LIBRARIES AND MUSEUMS IN AN ERA OF PARTICIPATORY CULTURE
When fifty-eight library, museum, and cultural heritage

leaders from thirty-one countries gathered in October 2011 at

the Salzburg Global Seminar in Austria to explore the topic of

“Libraries and Museums in an Era of Participatory Culture,”

they soon became aware that such terms as “community,”

“access,” and “public value” resonate quite differently in the

disparate parts of our planet today. Convened jointly by the

U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and the

Salzburg Global Seminar, the session plunged leaders from

Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and North and South

America into discussion, debate, and the development of a

series of practical recommendations for ensuring maximum

access to and engagement in the work of museums and libraries

worldwide, as they examined the meaning of “participation”

writ large.

Over the course of the three and a half days of the seminar,

they explored the role of their institutions at a time when individuals can carry the equivalent of an entire encyclopedia on

their mobile devices and when people can use social media

platforms to share information, analyze data, create new

knowledge, and connect to communities of interest. Such

technological developments obviously contribute to the creation

of changing expectations for the museum and library experience.

As key stewards of our culture and heritage, and as places

of learning and exploration, what one of the participants defined

as “social enterprises that prepare people to discover themselves,” libraries and museums have traditionally enjoyed a

unique position and special responsibility within societies around

the world. However, recent economic disruptions, demographic

shifts, technological innovations, the globalization of the workforce, and changing audience expectations have required libraries

and museums to revisit and rethink their roles and mandates.

This seminar was designed to engage thinkers with a wide

variety of professional experiences (approximately half came

from libraries and half from museums) and cultural and regional

backgrounds to debate the changing roles and responsibilities

of libraries and museums in their societies. As one participant

wrote after the seminar: “The combination of participants

from various countries, continents, experiences, and life paths

was a wonderful, unexpected, mixed masala.” Inspired by case

studies from around the globe and by more formal presentations,

leading to sometimes-contentious, always-lively discussions,

the participants recognized that this is a critical moment for

libraries and museums worldwide and a time for possible reorientation and reinvention.

Building on the IMLS initiative, “The Future of Museums

and Libraries,” as well as on past museum and library sessions

convened at the Salzburg Global Seminar, the seminar included

five plenary sessions, a fireside chat, a keynote presentation,

and a roundtable discussion. In addition, fellows divided into

five working groups to delve into and elaborate upon specific

topics, concluding with a series of recommendations for action.

The topics of those working groups were based on the five

plenary sessions: Culture and Communities; Learning Transformed; Communication and Technologies; Building the Skills of

Library and Museum Professionals; and Demonstrating Public

Value. On the concluding day of the seminar, each working

group presented its findings in a final session, which also included a keynote address by Vishakha Desai, President and

CEO of the Asia Society in New York.

In the spirit of making the seminar more “participatory” in

real time – and of extending the reach of the conversations –

daily interactive blogs were broadcast internationally by Michael

Stephens from San Jose State University (http://tametheweb.com/

category/conferences-mettings/salzburg-imls-2011/) and by

Rob Stein from the Indianapolis Museum of Art (http://rjstein.com/

is-your-community-better-off-because-it-has-a-museum-finalthoughts-about-participatory-culture-part-iii/). Some of the

leading thinkers on the topic of the seminar joined in the discussion on the blogs, thus providing a global loop in and out

of the sessions taking place at Schloss Leopoldskron, home of

the Salzburg Global Seminar.

SUMMARY

2 3

A PARTNERSHIP PROJECT OF

THE SALZBURG GLOBAL SEMINAR AND

THE INSTITUTE OF MUSEUM AND LIBRARY SERVICES

OCTOBER 19 – 23, 2011 :: SESSION 482 REPORT :: PREPARED BY DEBORAH L. MACK

EDITED BY NANCY ROGERS AND SUSANNA SEIDL-FOX

INSTITUTE OF MUSEUM

AND LIBRARY SERVICES

Creating strong libraries and museums that connect

people to information and ideas

he Institute of Museum and Library Services is the primary source

of federal support for the nation’s 122,000 libraries and 17,500

museums. Through grant making, policy development, and

research, we help communities and individuals thrive through

broad public access to knowledge, cultural heritage, and lifelong

learning.

To learn more about the Institute, please visit www.imls.gov.

SALZBURG GLOBAL SEMINAR

Challenging present and future leaders to solve issues

of global concern

The Salzburg Global Seminar is a unique international institution

focused on global change—a place dedicated to candid dialogue,

fresh thinking, and the search for innovative but practical solutions.

Founded in 1947, it challenges current and future leaders to develop

creative ideas for solving global problems, and has brought more than

26,000 participants from 150 countries and regions to take part

in its programs. The Salzburg Global Seminar convenes imaginative

thinkers from different cultures and institutions, organizes problemfocused initiatives, supports leadership development, and engages

opinion-makers through active communication networks, all in

partnership with leading institutions from around the world and

across different sectors of society. To learn more about the Seminar,

please visit www.salzburgglobal.org

LIBRARIES AND MUSEUMS

IN AN ERA OF PARTICIPATORY CULTURE
5

Susanna Seidl-Fox, Program Director at the Salzburg Global

Seminar, welcomed participants and stressed that the joint

SGS/IMLS sponsorship of this program reflected the mutual concerns, missions, values, and strategies of both organizations.

She noted that the Salzburg Global Seminar had originated as

an “intellectual Marshall Plan” following World War II. Originally

transatlantic in its scope of work, it has over a 65-year period

enlarged its scope to Eastern Europe, the Middle East and ultimately a fully global range of partnerships. She noted that the

Libraries and Museums in an Era of Participatory Culture seminar

represented the second formal partnership with IMLS, following

Connecting to the World’s Collections: Making the Case for the

Conservation and Preservation of our Cultural Heritage in 2009.

Mary Chute, IMLS Deputy Director for Libraries, provided an

overall perspective for participants of how the seminar references

IMLS’s work in the United States. The agency’s constituents are

the many cultural organizations that serve the public, especially

museums, libraries, and archives, and IMLS strategically directs its

leadership focus to specific, important, organizational capacitybuilding arenas. Chute noted that this seminar targets capacitybuilding in specific service areas, where libraries and museums

intentionally create the greatest possible accessibility to their

content and collections. She anticipated that the session would also

inform the implementation of IMLS’s most recent strategic plan,

Creating a Nation of Learners: Strategic Plan 2012 – 2016, and

help IMLS to define its values and enhance the services it provides,

by identifying key factors by which institutions survive and thrive.

Seminar co-chairs, Américo Castilla, the president of the

Fundación TyPA in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Michèle Cloonan,

the dean of the Graduate School of Library and Information

Science at Simmons College in Boston, Massachusetts, continued

this thread in their welcoming remarks, elaborating on the numerous features that are shared by both libraries and museums.

Castilla posited the idea of using the seminar as a timely opportunity to interrogate our organizations about their relevance to

constituent communities, to the values that they claim they hold,

and to their practice in engaging accessible technologies. He

stressed the fact that seminar participants need to be particular

in the ways that we think of our communities, even as we think

globally. Co-chair Cloonan similarly referenced the global relevance

of “particular” practices that emerged from historically engaged

practitioner theorists such as John Cotton Dana, and from learning/

engagement theory that remains as insightful and relevant today

as nearly a century ago. She also observed that in the 21st century,

the “us” is getting smaller, while the “they” is getting larger.

Nancy Rogers, Special Assistant to the Director of Strategic

Partnerships at IMLS, elaborated on why this particular seminar

is central to the work in which IMLS is engaged. While primarily a

grant-making agency, IMLS also looks at the trends, needs, and

major issues in the field and develops special initiatives to address

them. A case in point is the 2005 IMLS report on collections

care, Connecting to Collections: A Call to Action. This four-year

initiative included the joint SGS/IMLS seminar in 2009 on

Connecting to the World’s Collections, the resulting publication,

and the “Salzburg Declaration on the Conservation and Preservation of Our Cultural Heritage,” which represents a new

collaborative platform aimed at more effectively preserving the

world’s cultural heritage and addressing global challenges now

and in the future.

INTRODUCTORY SESSION

Marsha Semmel, Henry Myerberg

The Salzburg Seminar provided a rare opportunity for library and museum leaders from

around the world to meet, get to know one another, learn, and imagine ways in which we

can individually and collectively enable libraries and museums to play more essential roles in

today’s global knowledge society. Through sharing our experiences – in plenary sessions,

small groups, and informal conversations – we sparked passionate affirmations of the power

of museums and libraries to engage the underserved, exploit the potential of new technologies

to expand impact, and increase lifelong learning opportunities for all. We acknowledged our

evolving role as learning facilitators; our responsibilities to ensure that our physical spaces

and social media tools provide unencumbered intellectual, physical, and technological access

to our collections and services; and our mandate to align our training and professional development resources and requirements accordingly. Ultimately, this stimulating seminar challenged

us all to envision and articulate the “public value” of museums and libraries today and tomorrow.

– Marsha Semmel
7

MODERATOR: Michèle Cloonan

PRESENTERS:

- Dawn Casey, Director, Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, Australia

- Greg Hayton, CEO, Cambridge Public Libraries and Art Galleries,

Cambridge, Canada

- Felton Thomas, Director, Cleveland Public Library, Cleveland,

United States

Roundtable fellows opened the seminar with observations,

questions, and concerns about how the rapid pace towards

increased technological mastery can lose sight of the actual goals

of inclusive, accessible community participation. They challenged

participants to consider a series of questions around both

technology and audiences, among them: What is “participation”

and “participatory culture” – and who defines it? What relevance does participatory culture have for libraries, museums,

art galleries, and cultural heritage sites? The fellows concurred

that technology is a tool, not an objective, and that the creation

of increased public value is the end goal. Identifying stakeholders’ needs means addressing human relationships, a sense of

organization, and an intellectual construct to shape information

and access.

Greg Hayton, the chief executive of the Cambridge Public

Libraries and Art Galleries in Ontario Canada, opened the conversation by providing a context for discussion via relevant current

statistical information on the use of technology, including the

fact that some 30% of the world’s population has regular access

to the internet, with exponential growth in internet use taking

place in the developing world. Today some 85 – 90% of the

world’s population uses cell phones, with nearly a third of

eight-year-olds having access to a cell phone. And, in 2010

Amazon.com sold more e-books than hard-cover books for

the first time.

Closer communication has led increasingly towards globalized

culture, but also to a “pushback” towards more individualized

culture, a greater empowerment of young people, the deinstitutionalization of education, and an overall response that

demands more “power to the people.” Subsequent discussion

identified additional issues regarding the ostensible purpose of

technology in creating greater participation, the nature of the

link created between technology and participants, and the

fundamental question of whether social media is changing the

nature of our institutions or is merely being used as a marketing tool.

Dawn Casey, the director of the Powerhouse Museum in

Sydney, Australia, urged fellows to examine and challenge the

role of institutions in creating greater participation and access.

For example, she noted that young people, especially, want to

know the thinking behind exhibitions and like to be able to contribute to content. She suggested different approaches to instilling

the value of public participation within staff, while institutionally

promoting, demonstrating, and measuring the public value of

participatory culture. She stated that although institutions may

feel threatened at turning over or sharing historically held responsibilities with those they serve, it is important to ask how

we engage and how we help with learning. Casey conceded that

sharing authority is a radically different mindset from that by

which most organizations are developed, and offered suggestions

for breaking down both institutional barriers and silos.

Felton Thomas, the director of the Cleveland Public Library in

the United States, encouraged museum and library leaders to go

outside of their walls, to be proactive in developing relationships,

and to find out the needs of their communities. He challenged

the concepts of borders and walls, and proposed that libraries

and museums envision their boundaries in more porous ways.

While the idea of linking our institutions to the larger community

is a powerful concept, Thomas asked: “Where do our institutions

fit into the larger community needs and challenges? How do our

institutions effectively partner in addressing problems associated

with housing, health care, and education, given that there is

no single model or solution?”

During the ensuing discussion, participants recognized that

increased collaboration between cultural institutions and linkages

with both cultural and civic partners remain a strong model for

enhanced effectiveness. As one of them noted: “Participatory

culture is like a romance with audiences.” Another observed

that technology is both a tool and a language for young people

and that when a museum is addressing a social issue, it is vital

that stakeholders be involved in constructing the knowledge

conveyed. A third noted that at the Powerhouse Museum, anyone can become a curator and propose an exhibition, with a

response coming from the museum within hours. A key question

remains: how does an institution know when it has done

enough? How far out does the institution go? One of the

participants had perhaps the last word when he observed that

“Technology only becomes participatory when a guest feels that

he or she is a host and participates as such,” leaving fellows

with much to ponder after this exciting opening session.

ROUNDTABLE

THE NATURE OF PARTICIPATORY CULTURE

Here we have brought together people from the policy world, the library world,

and the museum world, across all different functions. And so we have conservators

here, directors, educators, and technologists, and this kind of mix allows certain issues

to be blown wide open in a way that is not done at a typical conference, where you

are just talking with other specialists who do very much what you do.

– Michèle Cloonan
9

missioned pieces are part of the museum’s public thorough -

fare, as the museum strives to serve as a kind of contemporary

“agora,” a gathering place or assembly that is the center of

artistic, spiritual, and political life for the city. It also serves as an

arena for art performance, debate, and after-dark social events.

This perspective represents a deliberate shift away from the

museum as a “temple of knowledge,” and embraces the concept of the museum as an accessible place for discussion and

inclusion.

