Digital resources for heritage organisations

Digital guide: Working with children and young people online

This guide has been produced by online safety experts Childnet International as part of our Digital Skills for Heritage initiative. 

Digital guide: Online security and privacy 

This guide includes advice on safely working with data, remote working and WiFi, video conferencing and social media. It has been produced by data protection specialists Naomi Korn Associates for our Digital Skills for Heritage initiative. 

Online meeting accessibility 

Drake music have published top tips for accessibility in video conferencing, online meetings and remote music sessions.   

Video conferencing support

Catalyst have produced several guides on getting started with video conferencing, from choosing the right software to phishing and security.   

Citizens Online provide a roundup of their recommended links for organisations wanting to use video conferencing to run meetings and events 

Stream Zoom through YouTube

Discover how to combine the functionality of Zoom with the benefits of YouTube in this guide (pdf), produced by The Arts Council and Digital Culture Network.

Smartphone videos

Another Arts Council and Digital Culture Network collaboration: top tips for making videos on your smart phone.

See more Arts Council / Digital Culture Network resources. 

Digital Things

In the Digital Things newsletter, Alec Ward shares a wide range of creative examples of how the cultural sector is making use of digital. 

Digital guide: Working with children and young people online

This guide has been produced by online safety experts Childnet International as part of our Digital Skills for Heritage initiative. 

Digital guide: Online security and privacy 

This guide includes advice on safely working with data, remote working and WiFi, video conferencing and social media. It has been produced by data protection specialists Naomi Korn Associates for our Digital Skills for Heritage initiative. 

Digital guide: Introduction to online accessibility

This guide is designed to help heritage organisations make their online content accessible to all. It has been produced by accessibility expert Alistair McNaught for our Digital Skills for Heritage initiative.

One-to-one sessions

As part of our Digital Skills for Heritage initiative, The Arts Marketing Association are hosting a number of free one-to-one consultation sessions for small to medium sized heritage organisations. Topics include digital access and inclusion.

Digital tools for communities

Produced by The National Lottery Community Fund, this Communities Essential Guide to Digital Tools offers several quick and easy virtual and tech-based tools, at low cost and high impact.

Learn from other charities’ services

These ‘service recipes’ from Catalyst are examples of how charities are making use of digital. Recipes include working digitally with vulnerable communities, helping direct workers make the transition to working remotely and moving physical activities online. 

Remote research

These Catalyst guides include conducting user research and making design research work remotely.  

Leading groups online

This free resource is for people who want to lead online courses, meetings, training and events during the coronavirus pandemic. From online facilitation experts Jeanne Rewa and Daniel Hunter. 

Subtitling

Create accessible subtitles by using these free training videos from StageTEXT.

Online meeting accessibility

Drake music have published top tips for accessibility in video conferencing, online meetings and remote music sessions.   

Make hidden histories visible

The Whose Knowledge guide helps institutions make women visible on Wikipedia. It encourages institutions to join and participate in #VisibleWikiWomen – a global campaign increasing the number of freely-licensed images of notable women on Wikipedia and the broader internet, addressing the online gender imbalance. The guide will be useful for anyone interested in working on Wikipedia or making hidden histories more visible.

Join global networks

Creative Commons (CC) has recently established CC Global Network Platforms – three new global networks, including the Open GLAM platform for cultural and heritage organisations, a copyright network and an e-learning network. The networks provide a space to share resources and improve collaboration.  

Free training and support 

Heritage Digital is a new project supported by The National Lottery Heritage Fund’s Digital Skills for Heritage initiative, which aims to increase free digital skills training and support available to heritage organisations. You can find a range of resources and activities relating to digital marketing, communications, rights and technologies.  

One-to-one sessions

As part of our Digital Skills for Heritage initiative, The Arts Marketing Association are hosting a number of free one-to-one consultation sessions for small to medium sized heritage organisations. Topics include working with collections.  

Create great online content

Discover what makes online content a success and learn how to create engaging content in line with business goals in this two-week course from FutureLearn.

Presenting collections online

View inspiring examples of the range of ways you can present collections and organise displays online from the Collections Trust. 

Podcasting

See Creative Boom’s step-by-step beginners guide on how to start a podcast in 2020.

Hannah Hethmon of Better Lemon Creative Audio provides a useful how to guide: Super Quick DIY Podcasting for Museums & Other Nonprofits Closed by COVID-19.

This two-week online course from FutureLearn teaches you how to plan, write and publish your own stories in podcast form. 

Stream Zoom through YouTube

Discover how to combine the functionality of Zoom with the benefits of YouTube in this guide (pdf), produced by The Arts Council and Digital Culture Network. See more Arts Council / Digital Culture Network resources.

Digital storytelling 

Watch Europeana’s Solve-It-Session webinar on digital storytelling with guests Dr Federica Bressan and Dr Susan Hazan.  

See this publication on Digital Storytelling and Cultural Heritage from Athena Plus.

