QR Codes in Nova Scotia Museums - Part 4

I was reminded last week that the museum community is just that - a community.  We're small, and we all seem to know each other.  Whether we went through the same museum studies program, met at a workshop or conference, or were connected through the world wide web, we're a talkative bunch.  We help each other out  and share information so that no one has to reinvent the wheel and the general public gains a better appreciation of heritage. 
So this post goes out to the Western Development Museum in Saskatchewan where my former dig buddy and fellow Fleming alum Mark Anderson is the Conservation Technician.  They'll be using qr codes during their Pion-Era threshing festival in July.  So if you happen to be in Saskatoon in July and have never been to a threshing festival, or the WDM, it is definitely worth checking it out.

As with any pilot project, you learn a lot along the way.  So here are some of our challenges and lessons learned throughout the process.  I hope they're of some help to other museums during their qr code adventures.

Challenges

1. Content. 
When working in groups it can sometimes be difficult for people to agree on content.  This was especially true with entirely volunteer-run museums with loose operational structures since no one was really in charge of making the final decision.
We also found that some people didn't realize the full potential of the qr codes until fairly late in the process.  With such a new technology and steep learning curve, it took awhile for some people to figure out how the codes would best serve their museum.

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2. Technical Issues.
With a number of cell phone & internet providers, it is difficult to guarantee that every visitor will be able to use the qr codes.  The cell phone coverage offered by one company is very different from that offered by another.  Sticking to cell phone service also means your visitors could get surprised with a big phone bill, especially if they are tourists.  To resolve this issue we focused on using wireless internet so that accessing the codes is free.  This meant a lot of extra work configuring connections and dealing with security settings.  And in some rural areas, we still had reception issues due to the nature of the site - lots of trees and buildings that interfere with the signal, if the signal even reaches that far.

3. Reaching the intended audience. 
We did a certain amount of marketing for our pilot project, but we definitely could/should have done more.  Local newspapers & media seem more interested than province-wide media.  We also found that social media and other information sharing sites  caught and shared articles and mentions of the project. 

4. Troubleshooting on-site. 
We have found that some older models of blackberries and random other smartphones don't always want to launch the codes right away.  Since most museum staff/volunteers aren't cell phone or technical experts this can lead to a frustrated visitor and bad press.  We have a troubleshooting tip sheet for participating sites, but it is impossible to foresee every scenario for why the codes don't work.


Lessons Learned
1. Let the stories guide you. 
Rather than selecting artifacts first and trying to figure out what information to embed in a qr code, focus on what you already know.  This will give you time to dig deeper in other areas, and may spark interest in the public to share more information with you.

2. Be prepared. 
Make sure you have extra batteries and memory cards, and that your batteries are fully charged and your cards empty before you start to shoot video (or take photos).  Nothing is worse than a camera going dead right in the middle of something exciting.

3. Put yourself in the visitor's shoes. 
Don't take for granted that your visitors will be intrigued by the same thing that fascinates you.  Monitor the audience response (not just whether or not the qr codes are being used) regularly to make sure your content remains relevant and compelling.

4. Partner with other museums and organizations. 
Two heads are better than one, and 20 qr codes are better than 10.  If visitors know that a group of museums or sites are offering this "service", they will take longer exploring the museum, which can mean more of an economic spin-off for the community.

5. Back up all your files. 
Whether it's the raw video footage, unedited images, or the qr codes themselves, save everything.  You never know when a file will corrupt or be lost. 

This is the last post for the qr code series.  I hope people learned a little something from my ramblings.  As I mentioned previously, I'll be including usage stats in my monthly updates, so stay tuned to find out how museum visitors respond to this new offering over the coming months.

QR Codes in Nova Scotia Museums - Part 3

So now that we've created the content and qr codes, how do we know if it's working?  We used the goo.gl service to shorten urls and track usage.  I have a nice little spreadsheet with all the codes listed, and so monitoring the stats is as easy as clicking on the hyperlink.
 
Not only do we need to track usage for the participating museums, but we also need to report on this to our funder (CHIN).  With a number of the museums being closed for the season, we know that these statistics won't be very reliable for interpretation until the summer tourist season.  Until then, we'll be depending on year-round museums for our information. 