The museum’s exhibition on heritage looting and plundering, for example, explicitly addressed how various collections

had been historically acquired and featured multiple voices

and varying sources of authorship. The impact of globalization

and contemporary issues are at the core of the Museum of

World Culture’s activities, and the concept of a sustainable

global future is a key element of its mission. The museum is

thus a kind of embassy, with the concept of “global citizen”

as a mindset. Issues such as prejudice are addressed through

such activities as a “prejudice library,” in which visitors can

borrow people instead of books and engage in conversations

about prejudice. Widbom stressed the need for museums to

continue asking themselves how to become more relevant,

how to be ready to take risks, and how to decide “who tells

whose stories on behalf of whom.”

The extensive discussion that followed raised questions

about the role of museums and libraries in civil society. How

does one create community ownership, participation, and inclusion? Participants acknowledged that changing the terminology and internal culture are fundamental to any

sustainable success. A semantic question about changing

conventional institutional language and terminology arose –

and continued to be raised throughout the session. Should our

users/audiences/visitors better be described as members, clients,

citizens, owners, guests, global citizens? Should we be using

language that implies ownership or co-ownership and that

reinforces the notion of the institution’s service responsibility?

One participant noted that at her institution, “We have changed

the language in order to change our internal culture.”

Participants spoke of museums and libraries created by outsiders and intended for outsiders (such as colonial and post-colonial elites) and thus disconnected from the local community, in

which it is essential for sheer survival that the institution be

proactive and engage its community audiences. Cultural institutions must communicate directly with their communities, asking what they want and in what formats they want and need

it. In addition, as one participant reminded the group, it is important for museums and libraries to stand up to controversy

and support contested culture in their discourse. The discussion ended with a call for libraries and museums to develop

partnerships with other institutions and organizations, in order

to create these new outcomes, and with the participants’ lauding

the “courageous examples” already presented to the group.

PLENARY 1:

CULTURE AND COMMUNITIES

MODERATOR: Américo Castilla 

PRESENTERS:

- Gabriela Aidar, Coordinator of the Social Inclusion Program, 

São Paulo, State Pinacoteca, São Paulo, Brazil

- Mats Widbom, Director, Museum of World Culture, Göteborg, 

Sweden

In convening the session, moderator Américo Castilla reminded

participants of the “public space” function of libraries and

museums, which serve as a “habitat of free exchange” and as

an ideal place where “inequalities are magically abolished.”

He also observed that libraries and museums “interpret the

cultures they live in” and must, consequently, be transparent

as well as cognizant of such concepts as conflict and diversity.

The presenters then described intentional practices designed

by their institutions to promote and increase access by both

visiting and non-visiting stakeholders. Gabriela Aidar from the

State Pinacoteca in São Paulo, Brazil, presented a case study on

her museum’s social inclusion program, an initiative designed

to engage and partner with disenfranchised groups. Aidar’s

stakeholder population generally has minimal or no contact with

official institutions of culture, as they come from populations

that are marginalized in society: drug addicts, street dwellers,

occupants of housing projects, youth and children from working

class backgrounds, social workers, and educators. In light of the

fact that Brazilian law has declared access to and participation

in cultural activities by its citizenry a fundamental human right,

it is generally recognized that accessibility means more than

physical access, involving, as well, intangible issues that are

related to cognitive and attitudinal access. In order to provide

such access, Aidar’s museum has designed training courses for

social workers and educators; created outreach activities to and

in housing projects; and built in specially designed monthly

group visits to the museum from members of this targeted

community.

Aidar noted that such questions as “How can museums and

libraries use their strengths to reflect demographic and cultural

shifts?” and “How do they select the stories they tell and the

resources they offer?” should be central to an institution’s

mission, not merely sent to the education department. If libraries

and museums intentionally use their resources to reflect and

create change in societies, they must first be institutionally

committed to the idea that museums can and must collaborate

to strengthen cultural diversity and social inclusion. This involves

reviewing standard operational practices and possibly redefining

professional roles and relationships. The curator, for example,

need not be defined as a sole authority, but alternatively viewed

as a facilitator between individuals and objects who wields

particular skill and knowledge about collections. Museums create

social narratives, and these narratives can be used to include or

to marginalize, as well as to legitimize or eradicate prejudices.

Citing the theorist Mark O’Neill, Aidar argued that “... any

organization that is not working to break down barriers to

access is actively maintaining them. Neutrality is not possible.” 

Mats Widbom, Director of the Museum of World Culture in

Göteborg, Sweden, emphasized how his museum’s core values

of transparency, openness, hybridity, and reciprocity – a direct

consequence of growing global exchange – are demonstrated

in multiple ways, from architecture to operations to programs.

The museum provides ongoing opportunities for participants to

exercise their rights to access through such inclusive strategies

as co-creation of content, interactive methods, and the vigorous

use of social media. In addition, street art, mural art, and comThe plenary sessions successfully combined presentations of general principles and

case studies illustrating these principles and were followed by lengthy question-andanswer periods and further discussion. 

PLENARY SESSIONS Mats Widbom introduced a Chinese proverb

during his presentation, which was quoted several

times during the session, and then amended by

participant Kurt Koenig to include a memorable

fourth line:

Tell me and I will forget.

Show me and I will remember.

Involve me and I will understand.

Give me a platform and I will contribute!

– Kurt Koenig

Mats Widbom Gabriela Aidar

8
PLENARY 2:

LEARNING TRANSFORMED

MODERATOR: Michèle Cloonan 

PRESENTERS:

- Pablo Andrade, Studies Department Manager BiblioRedes, DIBAM, 

Santiago, Chile

- Elaine Heumann Gurian, Consultant/Advisor to Museums, 

Arlington, United States

Pablo Andrade’s presentation described how Chile’s Public

Libraries National System has incorporated the community into

the management processes of the public library, with the goals

of including indigenous knowledge and cultural systems in its

operations and reaching out to non-traditional audiences. The

Biblioredes program, inaugurated in 2002, was established to

enhance the digital inclusion of local communities in Chile through

public libraries, so as to engage these communities in expressing

and sharing their cultures and identities in virtual networks. It is

not only possible for users to post their own content, but users

can interact with the content posted by others. The program

connects people who want to share, show, and above all discuss

their own cultures and identities, allowing voices never before

heard to be part of the conversation. These digital tools include

formal definitions and criteria for defining cultural practice, the

criteria for cooperation and reciprocity, and the concept of local

content communities – in both physical and virtual forms.

To accomplish this project goal in culturally resonant ways,

the Public Libraries National System incorporated an indigenous

concept of collective labor, known in the Quechua language as

Minga or Mingaco, which denotes collaborative community work.

Importantly, this cultural concept includes elements of cooperation

and reciprocity, and relies on a trust process amongst those who

participate. Andrade concluded his presentation with a video on

the program created by a library user for whom the concept of

Mingaco is an everyday cultural reality.

