Museum of Victoria What Is the Final

Museum of Victoria

What is the final list of projects agreed on by the group for inclusion in the IT portfolio and reasons for each project being included?

The following projects were included:

Upgrade of building management system. This was approved because it contributes to the museum's long-term goal of increasing access while also becoming more environmentally sensitive. This goal is summarized as the museum's goal to "Promote and implement eco-sustainable practices within the Museum [and] invest to improve our facilities to reduce our impact on the environment and to become a flagship for environmental responsibility.

Continued implementation of the Wireless Inventory System for EMu (MvWISE). This helps to support the museum's goal of increasing visability. This is also true of the enhancement of access to the museum Victoria collection online. This also true of the online ticketing and Provision of public online access to the Museum Victoria Library catalogue and DiscoveryCentre objects. These will support increased visibility as outlined in the museum's strategic plan, which includes as its goals: "Position Museum Victoria as a museum of which all Victorians can be proud [and] enhance our national and international reputation as a leader in the museum sector through the pursuit of excellence in all our activities

A number of projects were approved because they help support the museum's goal of enhancing the research and collections. This goal includes: the museum's goal to "enhance our reputation by building on our expertise and capability in areas of research that have local, national and international significance and extend the ways in which communities can connect with our collection and knowledge." These include: development of an electronic procurement system, connection to a Wide Area Network and implementation of back-up services.

2. The projects that were not approved were considered to be less supportive of the major goals of the museum as laid out in the Strategic Plan. These were the following: The continued implementation of a wireless inventory system. This does not seem to be a wise business decision nor in line with the strategic plan. Also turned down was the purchase of a digital inventory management system. This too seems like a poor business decision in terms of any increased efficiency that might be gained for the cost outlay. The cost of a true content management program for the website seems more like a vanity project than either a good business decision or part of the strategic plan. The cost to integrate the membership system also would have been a poor business decision in terms of possible return on the investment.

In general, I agree with the programs that were cut, including the cut to potential ticket integration services. While this would be convenient, it does not substantially forward the goals of the strategic plan nor would such a decision be a good business one. Likewise, while an improved website does support the strategic goal of increasing visibility. However, the possible return of such a level of improvement (which would probably not be noticed by most visitors to the site and is therefore both a strategic and a business decision) certainly does not seem to justify the cost involved. This is also true of an experimental upgrade.

3. The arguments put forward to support or deny a project were generally quite persuasive to the extent that the Strategic Plan allowed for a clear assessment of whether or not an expenditure could be seen as aligning with the overall plan. The arguments were less convincing, however, to the extent that (as is almost always the case) the Strategic Plan was abstract in many ways. It seems that other possible projects could also have been proposed that would have been equally well aligned with the ones that were described here. However, given that the task was to assess these projects vis-a-vis the strategic form rather than to consider a wider universe of possibilities then this seems to have been a good guideline.

4. Overall, as suggested above, the planning documents were moderately successful in helping to assess what were the most appropriate IT purchases for the museum. However, the planning documents were too vague in areas and a little too plagued with buzz words. In parallel with these limitations, there was also the fact that they guidelines seemed a little generic (Newson & Silver, 1988).

For example, all public institutions (or nearly all) wish to be seen as environmentally sound. But how exactly do environmental standards need to be changed to meet the needs of a museum? And how do the particular environmental needs of the local environment match the ways in which the museum is changing its policies? A more detailed Strategic Plan would have been much more helpful. For example, a discussion of the ways in which art conservation and environmental policy can be reconciled would have been very helpful.

An excellent stepping-off point for such a more locally focused plan for environmental architecture could have come from a recent museum exhibit demonstrating how colonial-era architecture can be blended with indigenous strategies and the demands of the local environment to produce a uniquely Australian version of green architecture:

For Australia's rural settlers the creation of simple, energy efficient homes was a matter of situational necessity with their limited access to materials, skills and resources. Today, architects recognise the conservation of energy as a global imperative and are increasingly award of the environmental impact of the creation and maintenance of modern housing. Built for the bush. (2010).

Another issue that needs to be addressed is the fact that the Strategic Plan allows for a number of possible low-tech ways of supporting the Strategic Plan. Many of these, in addition to being far less expensive, have proven to be highly successful at other museums and so should be considered by the museum. These low-tech responses include speakers' bureau and traveling exhibits. The Western Australian Museum could serve as a good model for this. Its outreach program permits the following interactions with the public: