Interview: Institute of Museum and Library Services
Date: November 13, 2008
Venue: Institute of Museum and Library Services, Washington DC.
Interviewee:
Marsha Semmel, Deputy Director for Museum Services and Director for Strategic Partnerships
Mamie Bittner, Deputy Director, Office of Policy, Planning, Research and Communications
Interviewer:
Junko Iwabuchi, Professor, The Research Institute for Digital Media and Content, Keio University
Edward Ifshin, Pacific Vision Partners
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-1. Q. JI: I am very interested in IMLS and what you do. But people in Japan are probably not familiar with IMLS. This interview will probably be the first exposure for Japanese audiences. Could you tell us how it was formed? Whose idea was it to combine this into one agency.MB: The US federal government has been supporting library programs for over 50 years and museum programs for over 30 years. However until 1996 these programs were administered by two different federal agencies. The library programs were part of the Department of Education and the museum programs were administered by an independent agency called the Institute of Museum Services. The Institute of Museum Services is one of three independent agencies that support the advancement of cultural institutions and programming in the US.
In 1996, both programs were reviewed by Congress and the decision was made to move the library programs out of the Department of Education and create a new independent agency called the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
The impetus for the change was recognition that there was a set of policy issues unique to libraries, especially public libraries that were not the core policy issues at the Department of Education, which must be primarily focused on the classroom. The intention was to create an agency that would address significant library and information services and policy issues.
This issue was discussed in various Congressional committees and hearings and it seemed that the best solution was to form a new agency that would combine administration for federal library and museum programs. The idea came from the Congressional staff, some influential and imaginative Congressmen and also the library community. So the Institute of Museum and Library Services was created and it has been the source of increased federal attention to issues such as access to information, the digital divide, and the challenges to connectivity which are even greater now with the pervasive use of audio and video. The Institute of Museum and Library Services receives it budget from the US Congress, USD 260 million last year and has a staff of 60.
MB: The Institute of Museum and Library Services is the primary source of federal support for the nation’s 122,000 libraries and 17,500 museums. The Institute's mission is to create strong libraries and museums that connect people to information and ideas. The Institute works at the national level and in coordination with state and local organizations. Grants for library services are made in two ways: through a population-based grant to each state for technology and service needs and through several national competitions to support education and training, research, digital innovation and collaboration. Museum grants are made only through national competitions and support a wide range of activities including: building institutional capacity, conservation, and projects that advance the field through leadership, innovation and partnerships. Both the library and museum programs have special initiatives to support Native American tribes.
MS: The director of IMLS is appointed by the President and confirmed by the US Senate, as are an Advisory Board of Directors. And there are also professional and voluntary boards as well. These boards representing museum and library professional are appointed by the President, confirmed by the Senate and have rotating terms.
We have three major strategic areas that support our work:
1. Sustaining cultural heritage and knowledge and actually taking care of real objects, (non virtual ones) and enhancing digital collections and technology.
2. Enhancing learning and innovation partnerships with universities, institutions, schools systems and community organizations.
3. Building capacity of staff and volunteers who work in museums and libraries. Keeping up to date on skills: both technical skills and new skills in working with communities. Also because there is a change in generations going on, our capacity building skills in these areas is a very important part of our work.
-2. Q. EI: Could you outline the challenges you face in your mission?MS: We have a relatively limited budget so it is challenging to match our funds and investment capacity to the needs of these institutions. One of the greatest challenges is helping institutions keep up with changes in technology and digitizing collections and finding new ways to combine and access these digital collections. The public and our authorizers in the Congress value museum and library collections. But these institutions and their needs are diverse and complex, and another challenge is to effectively communicate the impact of libraries and museums so that their role in addressing issues of national and community concern are known and appreciated by policy makers.
-3. Q. EI: From where does IMLS get its major funding, is it primarily the federal government? Or the private sector?MB: There are more than 120,000 libraries and 17,500 museums in the United States. So our federal appropriation is a very small part of the total operating budget for US libraries and museums. Our goal is to provide strategic leadership and stimulus to these institutions. Libraries and museums receive funding from a wide range of public sources including the US federal government and state and local governments, and there is also substantial support from private corporations, public foundations and most significantly for museums, earned income. There is a very diverse network of support.