The first codes were launched on February 4th, and since that time five other museums have posted the codes.  Only four of these sites are really open to the public, with the other two being open by appointment.  Five of the other six participating museums are also seasonal, so we aren't expecting to see big results until May/June.  To date, 85% of the views have been from the Museum of Natural History.  They were the first to launch and are always a busy site.  The second busiest site is the Admiral Digby Museum, which launched their codes on March 17th. Our numbers aren't huge by any stretch of the imagination, but as qr codes become more common in Nova Scotia and summer traveling begins, we're hoping to see a major increase.

Here's what we've learned so far...

Interpreting the Stats:

1. Advertising is important.  This is still a new technology for Canada, and a lot of Nova Scotians have no idea what these funny-looking things are.  We used simple posters to inform the public about what they are and how they work, and have troubleshooting handouts available at each site.

2. Placement of the qr codes is important.  Make sure they are in a well-lit area and very visible - either on/with the exhibit label or text panel, or on the wall next to the display.  We can tell from the stats that when these rules aren't followed, the codes don't get viewed as frequently.  Remember that nothing about the code itself will attract the visitor since they all look the same from a distance. 

3. We forgot about iPods!  It's not necessarily the end of the world if your visitors don't have a smartphone.  If they've got an iPod touch, they can download a qr reader and enjoy the content along with phone users.

4. There is an urban/rural divide.  So far, the codes are being used far more in Halifax than in rural areas.

5. Weekends are busiest.  The stats graph shows clear spikes on Fridays and Saturdays.  It will be interesting to see how summer holidays affect this trend.

6. Kids think this is magic.  The Curator of the Admiral Digby Museum was recently doing a school group tour for a grade 2 class and showed them a few codes with her Blackberry.  One student exclaimed, "you...you...you mean he is in THERE?" as she watched an oral history video.

I'll be including usage statistics with my monthly updates for the next six months, so check back to see how things progress over the summer.  And if you happen to be visiting one of our participating sites, don't forget to scan some codes with your smartphone or iPod touch.

Last post in the QR Code series will be on challenges and lessons learned - stay tuned.

QR Codes in Nova Scotia Museums - Part 2

Creating the QR codes is a simple process - what takes the most thought is what kind of content to use.  The more we talked to participating museums, the more options we heard.  Your imagination is really the limit.

Part of the allure of testing out QR codes was the fact mentioned in Part 1; we've been conducting a lot of artifact research over the past few years and few museums have brought this new information into their exhibits.  This information is available online through Artefacts Canada and the Virtual Museum of Canada, so linking to it would be easy enough.  We also knew that a number of museums had conducted oral history projects and had video and audio files sitting on shelves.  How better to bring history to life than by letting it speak for itself?

CONTENT SUGGESTIONS

1. Readings From Books
Reading short sections of relevant published works can be an easy way to make engaging content.  It's easier to record high-quality audio than video, and if you're selling the book in the museum gift shop it can make a great advertisement.  These audio segments can be matched with photos, or even just the museum's logo and uploaded to YouTube.

2. Oral Histories
Community elders have great stories to share, which can be edited into short videos.  They can be placed near artifacts which they reference either thematically or directly.  Imagine having a description of housework in the 1930s placed in the kitchen of a historic house museum, or someone talking about their family's tradition of cabinetmaking with the QR code next to one of the cabinets.  Since many institutions have oral histories as part of their collection, this is an easy way to share that information.

3. Photo Slideshows
Another way to re-purpose existing content is to create simple slide shows using archival or other photographs.  These can be combined with either of the two audio types suggested above, paired with music, or simply kept silent.

4. Single Photographs
Even a single photo can make for effective content.  Memory Lane Heritage Village used QR Codes to link to advertisements from the 1930s and 1940s for objects they had on display.  This method is simple, but very effective.

5. Database Records
If some of your artifact records for objects on display have been placed online, a link to that content is a great way to share knowledge about that artifact without requiring a large text panel.  Records for items which are not or cannot be displayed can also be linked to, providing visitors with a peek into what's hiding in storage.  Our new CollectiveAccess database system will have the ability to produce codes for each object record, simplifying the process even more.

