Gallery specifically. Less than a fifth of respondents could think of something that could be added. Potential recommendations included adding more background information (e.g. on the artist, on the artefact).

However, the executive interviews reveal respondents are not overly familiar with the VMC, especially its marketing initiatives. Those who are familiar with the VMC suggest including more small museums, partnering with other institutions in order to increase the visibility of the site, simplifying the navigation of the site, focusing the marketing initiatives on marketing channels that are appropriate for smaller communities and adding the site to more search engines.

Marketing Initiatives
The new initiatives show great potential given the high level of interest demonstrated by members for each of the proposed concepts. First, the vast majority of respondents are interested in having their organization partner with CHIN (92%). Among the specific concepts tested, interest was highest for participating in a television series and development of a digital heritage repository whereas interest was lowest for an online shopping area. Results across specific initiatives are shown below:

	% very or somewhat interested
Television series: built from content developed for Virtual Exhibits, games and other museums’ digital content	71%
Develop and host a secure national repository of high resolution digital images for museums’ potential commercial activities	68%
Repurposing VMC member museums’ virtual exhibit content for other media use such as wireless applications, print, radio, etc.	66%
Online shopping area: a portal through which members could advertise and sell products they currently	57%

Skills Development
Twelve learning resources that CHIN offers to strengthen the knowledge and abilities of heritage professionals were evaluated in terms of familiarity, frequency of use, satisfaction and relevance to members’ organizations.

Generally, self-assigned familiarity with the various learning resources offered by CHIN is high. Results show that eight in ten members are familiar with at least five learning resources and, on average, members are familiar with eight learning resources. The ones with which respondents are most familiar and therefore use more often are Artefacts Canada, CHIN publications, and resources from the Canadian Conservation Institute and the Conservation Information Network.

It is important to note that just because members are not using specific learning resources, it does not imply a lack of relevance. Clearly relevance of these learning resources is typically much higher among users. However, at least two thirds of non-users of CHIN publications, workshops, CCI and CIN resources, online and e-mail courses, and of opportunities to share information with other members still consider these learning resources relevant to their organization. Learning resource users were mostly satisfied, with the only exception being those who participated in a collaboration or partnership in research initiatives where the proportion of satisfied users was 39%. Specific results for each of the learning resources considered in the research are as follows:

	Familiar with the Resource (Top-Two Box)	Satisfaction Among Users (Top-Two Box)	Relevance (Top-Two Box)
Artefacts Canada	84%	75%	77%
Publications	83%	73%	87%
Workshops	82%	70%	87%
Resources from the Canadian Conservation Institute and the Conservation Information Network	75%	86%	82%
Online courses	71%	69%	79%
Opportunity for members to post and share information with other CHIN members	68%	73%	80%
Reference databases	60%	72%	71%
E-mail courses	59%	80%	75%
Collaborations/partnerships with other heritage institutions in the development of Executive produced Virtual Exhibits	57%	53%	64%
Centre for Exhibition Exchange	48%	60%	46%
Collaboration, partnership in research initiatives	42%	39%	54%
Onsite visits by CHIN staff	38%	64%	57%

Members seem to think that they need to be provided a more organized and comprehensive outline of training activities hosted by CHIN. They feel they need to do all the searching for these training activities themselves whereas CHIN should be keeping them informed via communication bulletins. As well, given the fact that not all members are necessarily technologically adept, course descriptions need to be simplified so that all members can judge their respective value for their institution.

For the most part, members agree that the learning resources that CHIN offers align well with their institution’s needs. Participants were apt to say that their research needs are especially well met given the information CHIN provides through its databases. As well, participants felt that programs such as the Virtual Museum and Community Memories serve their purposes perfectly, especially since they are a smaller organization. Generally, respondents feel that the availability of resources for small organizations is increasing, but remains insufficient. A common plea among these small organizations is that, although programs and services are relevant, they cannot fully take advantage of these programs and services because of a lack of resources (financial and/or human) and time.

Approximately 7 in 10 respondents report having a collections management system in place. CHIN has a strong presence as a collections management software information provider. Seven in ten respondents claim being aware of CHIN’s Software Review.

CHIN Member Communication

More than half of all respondents are interested in each of the topics CHIN communicates. In general, CHIN’s website is not only the most used medium members use to look for information on CHIN, but also the preferred medium for receiving communication from CHIN. Many of the types of information are expected to be communicated “as soon as they happen” as opposed to a schedule-based frequency.

Generally, members appear pleased with the manner in which CHIN communicates with them with respect to their learning resources. In fact, about one quarter feel communication is excellent and 57% feel it is “good.” Those familiar with at least nine learning resources were much more likely to consider CHIN’s communications “excellent” compared to those familiar with fewer learning resources. Interestingly though, despite admitting to being familiar with no more than four learning resources, two-thirds of these respondents rated CHIN’s communications as either “good” or “excellent.”

Members use a variety of channels to communicate with CHIN. CHIN’s website is the most common as mentioned by 85% of members, followed by CHIN’s toll-free number (39%) and by its email service (service@chin.gc.ca) (35%). Users of each of these channels are for the most part satisfied with the service they get (87%, 83% and 68% satisfaction respectively).

CHIN members have the opportunity to share and access information using an online contribution process. Respondents were asked to rate the importance of sharing and accessing certain information with other members.

• Members felt it is most important to access information on conference or training events (87% feel this type of information is important to access), followed by newsletters (85%), news releases (83%), documents (81%) and finally, job opportunities (66%).
• Members felt it was most important to share information on job opportunities (56%), followed by news releases (54%), conference or training events (53%), newsletters (49%), and finally, documents (49%).

One of the research objectives was to understand members’ format preferences with respect to receiving CHIN publications. Close to two thirds of respondents expressed interest in either one of the three proposed online formats, which increased to about 96% when the fee-based model was presented to those who were initially interested in a softcopy or hardcopy format.

In terms of the recommended direction of future communications and promotion, participants emphasized CHIN should continue to place efforts into enhancing communication with members. They also feel CHIN should continue to play a major role as a disseminator of heritage information.

Future Directions

Members were asked to suggest topics they would like CHIN to consider in future initiatives. Suggestions included writing for digital content, preservation and re-creation of electronic records, and how to invest in hardware and software to avoid outdated equipment.

Respondents were asked their perspective of the areas that CHIN is to explore or research over the next three years to meet members’ needs in the fields of digital heritage and information technology. In general, respondents expect CHIN to continue leading the digital side of the museum sector, as it provides support and engages organizations to participate in the transition to digital heritage. Over four in five respondents are interested in seeing CHIN focus their research on digital preservation, intellectual property rights, digitization, collections management, standards and trends in technology.

Conclusion

The majority of respondents expressed great satisfaction and appreciation for what CHIN is doing for museums.

Concluding suggestions proposed by members include adjusting activities and programs to better suit small to medium size museums, to consider that remote museums might have different needs than centralized museums, to encourage sharing information of what other museums are doing, and to provide a granting program that could help them get their databases up to speed.

It was also mentioned that there is a need of a larger discussion about digital culture, digital creation and digital content, the concepts and differences across the concepts.