Elaine Heumann Gurian, an independent museum consultant

in the United States envisioned issues and possibilities in the area

of learning for museums and libraries of the future. She also

described emerging systems changes in primary and secondary

education, such as group problem-solving, the teaching of civility,

the focus on 21st century skills proficiency, and the providing of

experience in the workplace, thus utilizing a full range of community assets. Gurian sees the distinction between school as place

and education as function becoming increasingly disaggregated, 

and increasing personalization and customization of education

services being provided in both museums and libraries. She asked:

“If the function of an organization is not necessarily situated in

its institutional structure, but in its functions and operations, how

does this translate into shifting institutional responsibilities and

outcomes? How does one measure and assess impact?” Gurian

suggested that museums will need to become more imaginative

in terms of “the sacred cow of the school visit,” aspiring to a

longer-term involvement with individual students beyond the

short-term visit. She also predicted a scenario whereby school

libraries may be increasingly subsumed by the public library system,

with the library system providing services seven days a week,

resulting in better service for students as well as substantial overall cost savings. Gurian sees a future of new networks of overlapping institutions, unbound by walls or a single authority, a

“village effort” for learning that will come to be relied upon for

interconnected services.

In the group discussion that followed, Andrea Sajó, director

general of the National Széchényi Library in Budapest, described a

developing partnership between schools and libraries/museums,

in a system where Hungarian museums, libraries, and public

schools are still very separate from one another. To counter this,

heritage clubs were organized within schools, with teachers

becoming designated heritage leaders. Presently some 25,000

Hungarian students are participating in this partnership program.

The session ended with presenters asking participants to consider

creating broadly applicable evaluative methods for assessing the

impact of educational outcomes, something which to date has

not necessarily been part of museum or library culture.

11

Elaine Heumann Gurian

In the process of looking at all these different web technologies, what we came

down to is that they are all ways in which people are trying to shape the world around

them to learn, they are all exercises in learning. Therefore, the library and the librarian

need to be supporting the way people learn, not the stuff, not the material, not this

notion of somehow we inform you and walk away, but to be really concerned with

how people are learning. How do they shape the world around them? If an institution

is about learning it must also allow people to shape it. The library, if it remains the way

it has been ten years ago, will be an endangered species...if it changes and adapts as it

has over centuries, it can thrive and be even more important in the future. 

– David Lankes
PLENARY 4: 

BUILDING THE SKILLS OF LIBRARY AND

MUSEUM PROFESSIONALS

MODERATOR: Michèle Cloonan 

PRESENTERS:

- Kidong Bae, Professor of Archaeology, Hanyang University; 

Director of the Jeongok Prehistory Museum, Seoul, South Korea

- David Lankes, Professor and Director, Masters in Library and 

Information Science, Syracuse University, School of Information Studies, 

Syracuse, United States

- Deirdre Prins-Solani, Chair, AFRICOM; Director, Center for Heritage

Development in Africa, Mombasa, Kenya

This plenary session began with David Lankes, director of the

School of Information Studies at Syracuse University in New York,

declaring that “the mission of librarians is to improve society through

facilitating knowledge-creation in our communities.” According to

Lankes, the library should be understood as the infrastructure and

the tools that a librarian uses to fulfill the service and facilitation

mission of the institution. However, he also postulated that librarians

do not always need a physical facility to do this and that librarians

are increasingly leaving the library as a physical place in order to

do their work. In the U.S., Lankes noted, the physical space of the

library is often being turned back to the community. In positing

that “knowledge is creation through conversation,” he stated his

belief that the new skills necessary for librarians include facilitating

access to conversation; creating an appropriate and physically and

intellectually safe environment for conversation; and always being

aware of ways to improve society. In fact, Lankes sees the community

and the library together as needing to shape the conversation about

our future. He ended his presentation by calling for real, permanent

change, both by librarians as they become part of a participatory

society and by participants in the seminar, for whom “the seminar

cannot be just a report on a shelf.” “We need to be a force for

change,” Lankes concluded.

Kidong Bae, Professor of Archaeology at Hanyang University in

Ansan, Korea, focused his presentation on what he referred to as

“a new paradigm of museums’ role in modern society,” namely,

their function as a center of communication. He noted the rapid

social change occurring in the modern Asian diaspora as a result

of globalization, resulting in a society that is heavily influenced by

western culture, is multi-ethnic, demonstrates a wide generation

gap, and has new social needs. He described how museums in

Korea are responding to these changes by becoming civic arenas

for sharing cultural similarities and differences, creating work on

topics of common interest, and building extensive cultural data

bases. Bae believes that today’s museums must be a kind of

“marketplace,” open to communication for all, without barriers

between generations and individuals; however, he noted such

practices as the “dominant unidirectional flow of information,” as

presenting major problems for this kind of open institution, ideally

a “unique humanistic place for exchange.”

Deidre Prins-Solani, Executive Director of the Center for Heritage

Development in Africa in Mombasa, Kenya, began her presentation

by speaking of the “absence of museums” in her early life in South

Africa and by the “places of loss, absences, silences, and imagined

worlds” that museums there have become. She noted that the

brutality of apartheid resulted in “dreams deferred” in a way that

prevented people from reaching their potential. Her work now

centers on the training of heritage professionals, preparing them

for work in a country of mixed race and in need of social cohesion.

Prins-Solani described professional competency in her country

as “skills + knowledge + attitude” and stated the need for the

revalidation of competencies beyond the standard disciplines. She

called for such new skills as innovation, creating networks across

the social sector, sustainability, and the nurturing of mutuality and

wondered how we redefine and educate for leadership, when

leaders need to be change agents. Throughout much of Africa there

is a concerted effort to create a balance between competencies and

conservation of heritage resources through relationship brokering.

A primary reason for the marginal use of many African museums

and libraries is their historic rationale and service for elite populations,

and the accompanying lack of flexibility that has minimized intellectual and emotional, as well as physical, access. For these

reasons, issues of African community engagement are often viewed

as charity or “special” pet projects. Prins-Solani challenged participants to help cultivate new attitudes and communication skills

to achieve better engagement for professionals with their communities and asked: “Can we ever say that we’ve done enough?

Have we facilitated dreams being realized?” 

Group discussion addressed the need for community engagement

projects to become the core business of museums, not special

projects and “one-offs.” Participants provided suggestions for improving the fundraising, communication, and partnership skills of

staff and partners, as well as for increasing the institutional ability

to both attract and work in a sustainable manner with a broader

range of stakeholders and partners.

13

PLENARY 3: 

COMMUNICATIONS AND TECHNOLOGY

MODERATOR: Américo Castilla 

PRESENTERS:

- Noha Adly, Deputy Head, ICT Sector, Bibliotheca Alexandrina, 

Alexandria, Egypt

- Susan Hazan, Curator of New Media and Head of Internet Office, 

Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel

- Michael Stephens, Assistant Professor, School of Library and Information

Science at San Jose State University, California, United States

Michael Stephens from the School of Library and Information

at San Jose State University in California, noted that a shared trait

in all forward-looking spheres of communication and technologies

is that they encourage participation. For example, mobile and

geo-social information environments have begun to involve the

rudiments of geo-spatial information curation and stewardship.

