the missing link: volunteers, stakeholders and museums - a case study
DESCRIPTION
using stakeholder theory to examine volunteer participation on a project to digitise literature for the Biodiversity Heritage Library.TRANSCRIPT
The Missing Link
Joe Coleman & Alan Nankirvis
Volunteers, Stakeholders and Museums:
A Case Study
We all know our stakeholders – Right?
They Don’t Look like this...
...Or This
Stakeholders Are the Museum
“…persons or interests that have a stake, something to gain or something to lose as a result of the [organisation’s] activities”
Stakeholders Are the Museum
Managing stakeholder relationships is important
Relative Saliency = Power, Influence and Urgency
SupportiveHigh Cooperative potential / Low competitive threat
UnsupportiveLow Cooperative potential / High competitive threat
MarginalLow Cooperative potential & Low competitive threat
Mixed BlessingHigh Cooperative potential & High competitive threat
Volunteers are my favourite Stakeholders
Museum Victoria has lots of them:
562 active volunteers
61% are female
Average age 57 years
37% have volunteered for 10 years or
more
Half volunteer at least one day per
week
The most important reason given for volunteering...
“The museum shares my values”
Biodiversity Heritage Library
Online library for biologists
Histrorical and current publications
Contributions from major natural history museums and research institutes
112,000 + volumes
All free and CC licensed
Digitisation Down Under
Making the best of what’s available
Digitisation Down Under
Workflow conducted by Volunteers
6 volunteers, 3 days / week
360 books or 101,000 pages
Become a gateway for other museum’s publications
Mostly things work...
...But sometimes they don’t!
“Not just doing ‘busy’ work Treated like professionals with respect.”
“The project is about safeguarding the legacy of scientific publications”
Being autonomous and trusted to handle valuable manuscripts and seeing interesting books
“Material is interesting because it is different from what I do “
“The morning teas are very nice. “
“Handling the old books is a very special experience”
We have not become extinct yet...
Digitisation expanded to include field notes and journals
Won an Arts Leadership award
Developing a package to assist other BHL partners
Volunteers have expanded...to include me!
What has been learned?By managing you stakeholders you can...
do a lot with very little
planning is important, but so is being able to change your plans.
Stakeholders may not always be who you expect
Ongoing communication is vital
Volunteers are eager to rise to a challenge
We are just one strand in a web of stakeholders
Thankyou
Tak