Crowdsourcing our Cultural Heritage – Mia Ridge, Open University, UK

Crowdsourcing, or asking the general public to help contribute to shared goals, is becoming increasingly popular in the cultural sector.

For the first time Crowdsourcing our Cultural Heritage, brings together the collected wisdom of international leaders in the theory and practice on this subject specifically tailored to those working or thinking of working in heritage.

The book features eight accessible case studies of groundbreaking projects from leading cultural heritage and academic institutions, and four thought-provoking essays that reflect on the wider implications of this engagement for participants and on the institutions themselves.

Crowdsourcing our Cultural Heritage will be essential reading for information and cultural management professionals, students and researchers in universities, corporate, public or academic libraries, museums and archives.

“Any cultural institution thinking of turning to crowdsourcing should pause and read this book first. Combining comprehensive case studies with subtle and well-informed reflection on what it means to invite contributions from a crowd, it is the first volume to seriously address a growing part of museum and archive practice.” – Chris Lintott, Principal Investigator, Galaxy Zoo and Zooniverse.org and Trustee of the National Maritime Museum, UK

September 2014 £65

 

Redisplaying Museum Collections – Hannah Paddon

“This is not a ‘how-to’ guide; more importantly it provides a much-needed analysis and trenchant reflection on redisplay in UK museums that has been enabled by Heritage Lottery funding. Keen insights, carefully made comparisons of museum processes, and the combination of theory and practice makes Redisplaying Museum Collections an important addition to the museological literature that will be welcomed by academics and practitioners alike.” – Peter Davis, Newcastle University, UK

Redisplaying Museum Collections is one of the first books to examine, in depth, the multi-million pound redisplay and reinterpretation process in British museums in the early 21st century.

Acknowledging the importance of the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) as project catalyst, Hannah Paddon explains and explores the complex process, from the initial stages of project conceptualisation to the final stages of museum re-opening and exhibition evaluation.

Paddon also provides a detailed look, using three case study museums, at the factors which shape each museum redisplay project including topics such as museum architecture, government agendas and the exhibition team.

Finally, the book offers discussions and conclusions around pitfalls and successes and thoughts about the future of collection redisplay.

October 2014 £60

 

Uncertain Images: Museums and the Work of Photographs – Elizabeth Edwards, De Montfort University, UK and Sigrid Lien, University of Bergen, Norway

“We have been needing a book like this for a long time. Looking at what photographs do, and could do, in museums, it beautifully fills a gap that has for too long stayed open in the literature on museums, museum practice, representation and photographs.
“On these pages we see photographs as acts of remembrance, as haunting, as absent, as representational forms and as much more besides. And throughout, this essential new volume not only explores the work of photographs in museums, but also makes a significant contribution to far wider debates on the processes of representation.” – Sandra Dudley, University of Leicester, UK

Uncertain Images: Museums and the work of Photographs brings into focus the ubiquitous yet entirely unconsidered work that photographs are put to in museums.

The authors’ argument is that there is an economy of photographs in museums which is integral to the processes of the museum, and integral to the understanding of museums.

The international contributors, drawn from curators and academics, reflect a range of visual and museological expertise.

After an introduction setting out the range of questions and problems, the first part addresses broad curatorial strategies and ways of thinking about photographs in museums.

Shifting the emphasis from curatorial practices and anxieties to the space of the gallery, this is followed by a series of case studies of exhibitionary practices and the museum strategies that support them.

The third section focuses on the role of photographs in the museum articulation of ‘difficult histories’. A final section addresses photograph collections in a digital environment.

New technologies and new media have transformed the management, address and purposing in photographs in museums, from cataloguing practices to streaming on social media.

These growing practices challenge both traditional hierarchies of knowledge in museums and the location of authority about photographs.

The volume emerges from PhotoCLEC, a HERA funded project on museums and the photographic legacy of the colonial past in a postcolonial and multicultural Europe.

October 2014 £65

 

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