This technological trend involves everyone, suggesting that some

of the future duties of librarians may be as embedded local experts. Stephens described several current projects that highlight

these trends, such as the library commons, participatory library

services in the Netherlands, and Learning 2.0 for Libraries, in which

librarians are being trained in the use of new technologies, with

reported increased confidence and a desire for exploration.

Changes in technology increasingly emphasize the personhood

and humanity of library professionals, what Stephens described

as “technology with heart.” 

Noha Adly, the deputy head of ICT at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina

in Egypt, titled her presentation “The Way Forward? Thinking

Outside the Box.” Adly explored the data explosion and the “battle

of the search engines,” each of which orders information differently.

She described the huge amount of data-gathering that took place

during the Egyptian revolution in the spring of 2010, which illus -

trated the complexities and challenges of bridging accuracy of

data and public inclusion. Her library has collected some 237,000

photos, 90,000 videos, and 2.8 million tweets related to the

revolution. 

Adly noted that the multilingualism and cultural diversity of the

web provide a strong rationale for both museums and libraries

to play a leading role in advocating cultural diversity and multilingualism. She also spoke of the need to nurture non-English

language materials and to develop indexing and retrieval tools.

Adly reported that the Arabic Digital Library, which has more than

180,000 books in Arabic online, receives some 12 million hits and

some 250,000 visits per month. Because there are more mobile

phones than landline phones in Egypt, the mobile phone has

become the primary medium for public access; therefore, the

library is presently focused on moving data to this most accessible

of formats. Adly sees the greatest technological challenge for

libraries is to establish multilingual search capability across words

and objects via a universal networking language, which is not

yet available but is in development. She concluded by urging the

participants to think about how they curate data, to “spoil” the

catalogue, and to make information available to a multi-lingual,

culturally diverse global audience.

Susan Hazan, the curator of new media at the Israel Museum,

cited a number of innovative projects that provide benchmarks

in different social media arenas, among them the Victoria and

Albert Museum’s crowdsourcing project, which asks participants

to improve the search engine of an archive of more than 140,000

images by selecting the best views of images. The Smithsonian

American Art Museum invited the public to help select the video

games to be included in the exhibition “The Art of the Video

Game.” Games were selected based on a variety of criteria,

including visual effects, creative use of new technologies, and

how the game fit into the narrative of the exhibition. More than

3.7 million votes for the 240 different games on the ballot were

cast by 119,000 people in 175 countries to select which games

would be part of the final exhibition. Hazan’s own project, the

Digital Dead Sea Scrolls Project at the Israel Museum, allows

users to examine and explore these most ancient manuscripts at

a level of detail never before possible. Developed in partnership

with Google, the new website gives users access to searchable,

fast-loading, high-resolution images of the scrolls, as well as

short explanatory videos and background information on the

texts and their history. 

The lively group discussion focused on advances around the

semantic web, indexing methods, and retrieval methods, where,

for example, it is possible to connect objects, regardless of

structure, and where there is now the ability to search with images.

A new era of books that are increasingly interactive and that are

produced with integrated social media was also noted. With the

tool Book Discover, for example, users can link to reviews, and to

audio and video files, as well as have books interact with each

other. One participant asked if Crowd-sourcing R Us reflects the

participatory nature of new technologies, then what are the

specific advantages or drawbacks for libraries and museums? 

Participants noted that current bureaucratic structures within

museums and libraries are often difficult environments in which to

further this work, and it is challenging to erase inherent inhibitions

and to actually encourage risk-taking. As one of the participants

emphatically stated: “Our arch-enemy is not mistakes, but mediocrity.” Participants described changes in the generation and deploy-

 ment of data and open source tools that have emerged, all of

which are helping librarians to customize their own search techniques, collections, and criteria for relevance. Finally, all concurred

with one member of the group that public impact and not simply

the introduction of something “new and innovative” should be

the main criterion for assessing and evaluating effectiveness. 

12
FIRESIDE CHAT

INNOVATIVE CASE STUDIES FROM

AROUND THE GLOBE

MODERATOR: Rudo Sithole, Executive Director, AFRICOM; Senior 

Curator and Head of Entomology Department, the Natural History Museum

of Zimbabwe, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe

- May Pagsinohin, Executive Director, Philippine Foundation for Science 

and Technology, Marikina City, Philippines

- Anupam Sah, Chief Art Conservation Consultant, Chhatrapati Shivaji 

Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya Museum, Mumbai, India

- Catalina Escobar, Director, MAKAIA, Medellín, Colombia

Rudo Sithole, Executive Director of the International Council

of African Museums/AFRICOM in Nairobi, introduced this series

of informal presentations, each of which involved “thinking outside the box” and working outside of traditional boundaries. All

of the projects involved sharing meaning; creation and risk-taking

with stakeholders; stretching and reconfiguring conventional work

strategies; and using the concept of culture and community as a

tool to reposition culture as a fundamental human right. 

Catalina Escobar Bravo, the director of MAKAIA – a social notfor-profit organization that promotes the institutional strengthening

of organizations committed to the social and economic development of Colombia – described how her organization has utilized

the wide-spread penetration of cell phones and reached out to

the community in Medellin through SMS messages, reminders,

and solicitations. Moreover, the network of forty-six libraries in

Medellin has expanded ICT adoption in additional ways: MAKAIA

has created an observatory for reading and writing. It has also

created virtual exhibits from digitized historic photos. Finally, it

has engaged community members in retrieving and interpreting

family collections as part of a digital heritage exhibition. The

library’s website has become a distinctive virtual library in its own

right, with some thirty-six of the more than forty-five branches

sharing the system.

May Pagsinohin, the executive director of the Philippine Foundation for Science and Technology, described the total destruction

of the foundation’s Science Museum in a catastrophic typhoon,

and the aftermath of salvaging and rebuilding. The Science

Museum serves as an important informal learning facility in the

community, and following its destruction, community appreciation

of the museum’s public value was visibly demonstrated. Local

community members and organizations provided both physical

and financial reconstruction support, openly acknowledging that

the museum held a pivotal role in meeting the community’s needs.

Pagsinohin reminded participants that people give because you

meet needs, not because you have needs.

Chief Art Conservation Consultant Anupam Sah of the

Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya Museum in

Mumbai described several projects through which the museum

incorporates and honors community-based collectors and specialists in heritage preservation. The museum has collaboratively

curated exhibits with private, community-based collectors, thereby

asserting the museum’s ability to engage, utilize, and recognize

community-centered aesthetics, knowledge systems, technologies, and cultural practices. It has also worked with children on

art projects and with young people to create the interpretation

of an old town and then establish an interpretation center. 

The discussion focused on the personal belief and passion

demonstrated by the case studies, qualities that need to be unlocked in working with communities, wherever they may be

located.