-4. Q. EI: to meet these challenges, do you work with the private sector as well and are not entirely dependent on government support.MS: Yes, we do. But by far the major support for IMLS is from the government. We do partner with other foundations and private organizations, as well as other federal agencies, in support of projects that fulfill our respective missions. In addition, for our museum grantees, we also have a matching cost sharing requirement through which they, too, demonstrate that they are also making an investment in their project. Often museums secure additional private support for IMLS-funded endeavors.
-5. Q. EI: How about technology, does it play a major role in the mission of IMLS?MB: It plays a major role.
Technology impacts every aspect of library and museum service. It has changed how libraries and museums care for, organize and share their collections and how they engage the public.
We support a wide range of activities that help incorporating digital technology into the business of library and museum service. We support the use of technology for projects in individual libraries and museums and also through research and the development of new digital tools.
One project that we are very excited about is collaboration between IMLS and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Together we are studying, the impact of free access to the Internet in the nation’s public libraries. Currently nearly 100% of US public libraries provide their communities with free access to computers and software and data bases. The study includes the development of performance indicators that will help librarians and policy makers make informed decisions about sustaining connectivity and services.
And Marsha has a program she is leading on 21st century skills and how museums and libraries can help our citizens obtain these 21st century skills.
-6. Q.EI: Could you expand on that, 21st century skills.MS: We all know that we have a global knowledge economy. And there are different skills needed now that much routine work is being done by computers. The workplace--and the community--are calling for creativity, innovation, and computer literacy skills, among other 21st century skills. Students in K-12 through adults need to master information technology skills in order to n sort through and synthesize the vast amounts of information that are available through multiple media channels. And we need to hone our knowledge of various literacies and content areas in order to compete and contribute in the classroom, at work, and in our communities. In these times of rapid change, the need to master these skills is getting more acute, whether you are in 3rd grade or a corporate office.
Therefore, wee are working with an advisory task force to see how museum and library collections, expertise and resources can support 21st century learning skills. These skills include critical thinking and problem solving, global awareness, communication and collaboration, creativity and innovation and information and communications literacy. How can museums and libraries enhance capability for self-directed learning, collaboration, and “hands-on” learning in the workplace, the classroom, and life.
This is a two part project: 1) is a report designed for policy makers and leaders that will be available in May of 2009; 2) for museum and library professionals, we are developing a self-assessment tool so that they can determine how their institutions measure up on a scale of best practices in 21st century skills. These products will address museum and library resources available to the public access on-site at museums and libraries, as well as off- site through technology.
Although virtual access to museum collections, per se, is not part of the 21st century skills project, this is an area where IMLS provides significant grant support, for individual institutional digitization projects as well as multi-institutional national leadership project.
We know that, in our “Goggle-dominated world,” it is a shame that many museum collections have been not yet been documented in digital form, or, if they have been digitized, the collections information may be restricted in proprietary systems that are difficult to link. What a wealth of information we would have if these collections were more widely accessible. For example, hypothetically, I would surmise that if you were in Kyoto or Tokyo and wanted to find out about Japanese screens in American collections, it is currently difficult to find out about the screens in each of the U.S. museums. It is even harder to draw interpretive linkages between the collections to learn more about their collective historical and cultural significance and the ‘bigger story’ they represent.
-7. Q. EI: Have you found resistance to what you are doing within the museum and library communities?MS: No, our communities are eager to do more with technology. On the whole, the library community has been ahead of the museum community in providing access, developing and using metadata, and creating common standards and protocols used across institutions. IMLS has promoted standards and protocols for digitization projects that we fund. And we have supported a number of National Leadership Grants to museums and libraries to develop models of digital tools and other resources that have been adopted by many other institutions. So we are seeing an increasing consensus around standards, interoperability, and collaboration. At first, museums were concerned that if they put collections online, no one would come to visit them. This has been thoroughly disproved. And Mamie has more to add on this.
MB: We did a research project about how museums and libraries in the digital age are being used online and in person. Through our research we found an uptrend in use since people are able to visit museums using online technology. The presence of collections online not only drives visitors to the site; we found that people who visit online are more likely to visit in person than people who don’t visit online.