6. Audio Tours
QR codes can also be used to create narrated audio tours, providing introductions to rooms and further information on artifacts from curators and staff.

These are just a few methods that we tried out over the course of our project.  As I mentioned before, your imagination really is the limit.  So don't be afraid to try out some different kinds of content to see what your visitors prefer.  You could even take requests.

I'd love to hear from museum people about how you're using QR codes and what kinds of content you think works best.   Feel free to share :)

Stay tuned for part 3 - tracking usage.

QR Codes in Nova Scotia Museums - Part 1

On Friday we finally finished up our pilot project of using QR Codes to enhance interpretation in museums.  Looking back it has been a long journey - over a year since we first started talking about how such a project would work.  It occurred to me that I had never really delved into this project, so here's some background and a basic comments on the project. 

Background:

Over the past four years, community museums in Nova Scotia have participated in artifact research projects in order to enhance their knowledge of their collections.  Digital images of artifacts were taken, and the “enriched” records were uploaded to Artefacts Canada.  In addition to the research conducted on each specific item, a broader approach was taken in the compilation of a Nova Scotia Manufacturer’s Database.  Holding over 7300 entries related to artisans and manufacturing companies in the province, this information is not currently available to the general public, and is not being used by museums.  It is now time to incorporate this enriched information into the museums’ on-site interpretation.

At the Association of Nova Scotia Museum’s (ANSM) 2010 Spring Conference members requested assistance with interpretation, especially in looking at ways to make things more interactive through the use of technology.  This was identified as one of their top three priorities for ANSM.  To deliver on this request, ANSM embarked on a project to build on the CHIN-funded research work conducted over the past four years, and enhance the current interpretive offerings at participating museums.

ANSM worked with 12 museums from across the province to re-purpose existing content and develop new content to be posted online and shared on-site with QR codes.  These sites are spread out around the province, located in both rural and urban areas.  They represent the diverse nature of Nova Scotia’s heritage, including a specialized military museum, a sports hall of fame, an Acadian cultural centre, and Canada’s newest national museum.  Operating structures range from various community museum models to the provincial and federal governments.  By working with such a diverse group of sites, it was hoped that all museums, regardless of site or resource constraints, would be able to see how such a project could be implemented in their own organization.

One of the first tasks for Alexandra and Josh was to identify other museums that had used QR codes or other mobile technologies.  We wanted to know what worked, what didn't, and what they would change if they could do it all over again.  We may not have found any Canadian examples but we learned a lot from these sites, including the Cleveland Art Museum (Cleveland, Ohio), the Louisiana State Museum (Baton Rouge, Louisiana), the MIT Museum (Cambridge, Massachusetts), the Mattress Factory (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), and especially the Powerhouse Museum (Sydney, Australia).  Throughout the course of the project, we began to see qr codes everywhere...we couldn't escape them.  They were in magazines and newspapers, tv ads, random junk mail, the list goes on and on.  Since Canada has been so much slower to adopt their use than other countries, we are taking this as a good sign. 

Many of our biggest hurdles were caused by the structure of the project rather than any difficulties arising from QR codes and web content. Many of the sites we worked with were located many hours away from our office in Halifax, and the amount of time we were able to spend on-site was very limited. This meant that getting content from sites was often challenging. The distance was also sometimes an issue with communications, making discussions about content types and possibilities difficult. In a situation where content for QR codes were being developed in-house, this would not be an issue.

Here it should again be stressed that the key to the success of a project such as this is the content. The novelty of QR codes can only go so far, and if what they link to does not enhance a visitor’s museum experience they will not be viable over the long-term.

Another issue we faced was the lack of standards for mobile content. There is a dizzying range of phones which can access QR technology, each with different display abilities; some, such as iPhones, display Internet content almost the same as a regular web browser, while others are very limited in their abilities. We received a large amount of conflicting advice and much time was lost trying to find the best way to deliver content, before ultimately deciding to rely on larger sites, like YouTube, which have already done the leg work of making content mobile-friendly.

That's all for now, but over the course of the week I'll post other info related to content, usage stats, etc.