15

PLENARY 5: 

DEMONSTRATING PUBLIC VALUE

MODERATOR: Américo Castilla 

PRESENTERS:

- Richard Atuti, Director, National Library Service. Nairobi, Kenya

- Gary Vikan, Director, The Walters Art Museum. Baltimore, United States

- Johannes Vogel, Keeper of Botany, Natural History Museum, London, 

United Kingdom; Director-Designate, Natural History Museum, Berlin, 

Germany

Gary Vikan, the director of the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore,

Maryland, began his remarks with the story of how his museum

– founded in the early 20th century by a wealthy magnate and

featuring a Gilded Age collection – had needed to change to reflect

its communities and their needs today. In revising the museum’s

mission statement to “bringing art and people together,“ the

Walters moved from being object-centered to people-centered,

emphasizing enjoyment, discovery, and learning. Vikan argued

that art can be a social catalyst; but that “you are only as good

as what you do with your collection.” In order to serve its new

mission, the Walters restructured it operations, staffing and programs – introducing free admission, family programs, digitized

content, and increased access to staff, who are expected to work

on weekends. The result has been a 100% increase in family

programs, a 45% increase in attendance, and a 400% increase in

the use of the museum’s website. Vikan stressed that the internal

process of institutional change was as important as any other

factor. For example, at the Walters, work is always conducted in

teams. The team is not only the staff but also includes leaders

from other organizations and community members, who constantly

bring different perspectives to the institution and its operations.

In sum, the Walters staff focuses on putting their community at

the heart of all they do.

Richard Atuti, the director of the Kenya National Library Service/

KNLS, described the ways that his organization is also revisiting

the service model. As part of re-visioning how the public is served,

the KNLS Service has established a number of community libraries

around the country, especially in rural areas, as a demonstration

of “walking the talk.” The KNLS also engages its constituents

through community functions and festivals. The KNLS created and

maintained brand loyalty with a new “look” that is modern and

dynamic, and identified target user communities with a special

focus on young people. KNLS literally takes its services to people

– there are mobile libraries on buses, and even donkey and camel

caravans to reach otherwise inaccessible areas and nomadic

communities. KNLS also works with primary and high schools as

well as community centers and has established library reading

tents for children in rural communities. In collaboration with

national ministries, KNLS libraries are also providing a range of civic

services such as e-health information and training for healthcare

workers; youth empowerment; farm services and training; and

fish farming, with a library fishpond as a demonstration center.

The new library headquarters will feature a large drum, a unifying symbol signifying communication and knowledge in Kenya.

The new logo of the national library is “Read, Know, Empower.”

Johannes Vogel, keeper of botany at the Natural History Museum

in London, then discussed how a museum can inspire visitors to

engage with science and expand their learning potential as well.

The Natural History Museum is perceived as a place for learning,

for discovery, and for dialogue about important global challenges,

such as biodiversity; climate, water, and food, and social justice.

Vogel argued that if a contemporary knowledge society is governed

by science and technology, then it needs a scientifically literate

citizenry. Citizens need and want to participate, for there is “no

innovation without participation.” The museum can serve as an

honest broker between science and society.

The museum staff now goes out into communities in order to

learn what the public already knows and asks: “How can we meet

you where you want to learn?” Vogel then described the museum’s

citizen science program. One of the case studies involved fly

fishing enthusiasts’ participation in a museum-sponsored water

quality project. The museum trained the fishermen in scientific

techniques, and their work, which resulted in changes in environmental policy, is now ongoing and self-sustaining. This project

provided an opportunity for the museum to act as an agent of

change, and learning occurred on both sides. Vogel noted that

citizen science participation leads to a broader-based understanding of science and issues; lowers barriers for entry; and

creates skills and understanding. Partnerships are key.

Group discussion reflected on these inspiring case studies as

prime examples demonstrating that participation is not dependent

on technology, but on people. Participants agreed that museums

and libraries must take more risks in engaging the public and

that trained staff that are good communicators are critical to

success. They also concurred that the most effective tools “are in

our heads” if we are to engage the public in profound ways that

deliver real and sustained impact.

14

An important reference point which I will take from here to showcase in India is how important

it is to share what you have in collections and to get over that fear, unfounded perhaps, of sharing.

There is a mental block about letting go of it, but I think this also accentuates the fact that librarians

and museum curators and directors are custodians of a common cultural heritage and there is need

for these things to be out in the public domain. It is a question of building faith...and of the willingness to share and the necessity to create platforms to share. – Anupam Sah
17

On the final day of the session, Vishakha Desai, president and

chief executive officer of the Asia Society in New York, delivered

the seminar’s keynote address, entitled “Connections and

Collaborations across Cultures in a Digital Age.” She began by

describing her own experiences of being both an outsider and

then an insider during the course of becoming an American citizen.

Similarly, she said that the Asia Society had gone through its own

transformation in perspective and organization, and had shifted

from being one of interest to “cultural insiders” and collectors

to an organization whose mission is to strengthen partnerships

between people and institutions in Asia and those in the United

States while also promoting understanding among Asians.

Desai enumerated other working assumptions that had been

challenged as part of the Asia Society’s transformative process,

including that technology is value-neutral; that science is cultureneutral; that we can control content; and that one-size technology

would address the needs of all onsite as well as all virtual visitors.

Having virtual visitors and a global audience has, in fact, shaped

the Society’s programming, and Desai gave as one example a live

webcast program by the president of Sri Lanka, during which some

40,000 participants tuned in from Sri Lanka, many of whom asked

questions. The Society’s job thus shifted from professor to moderator/facilitator, becoming “catalytic, dialogic educators” and

representative of “post-heroic leadership.”

Because museums and libraries are generally trusted institutions,

and visitors are looking for vetted, trusted content, the need for

accurate online sources continues to grow. Museum and library

professionals must be mindful of the roles and intentions that

they bring to their work and their engagement with their publics

and stakeholders. Although audiences may come to libraries and

museums with trust, these institutions must remember to earn

that trust.

Desai reminded the participants that working across different

parts of the world also means that multiple audiences will bring

different perspectives and points of view to our institutions.

Institutional collaboration is more complicated now than ever

before, and new models of institutional collaboration are being

created. Accordingly, our institutions need to plan for the decentralization of authority and need to understand diverse audiences

and what they will demand. This involves, among other things,

learning how to address the possible “tyranny of the community,”

as well as the internal resistance to lessening control over content.

The present conventional modality of scholarship is flawed, with

the role of the curator evolving as well. Curatorship needs to be

about both scholarship and public engagement. It needs to reflect

the weaving together of learning, teaching, and scholarship, and

the concept of being authoritative does not have to be the same

as being authoritarian. Desai also suggested that we examine

the notion that social media are neutral and noted that on-line

audiences will require the co-creation of content.

Desai continued by reminding participants that technology is

by no means culture-neutral. One cannot assume equity in terms

of technological advancement in all cultures. Technology can create

an illusion of confluence, but at the same time it can impede

communication and understanding, given cultural differences in

communication that are easily misinterpreted and misunderstood.

She stressed the importance of cross-cultural skills in this context

and a new vision of “neighborliness,” characterized by empathy,

curiosity, sensitivity, and openness as a precondition for successful

cross-cultural collaboration.

