Digital museums

NMDC members have embraced technological change and have developed new platforms to enable an ever-increasing audience to access the collections.

The British Museum collaborated with the BBC to deliver the multi-platform project, A History of the World in 100 Objects and has gone on to become a leader in the field of cinema 'live broadcast' of major exhibitions, such as the 2014 blockbuster, the Vikings. 

The V&A also partnered with the BBC for the Handmade in Britain project. Tate provides content as one of the 53 major commissions on the BBC/Arts Council England 2012 multi-platform digital project The Space . The BBC has committed a redevelopment of the Space, and a greater slice of digital only cultural content on platforms such as BBC iplayer, as well as broadcasting parts of festivals such as Museums at Night where NMDC members are well represented.

Public access and commercial reuse of digital content

This 2015 report commissioned by the NMDC from the Collections Trust examines how museums are balancing the twin aims of maximising public access to their digital content and promoting their own financial sustainability.  Striking the Balance sets out the findings and recommendations from an 18 month study of the different methods and approaches employed by NMDC member institutions.  Read more.

National Museums Online Learning Project

Nine of the UK’s leading museums and galleries combined their own online collections for the first time in February 2009. The National Museums Online Learning Project brings the nation’s inspirational collections into one place, providing a search facility that spans collections from the British Museum, Imperial War Museum, National Portrait Gallery, Natural History Museum, Royal Armouries, Sir John Soane’s Museum, Tate, Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) and The Wallace Collection.  It was the first time so many national museums and galleries have worked together in this way.  More here.