Shane Snow looks at ways of telling stories to communicate products, brands and causes in this one-hour video.

Make hidden histories visible

The Whose Knowledge guide helps institutions make women visible on Wikipedia. It encourages institutions to join and participate in #VisibleWikiWomen – a global campaign increasing the number of freely-licensed images of notable women on Wikipedia and the broader internet, addressing the online gender imbalance. The guide will be useful for anyone interested in working on Wikipedia or making hidden histories more visible.

Instagram magazine

Digital Lab presents Jade Joseph’s practical ideas on creating a digital magazine for Instagram.  

Make video content using a smart phone

A guide on hardware, software and distribution by The Arts Council and Digital Culture Network. 

See more Arts Council / Digital Culture Network resources.

Virtual tours dos and don’ts

This article from Frame explores what does and doesn’t work in virtual tours. 

Five-minute digital guides

Digital Charity Lab have a range of five-minute guides, including podcasting for non-profits and Google Adwords for charities.

Subtitling

Create accessible subtitles by using these free training videos from StageTEXT.

Create an online exhibition

Use Art UK’s free digital tool Curations.

Stay up-to-date

In the Digital Things newsletter, Alec Ward shares a wide range of creative examples of how the cultural sector is making use of digital.  

Chris Unit publishes the Cultural Digital newsletter which provides an up to the minute round up of digital activity across the arts and heritage sectors.

Create an email newsletter

Read Culture24’s how to guide.

Maintaining digital heritage

Apps, microsites and collections online is a blog post from Mia Ridge looking at the ongoing maintenance of digital cultural heritage.

Social media

London Museum Development from the Museum of London has a YouTube channel which includes support videos for using social media.

Free training and support 

Heritage Digital is a new project supported by our Digital Skills for Heritage initiative, which aims to increase free digital skills training and support available to heritage organisations. You can find a range of resources and activities relating to digital marketing, communications, rights and technologies. 

Wikidata

Read an article by Dr Martin Poulter, Wikimedian in Residence at the University of Oxford: Wikidata: the new hub for cultural heritage.  

See this Europeana guide on how galleries, libraries archives and museums can get started with Wikidata.

This MediaWiki talk gives a 'gentle introduction to Wikidata for complete beginners' 

Wikimedia Deutschland have published a research report exploring how and why people in cultural industries use Wikidata (PDF). 

Data challenges and opportunities

This 2017 blog post from the British Library focuses on heritage and data.

Synchronising between an organisation’s collection and Wikipedia

This blog post from Wikimedia looks at data roundtripping.

Crowdsourcing

Samantha Blickhan, Zooniverse Humanities Research Lead, explores crowdsourcing for heritage organisations. 

Getting started with online learning techniques

This introductory guide covers different techniques to share your heritage online and help people to learn about the UK's history. It is produced by the Association for Learning Technology as part of our Digital Skills for Heritage initiative. 

Education technology

Dave Cormier coined the term Massive Open Online Community (MOOC) in 2008. He recently asked his community for recommendations for people getting started with online learning and he received a terrific response.

In this post, aimed at educators but with a wider use, Dave describes what he has learnt from moving online in a hurry. 

Creating open educational resources

Take a comprehensive introductory level course from the Open University on creating open educational resources.

Online delivery

Ufi VocTech Trust have produced a series of expert webinars to help trainers and teachers quickly move to online delivery. Webinar recordings include how to create accessible digital learning, choosing the right tools for online delivery, building your learning business via social media and monetising services.

Join global networks

Creative Commons (CC) has recently established CC Global Network Platforms – three new global networks, including the Open GLAM platform for cultural and heritage organisations, a copyright network and an e-learning network. The networks provide a space to share resources and improve collaboration.   

Free training and support

Heritage Digital is a new project supported by our Digital Skills for Heritage initiative. It aims to increase free digital skills training and support available to heritage organisations. You can find a range of resources and activities relating to digital marketing, communications, rights and technologies. 

Digital guide: Online security and privacy 

This guide includes advice on safely working with data, video conferencing and social media. It has been produced by data protection specialists Naomi Korn Associates for our Digital Skills for Heritage initiative. 

One-to-one sessions

As part of our Digital Skills for Heritage initiative, The Arts Marketing Association are hosting a number of free one-to-one consultation sessions for small to medium sized heritage organisations. Topics include digital audience engagement, fundraising and e-commerce and digital marketing. 

Fundraising during global crisis

This Arts Marketing Association article thinks through the next decade, including how to effectively communicate with donors. 

This article from Arts Professional looks at how to communicate with donors at a time of crisis. 

Using social media to raise funds

Watch Charity Digital’s step by step video guide, originally broadcast as part of their Digital Fundraising Day event in November 2019. 

Remix Academy

Remix Academy offers a number of webinars and step-by-step guides on topics including digital business models, monetising content and using low-cost technologies.  

Online presence

This free, two-week online course from the University of Leeds looks at how to create a professional online presence.  