However, one of the challenges is there are some policy makers in the Congress who think that if everything is online people don't need to go a museum or library, so do we really need these institutions? That is what I used to hear when I went up to Capital Hill (Congress) to provide information about the agency. But that has become less of an issue, and there is much more acknowledgement that with the growth of more information online, the need for new digital tools, large academic projects around data mining, the needs of the humanities researcher of the future, the increasing reliance of museums and libraries on these tools, that information navigators (museum and library professionals) are even more in demand and necessary. And the primary role of museums and libraries has not changed: to effectively connect people to information and help create knowledge requires the expertise of the museum and library professional.
-8. Q. EI: How do you promote and encourage grants and goals of IMLS? MS: We have formal grants programs that are publicly announced; we go to conferences, attend national and regional meetings; and use other means to inform the field of grant opportunities as well as grant awards. Panels of peer reviewers evaluate each proposal and make recommendations to the IMLS Director; these panelists also comment and advise on the goals and guidelines for each grant category. The hundreds of panelists and reviewers also serve as unofficial “IMLS ambassadors” and help to spread news about the agency and our programs.
We also support WebWise, (
www.imls.gov/webwise) an annual conference about museums and libraries in the digital age that started about ten years ago. This conference brings together technology experts, museum and library professionals, educators, and others in public policy to showcase model projects (many supported through IMLS grants) and technologies from the US and around the world and encourage cross-fertilization across museums and libraries, which is one of our main goals. WebWise is always oversubscribed and the proceedings are published online. That has encouraged a synergy between these two (museum and library) communities, one of the happy by-products of creating IMLS. There are lots of areas of museum/library convergence, especially because of technology and the knowledge and information in their respective collections. In addition, we promote museum/library collaboration grants that focus on ways in which museums and libraries work together to address community needs.
MB: The focus has really been on public access and use. What we have found in combining these library and museum programs is that an individual really does not care that this information online comes from a museum or library, what we care about is his ability access and understand it.
One of the challenges we have now is that the communities we serve are eager to know what works and what doesn't. We want information on outcomes and not just descriptions of research projects. We are interested in sharing and harvesting best practices, promoting projects that are successful and how it can shared with our communities in accessible ways. We are interested in not only reporting but in evaluating the results and to avoid future mistakes and not reinventing things that have already been done.
-9. Q. EI: Could you describe how you work with other government agencies in strategic partnerships? The other day we met with director Office of Digital Humanities (http://www.neh.gov/odh/ at National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) .He noted that NEH and IMLS have collaborated on various projects. How does that partnership work?MS: We have had partnerships with several agencies. The challenge for NEH is to help scholars to create new digital tools and to advance humanities scholarship. IMLS, with our focus on technology has worked in collaboration with NEH and its Office of Digital Humanities on a program called “Advancing Knowledge.” This project provided grants to bring together humanities scholars, museums and libraries to come up with innovative ways to work together more effectively.
-10. Q. JI: Could you describe three profound projects?MS: One project is collaboration between the ECHO Lake Aquarium and Science Center in Burlington, Vermont with the Vermont Folklife Center and the public library systems in Vermont and upstate New York to create an online community network of and for the rural populations surrounding Lake Champlain dedicated to improving the health of the lake. . This museum/library collaboration will create a Web site populated with audience-created videos documenting the natural history of the area and the human impact on it as well as other programs involving more than 150 libraries and residents in eight river watersheds surrounding the lake.
MS: Another one is with University of Southern California, (USC). This research project is collaboration with Cultural Heritage Imaging, using technology experts from Hewlett Packard (HP). HP developed a technology (Reflection Transformation Imaging) to enable scholars to access and view objects in high-resolution 3D without having to physically handle them. In collaboration with one of USC’s museums and the university’s School of Religion, 3D artifacts such as ancient clay cuneiform tablets and other archaeological objects can be examined remotely without actually handling them. IMLS is supporting the perfecting of this technique, resulting in a tool that will simplify the technology for ease of use by almost any museum. It will also produce the complete process history of each digital object, enabling replication by scholars.
MB: Connecting to Collections (
www.imls.gov/colllections) is an IMLS-wide initiative dedicated to the preservation of objects and collections. It came out of a study, the Heritage Health Index, that revealed that museums, libraries, and archives in the United States have dire and dramatic collections care needs relating to 1) the preservation of their collections 2) emergency planning 3) staff training for care of collections 4) public and private sector awareness of and programs to support preservation and conservation of collections. This initiative is specially designed to reach small and medium-sized institutions and provide resources including small grants, a “conservation bookshelf,” online resources and conferences throughout the country.