Desai concluded by describing the Asia Society’s work as

intensely local and profoundly global at the same time, or “glocal,”

thus creating greater complexity, in which relationships are

simultaneously layered and side-by-side.

Our job is not simply about presenting and providing quality information or quality experience. Our job

now is to be a catalyst for ideas and conversations, to serve as a moderator rather than as a scholarly presenter of content. This is something that we have begun to talk about in a dialogic way within our institutions,

but it becomes equally important in terms of how you use technology going forward. What it means is that

you need to plan for these approaches from the beginning -- to plan for the decentralization of your dissemination strategies, and to be specifically mindful of the diverse audiences and needs of your audiences online.

They will be prepared to talk back and often to demand more because they have more authority and power

in the online world. This is precisely a result of democratization and it will be quite different from the responses of your audiences at home. – Vishakha Desai

KEYNOTE LECTURE

Vishakha Desai
19

CONCLUDING COMMENTS

Seminar participants returned again and again to the power

of participatory learning as the visionary core of what museum

and library professionals need to know and do to transform institutional effectiveness. Nothing less than a call to action, the

working groups provided both recommendations and specific steps

for policy and practices, so that museums and libraries become

more democratic in their operations and engagement, and our

community members better equipped and skilled to be active

contributors in a sustainable global future. Participants repeatedly

acknowledged that institutions must embrace new language, ideas,

perspectives, and public accountability. They must recognize:

• the changing language of referring to users/guests/clients, 

which reflects changing institutional realities and expectations.

• the desire to position libraries and museums as change agents,

cultural hubs, and multi-tasking civic centers, and to encourage

lifelong learning – with passion and with risk-taking.

• the imperative to demonstrate public value and social impact 

and the need to keep these issues at the top of the organizational agenda.

It was acknowledged that this requires both internal and collaborative organizational work and action steps: 

• “walking the talk”, and being more participatory internally as

well as externally.

• improving the training curriculum of library, museum, and 

heritage professionals.

• acknowledging the changing role of the curator/internal expert.

Expertise is still necessary but the best work now is about 

both scholarship AND public engagement.

• embracing the learning of new literacies and, especially, of 

visual literacy.

• opening the institutional walls and referencing an outward

orientation instead of defining barriers and an inward orientation.

The participatory nature of new technologies can enhance the

ways in which libraries and museums and their users interact and

connect. Even so, there is no one-size-fits-all in communications

strategies. The creators of digital resources need to contribute to

the establishment of open standards that can help achieve interoperability for the exchange of digital objects. Similarly, libraries

and museums should contribute their content to a diverse array

of repositories that make content freely available, as part of a

cultural commons for consumers to access and reuse in the creation of knowledge.

Among the tools available to accomplish this mission are digital

collections that span institutional boundaries; physical spaces that

enhance interactivity and discovery; organizations that can share

collections and staff expertise more effectively, reducing costs

and enhancing quality of services; and users of technology who

explore resources from a variety of institutions, necessitating

greater collaboration and integration of organizations to provide

a seamless and fruitful discovery experience. It is imperative that

our institutions demonstrate, assess and evaluate public value

and social impact, and keep these goals at the top of and within

the core of their institutional agendas. This goes far beyond the

simple “outreach” programs of the past.

Participants concurred that the most effective tools “are in

our heads” if we are to engage the public in profound ways that

deliver real and sustained impact. Significantly, participants shared

a sense of immediacy and consensus that libraries and museums

must be re-purposed, re-thought, and re-imagined as places of

life-long learning, as responsible stewards of cultural heritage,

and as community anchors who must invest in both programs

and people. 

REFLECTIONS

Marsha Semmel, Director of Strategic Partnerships at IMLS,

reflected upon the salient messages and ideas emanating from

the seminar in what she called both “a mirror and a talk back”

to the group. Semmel noted that the entire seminar had been

couched in inclusive language for both libraries and museums;

that the concept of what is “international” is increasingly porous;

that the aspirations for the broad range of our institutions are

increasingly similar; and that our institutions are struggling with

semantics. The changing nature of the language we use reflects

changing realities and expectations of our relationships and

roles. Referencing fellows’ insistence that access is a precondition

to participation, she reminded the group that “participation is

messy.” Semmel saw the leaders participating in the Seminar as

being fueled by passion, by personal belief, and by a political

vision that culture is a basic human right. Semmel took the term

glocal to mean that both the hyper-global and the hyper-local

are linked, and interpreted its use as consistent with fellows’

insistence that institutions need to respond to good ideas wherever they come from – within or without.

She reiterated that the belief of more than one presenter that

technology is best wielded as a tool and that the major criterion for

effectiveness should be impact. Semmel reminded the gathering

that fellows often referenced “technology with heart” and that

“our arch-enemy is dumbing-down.” She also noted several key

ideas that permeated the seminar, such as the fact that expertise is

less about having a stockpile of information or facts at our disposal

and more about knowing how to find and evaluate information on

a given topic. The role of libraries and museum, therefore, should

be to facilitate the enhancement of the skills (media/ information/

literacy/ historical learning/ visual literacy) that everyone needs to

have: that what is needed is “a new culture of learning” in the

“ocean of learning” of the 21st century, including the notion of

personalized, customized learning. Semmel concluded with two

quotes from Douglas Thomas and John Seely Brown, in A New

Culture of Learning: Cultivating the Imagination in a World of

Constant Change: “We need to re-design the learning system

to respond to homo sapiens (humans who know), homo faber

(humans who make), and homo ludens (humans who play). And,

“...a lifelong ability to learn is the human being’s killer app.”

18

CLOSING PLENARY: 

REFLECTIONS AND CONCLUDING COMMENTS

Perhaps the most useful change in my own thinking is an understanding that the era of participatory culture

is not a new thing, but rather – enhanced by recent trends in technology – one that has its roots in the very

reasons why museums exist in the first place. While technology, social media, and mobile adoption influence

the ways that we engage museum audiences and the expectations they bring into the museum, an attitude

that invites participation has the potential to transform individual and community experiences that enhance

the public value of the work we do. The real test for public value is not what the museum says it is, but rather

the value attributed to us by our communities and stakeholders. Simply declaring that the museum is valuable

isn’t a substitute for actually demonstrating that value on a consistent basis. – Rob Stein

Dawn Casey, Rob Stein
21

GROUP 2: Learning Transformed

Facilitator: Michelle Hippolite

Working Group Members: Gabriela Aidar, Dawn Casey,

Sawsan Dalaq, Elaine Heumann Gurian, Henry Myerberg,

Nancy Rogers, Mats Widbom, Sirje Virkus

FOCUS QUESTIONS:

Technology, advances in neuroscience, and research are changing

our understanding of effective learning environments and experiences. The boundaries between in-school and out-of-school

learning are blurring, and the importance of early and lifelong

learning has been recognized. What knowledge and skills do

our publics need and want, and how are museums and libraries

responding to these needs? How do libraries and museums tap

the knowledge and skills that their publics can bring to their

institutions?

