While ordinary mortals ponder the wisdom of digitising their music collections and selling off their CDs, museums and galleries face a similar problem writ very large indeed. Johnny Acton looks at some of the issues surrounding digitisation.

The V&A museum's website, featuring Every Object Tells a Story. Credit Victoria and Albert Museum/Culture Online How can museums and galleries make the most of the opportunities provided by digitisation?  The people responsible for creating the next generation of cultural tools paint an exciting picture of the sector's future, a future which in some cases has already arrived:

'From virtual tours of closed historical sites, to the sharing of digital objects such as fragile fossils or cuneiform tablets between scientists...3D digitising is opening up new possibilities for the study of science, culture and art.' Mark Rioux, Institute of Information Technology, National Research Council of Canada

As stimulating as such scenarios are, they must seem very distant to some in the heritage business. It is important for museums and galleries not to be intimidated, but it is equally important for them not to over-extend themselves.

Smaller institutions in particular need to temper their digital ambitions with financial realism. Curators can comfort themselves with the thought that successful technology that is wildly expensive today invariably becomes affordable tomorrow (a pattern confirmed by the histories of mobile phones, televisions and personal computers).

At the same time, the cultural sector should be under no illusions: digital technology is here to stay and its influence is only going to get bigger. What matters is for museums and galleries to be imaginative in the use of the digital techniques that they can afford and well-informed about the possibilities open to them. Above all, they should never lose sight of what they are using new technology for. As Dave Patten, head of new media at the Science Museum in London, says: 'The content is all. Don't be sucked into the technology for its own sake. By all means use the technology to enhance your visitors' experience, but don't let the technology dictate the experience.' This should serve as a mantra for anyone involved in the digitisation of collections.

With this in mind, we can turn to specific uses of digital technology by cultural institutions. This can be divided conveniently into two areas: in-house and on the internet.

In-house

The potential in-house benefits of digitisation fall into four groups:

Collection management
Many cultural institutions are already reaping the benefits of cataloguing their collections in digital form. The obvious benefits include speed and ease of access to records and the saving of space that would otherwise be taken by filing cabinets and index cards.

Digitisation offers another tempting prospect to curators burdened by the physical demands of caring for large stores of artefacts unlikely ever to be exhibited because they are poor quality or because the institution owns several examples. Capturing the salient features of 'lesser' items in digital form potentially frees curators to dispose of them with a clear conscience, particularly once scanning techniques have approached the molecular level of resolution (as they inevitably will).

Conservation
Digital objects are far more durable than their analogue equivalents. If multiple copies are made and distributed via computer networks, high-resolution digital images are essentially indestructible. The internet, we should remember, was designed to be capable of surviving a full-scale nuclear war.

Enhancing the quality of the visitor experience
The digitisation of collections offers tantalising possibilities for enhancing visitor experience, both in terms of breadth and depth. Breadth-wise, it can provide access to closed areas of museums or galleries and allow visitors to view artefacts not on display due to limited physical space.

On the depth front, virtual objects can be manipulated and viewed at angles or magnifications unavailable in the 'real' world. Many museum and gallery professionals are already familiar with one in-house application of digital technology, namely the computer-based kiosk. Such devices allow visitors to investigate exhibits in greater depth if they so choose without impinging on the viewing experience of others. They offer similar benefits to websites (see below), but on-site.

Another digital application that is the focus of much research in the cultural sector is the PDA, or 'personal digital assistant'. These devices, already familiar in the form of personal organisers such as Palm Pilots and BlackBerries, are versatile hand-held computers with multi-media capability. Suitably programmed or adapted, they promise to offer museum/gallery visitors bespoke tours based on their interests and preferences. They will also be able to detect the specific exhibits to which their users are closest, automatically conveying relevant information and options. Some pilot PDA schemes are up and running, for instance at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge and at six buildings in Glasgow designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh (see BBC News' site for more). Museums and galleries are well advised to monitor developments in this exciting new field.

The potential benefits of kiosks, PDAs and other in-house digital applications are clearly great, but as ever it is important not to let technological enthusiasm run away with itself. When planning a multimedia exhibit it is essential to define the aims of the project and its target audience. This is vital for both the focus of a project and for evaluation purposes.

Generation of revenue
The Science Museum website offers, among other things, a history of science area and a lively news section. Digitisation offers museums and galleries the possibility of new revenue streams through licensing arrangements, subscription and the sale of interactive DVDs. You are well advised, however, not to be too generous. To quote Dave Patten of the Science Museum again: 'Companies are very keen to get their hands on good content. Do not give your content up lightly. Be very careful about giving rights to reproduce parts of your collection in electronic format. Make sure that if you do go into partnership with anybody to produce a commercial product, you have a good licensing agreement with your partners, and that you are paid for the use of your content.'

The internet
A good website offers a great deal more than bare information about opening hours, location and 'what's on'. David Dawson, head of digital futures at the Museums and Libraries Association (MLA), suggests the following recipe: 'Take one part audience research, add a large spoonful of up-to-date news and events, sprinkle with in-depth collections information, add a little interactivity and creativity, place in the technological oven until done.'

He also advises museums and galleries to 'see the website as an integrated activity, just as much part of the service that they offer as their exhibition programme or enquiry service', and to create digital projects that can be sustained and developed beyond the short-term nature of project funding.

Increased access
The most obvious benefit of a website to a museum or gallery is increased access to its collections. In theory, this extends to anyone who is able to get online, whether they are house-bound or living in northern Greenland. The crucial thing is to make people aware of the site's existence. Aside from 'conventional' techniques like leaflets and advertisements, there are two main ways of doing this. The first is to enlist a technical expert to make sure your site appeals to search engines. The second is to forge links - literal hypertext links - with other websites, especially ones devoted to local tourism, belonging to other museums/galleries or thematically linked to your collection.

Increasing access is not just a matter of the number of people exposed to collections. Just as with the in-house use of digital installations (see above), it also concerns breadth and depth. A well-designed website not only gives a satisfying alternative to a physical visit to a museum or gallery, it provides avenues for exploration that in many ways transcend it.

Hypertexting and links
As with kiosks, the click format enables visitors to museum and gallery websites to investigate the parts of collections that capture their imaginations to whatever depth they desire, only this time in the comfort of their homes. Links to other relevant websites can greatly enhance this learning potential.

Engagement with technologically orientated young people
As Dawson puts it: 'The PlayStation generation of children and students expects everything to be online.'

Digitisation allows museums and galleries to engage with the technologically orientated younger generation via their preferred media. If used intelligently, it can counter the unfair but still prevalent perception that such institutions are stuffy places stuck in the past.

Community involvement
Websites are a great way of involving the community in your museum or gallery. Local people are not just prospective visitors; they are a potential mine of material of automatic interest to those living in the catchment area. One excellent example of an online community initiative is the Storymaker project run by the 24 Hour Museum. Residents of the cities covered are invited to contribute trails, histories and features relating to their home towns and guided through the submission process. Museums and galleries should, however, prepare themselves for just how powerful community involvement can be.

To quote Dawson again: 'Interacting with online social spaces and community-generated content challenges the expertise and boundaries of cultural institutions. In the online world, everyone has a voice, and anyone can be an expert.'

© ProjectsETC, Culture Online, DCMS