-11. Q. JI: Can you give me some brief biographic and professional background and how you got involved in this work?MB: I have a degree in Political Science and worked on Capitol Hill. I have always thought that museums and libraries are places of wonder: where people go to do self-directed learning and are exciting places to be; and, they have great power to improve the quality of life. My job is to communicate to the Congress and the public what IMLS does, to develop policy and direct research.
MS: I have a degree in Art History and have worked in or with museums since 1975. My museum experience includes art, history, and ethnographic museums, starting with the Taft Museum in Cincinnati and including the Smithsonian, The B’nai B’rith National Jewish Museum, Conner Prairie, and Women of the West. In addition, I’ve been fortunate to have exciting positions in the federal cultural agencies, including the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities (where I directed the Division of Public Programs), and now IMLS.
-12. Q. JI: How do you all define Digital Humanities and Digital Curation?MS: Neither of us is an expert in this area. My understanding of Digital Humanities is using digital technology to conduct and document research, to connect and synthesize your research using digital tools, and drawing on (often large) digital data sets and collections. It offers new ways to organize and analyze knowledge and now includes gaming and the world of social networking. When it began it was much more about documentation, counting, and calculating. Now, in the world of social networking, it is about having a conversation; about new forms of collaboration; and about the discovery of new knowledge impossible without new technology.
MB: It is such an exciting area. Digital Curation is about combining and recombining of information and data and looked at as it was never available before. New norms of expertise and meaning are evolving, adding to the richness of digital humanities and digital connectivity. And now there are active conversations going on about “authority,” “expertise” and “meaning” within the museum and library communities. It is fascinating.
MS: …adding and somewhat related to this...our agency has a third goal devoted to building skills for library and museum professionals. To that end, we funded a symposium in April 2008 at Florida State University that explored t areas of commonality among museum and library information professionals or cultural heritage professionals involved in digital curation, digital humanities and digital scholarship about what skill sets are needed.
This CHIPS (Cultural Heritage Information Professionals Symposium) conference convened leaders from museums, libraries and archives to discuss how professional training and learning converge across these areas, especially in the digital age. Outcomes of the conference will be the publication of a report, and issues of three different journals--in the museum, library and archival fields-- to promote further exploration of this issue. There is much interest by library and information schools that are looking at ways to expand their offerings for all cultural heritage professionals.
-13. Q. EI: What would be the one thing you would wish for if there were no budget constraints?MS: It is not only a question of money or budgets. There is great need for resources to digitize the unique holdings in museums and libraries, especially to make them accessible.
Without this, there is the possibility that our citizens may be deprived of the access to richness of our collections.
MB: …it is just not an issue of money, but there is so many unknown areas about where we are going on the issue between public and private ownership of content; an issue of maintaining the entry point of access at a reasonable level; providing broad access to intellectual property while new business models are being constructed to support the development of sources of income, creativity, knowledge, products and services. Big challenges are ahead of us.
-14. Q. JI: How about the role of user-generated content? In the context, that many museums are now are using tools like “twitter, “flickr” to market their existence and sometimes they have some problems.MS: We have only just begun. There are more and more conversations between users and more conversations about the issue of “experts” versus “amateurs” (that is what Mamie was talking about before) both will bring up challenges. And we are supporting, through the WebWise and many national projects, pioneering work in the application and experimentation in user-generated content in the museum and library context.
MB: We are engaging audiences in new ways: challenges in determining how to manage authority and public trust issues; the “rights” and “responsibilities” at both ends. It is exciting to support the power of new technology to reach new audiences.
MS: (There are) all of these “digital natives” who are very comfortable in this role and have understandable expectations for our institutions. The institutions, to stay relevant and fulfill their missions, need to engage. Our audiences have so much knowledge about the holdings in our museums and libraries, and some museums are opening their collections and records and asking people to contribute this knowledge to the benefit of all, the “expert” and the “amateur.” IMLS invests in important research and development in this area, including projects like STEVE: The Museum Social Tagging Project (
http://www.steve.museum/) project at the Indianapolis Museum of Art.
-JI and EI: Thank you so much for spending so much of your time with us. It has been very informative.