Future mindset

Futurist Anne Lise Kjaer speaks about the role of people, planet and purpose and having a future mindset in marketing in this short video for Arts Marketing Association’s Digital Marketing Day. 

Income generation and donations

The Arts Council’s Digital Culture Network have created a list of resources around income generation and donation strategies to help build digital relationships and grow reach online (PDF). See more Arts Council / Digital Culture Network resources.

Maintaining digital heritage

Apps, microsites and collections online is a blog post from Mia Ridge looking at the ongoing maintenance of digital cultural heritage. 

Digital entrepreneurship

In this interview-style course, Guy Kawasaki discusses digital entrepreneurship. 

Social media

This free two-week online course from FutureLearn looks at using social media for business, from creating a social media presence to measuring success.  

The International Council of Museums (ICOM) have produced extensive guidance on using social media, including covering events and creating a social media policy.

Instagram for business

This short course, which takes approximately two hours to complete, looks at how to grow your business with Instagram.  

Google Analytics for beginners

The Digital Culture Network has produced a video for beginners to help them get started with Google Analytics. 

Empathetic audience engagement

This article from Peak Experience Lab explores how museums can continue to engage with their audiences during difficult times.  

Wordpress

Digital Charity Lab have a five-minute guide to WordPress for charities and non-profits. Wordpress can be used to create a cost effective, easy to maintain blog or website.

Customer relationship management

Charity Digital have posted a guide to choosing a customer relationship management (CRM) system.

Website accessibility

Arts Marketing Association share a handy guide from Supercool which demonstrates how you don’t need a big budget and huge resources to make significant improvements to the accessibility of your website.  

Small businesses and charities

Digital Boost provides a range of resources aimed at small businesses and charities from Founders4Schools and BCG Digital Ventures, with support from DCMS. Resources include 1:1 support from digital experts, marketing your organisation, improving design and branding and developing a content strategy.

Digital service delivery

Catalyst have produced a range of guides on digital service delivery, including developing new service models and operating during lockdown.  

The Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations have provided an overview on some key principles behind digital service delivery. 

How heritage can be supported by digital

This article from the Heritage Digital project looks at how digital skills can transform the heritage sector. 

Developing online confidence

This free eight-week online course from Open Learn, Digital Literacy: succeeding in a digital world, explores a range of digital skills and practices, including digital identity, digital wellbeing, staying safe and legal, finding and using information and online tools, and dealing with information overload. 

Digital during lockdown

This blog post series from Andrew McIntyre, shared by Arts Marketing Association, looks at organisational responses to digital in lockdown.    

Trustees and leaders

Charity Digital Code have produced a COVID-19 digital checklist for charity trustees and leaders. 

Digital leadership

Ceri Gorton presents Six characteristics of digital leadership. The article also contains links to further resources and reading, including the Arts and Humanities Research Council report Building Digital Leadership and Resilience in the UK’s Cultural Sector. 

Collections on Wikipedia

Elena Villaespesa and Trilce Navarette look at how open data initiatives can increase views, enrich data and provide automatic translation. 

Digital leadership

Nesta’s A Brief Introduction to Digital Government: A guide for public sector leaders who want to understand and get the best out of digital (PDF) focuses on government but provides useful information for heritage sector digital leadership. The guide looks at digital as an approach for streamlining existing processes, enabling new operating models, engaging citizens and making better use of information.

Maintaining digital heritage

Apps, microsites and collections online is a blog post from Mia Ridge looking at the ongoing maintenance of digital cultural heritage. 

Stay up-to-date

In the Digital Things newsletter, Alec Ward shares a wide range of creative examples of how the cultural sector is making use of digital.  

Chris Unit publishes the Cultural Digital newsletter which provides an up-to the-minute round-up of digital activity across the arts and heritage sectors.

First-time remote working

Catalyst have produced several guides on remote working, including a toolkit for grassroots communities needing to move their work to digital for the first time.  

Developing online confidence

This free eight-week online course from OpenLearn, Digital Literacy: succeeding in a digital world, explores a range of digital skills and practices, including digital identity, digital wellbeing, staying safe and legal, finding and using information and online tools, and dealing with information overload. 

Using digital in the workplace

This free six-week online course from FutureLearn is designed for people who have some digital skills but would like to build confidence in using digital technology in the workplace: 

Cyber security

Introduction to cyber security: stay safe online is a free online course from OpenLearn, developed by The Open University with support from the UK Government’s National Cyber Security Programme.  

Digital skills

Make It Click is a collection of online learning resources to help build digital skills. It includes courses, tools and templates on topics including calendars, documents, email, online security, photos, presentations, social media, spreadsheets and working from home.  

Working from home and staying safe online

This guide (PDF) from The Prince’s Responsible Business Network provides tips for working from home and staying safe online. It links to free cyber security e-learning, home working guidance and small business resources.

Citizens Online provide a short list of recommended working from home resources.