Working group members affirmed that while libraries and

museums have long held a trusted place in society and a responsibility for preservation, research, education, and access to their

diverse holdings, they have often remained aloof and nonresponsive to the changing world. The 21st century has witnessed

the erosion of traditional boundaries of authority and increasing

social participation, enabled by hand-held communications technology and evidenced by 800 million Facebook users and millions

of Wiki entries. While the accelerated movement of peoples

across borders is increasing diversity, the disparity of economic

and cultural opportunities is less tolerated. The Arab Spring and

Occupy Wall Street movements are only two examples of people

demanding new governmental and institutional accountability

and participation. Libraries and museums are in similar crosshairs,

with publics eager and capable to be their own gatherers, curators,

and creators of content. Libraries and museums must be equal

participants in this evolution in order to remain relevant.

RECOMMENDATIONS:

• Museums and libraries must develop and apply learning models

and working methods that ensure a culture of participatory 

behaviors, both with our constituents and within our organizations.

• They must provide spaces/facilities that enable learning and 

sharing of knowledge, world-views, and authority with and 

between diverse communities.

• Our institutions must adopt the new learning agenda characterized by 21st-century skills of critical thinking, of creativity 

and innovation, collaboration, and civility and add them to our

already embedded agenda of knowledge acquisition, interpretation, and dissemination.

• Libraries and museums must develop new evaluation tools, so 

that quality and impact, rather than quantity, become the 

markers of success.

• We must integrate these recommendations into our vision, 

policies, and practices, so that museums and libraries become 

more democratic and citizens are better equipped and skilled 

to be active contributors to a sustainable global future.

Five working groups on key themes of the seminar held multiple

sessions interspersed among the more formal plenary presentations

and discussions. Each was furnished with a series of guiding

questions, and the facilitators were urged to push the questions

– and the members of the group – to arrive at a kind of policy

agenda and list of recommendations, containing innovative and

bold ideas. A summary of each group’s conclusions is presented

below, followed by a list of recommendations for concrete action.

GROUP 1: Culture and Communities

Facilitator: Beth Takekawa

Working Group Members: Serhan Ada, Sid Berger, Cecilia

De La Paz, Luisa de Peña, Gwendolyn Everett, Greg Hayton,

Deborah Mack, Anupam Sah, Rudo Sithole, Johannes Vogel

FOCUS QUESTIONS:

How can libraries and museums use their many resources and

strengths, including their collections, spaces, and people, to reflect

cultural and demographic shifts and bridge cultural differences?

How do they select the stories they tell and the services and experiences they offer?

Working group members affirmed that the incorporation of

participatory culture enhances and enriches the functions of

libraries and museums. Therefore, bridging cultural differences

and working with communities are essential, so that these

institutions serve as cultural hubs, have greater social impact,

and are sustainable. Libraries and museums must first and foremost develop a participatory attitude and culture among their

own staff and among themselves. They must then create a space

of engagement and dialogue where participation takes place,

using an inter-generational approach; where communities are

enabled to create knowledge and tell their own stories in culturally diverse ways; and in which participation will become the core.

Museums and libraries have an obligation and responsibility to

work with communities towards creating meaningful social impact, and to employ technology judiciously, in order to provide

institutions, regardless of size, the means to have greater global

participation. Finally, the work with communities for mobilization

of resources must be developed in a sustainable manner. 

RECOMMENDATIONS

• Our institutions must better employ strategic use of technologies

to create a collective and inclusive sense in working with 

geographically related and diaspora communities. 

• There are obligations and responsibilities to communities

associated with developing meaningful social impact and

in soliciting community support and participation.

• Museums and libraries must reconfigure their internal processes

so that working with communities does not equal the institutional “outreach ghetto,” but is part of the institutional core.

• Museums and libraries must similarly engage with communities

in the co-creation and co-shaping of the multiple kinds and 

meanings of both knowledge and appropriate technologies. 

WORKING GROUP SUMMARIES 

AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Beth Takekawa, Serhan Ada Rudo Sithole Americo Castilla, Gwendolyn Everett
23

GROUP 3: Communications and Technology

Facilitator: Sarah Thomas

Working Group Members: Noha Adly, Catalina Escobar,

Susan Hazan, Max Kaiser, Kurt König, Rochelle Lau, Paula

McGrew, Elpiniki Meintani, Gregg Silvis, Silvia Stasselová,

Rob Stein, Gary Vikan

FOCUS QUESTIONS:

How are new technological innovations changing the ways people

communicate? How can the participatory nature of the new

technologies enhance the way libraries and museums and their

users interact and connect? What implications do online social

media platforms and the extensive use of digital technology and

images by libraries and museums hold for the collections, physical

spaces, and architecture of these institutions?

The working group began their convening by acknowledging

that new technologies are changing the ways in which people

are communicating. While there may be increased homogeneity

in information, with widespread distribution of ideas and data,

at the same time there is the opportunity for diverse perspectives

through democratic access to communication in many parts of

society. And despite the penetration of technology, there remain

social, economic, generational, language, technological, and

attitudinal gaps that need to be closed. The participatory nature

of the new technologies can enhance the ways in which libraries

and museums and their users interact and connect. The roles of

librarians and museum professionals are changing from sole

authority figure or expert to sharing knowledge with a diverse

set of users (audience/guest/host/customer/visitor) who bring

their own knowledge. 

RECOMMENDATIONS:

• Online social media offer opportunities to rethink the way in 

which the mission of libraries and museums is achieved and the

ways in which collections, physical spaces, and the structure of

organizations are conceived and managed.

• Technologies may be powerful tools, but it should be understood that they are not the drivers in participatory culture.

• Digital collections that span institutional boundaries can facilitate

enhanced participation.

• Physical spaces that enhance interactivity, and discovery can 

increase effective participation.

• Organizations that share collections and staff expertise more 

effectively can reduce costs (cost benefit) and enhance the 

quality of services.

• Greater collaboration and integration of organizations can 

provide a seamless and fruitful discovery experience to technology users, who are increasingly exploring resources from a 

variety of institutions.

I was a bit skeptical at the beginning because I thought I was the odd one out,

coming from a children’s museum. But I learned from each and every comment

that was said here. I was in the Learning Transformed working group and the

discussions were just amazing. What I came away with is that we are all about

learning; we are all learning institutions, but we deliver our learning messages in

different ways. I can not tell you how many things I will be using from this to inspire

my team and eventually inspire our board. I think it is mainly about engaging the

public and listening to our stakeholders: To put it quite simply we need to come off

our high horses and listen to what people want and need. That is the main message.

– Sawsan Al-Dalaq

David Lankes, Felton Thomas Noha Adly Sarah Thomas, Kurt Koenig
25

GROUP 4: Building the Skills of Library and 

Museum Professionals

Facilitator: David Lankes

Working Group Members: Kidong Bae, Mary Chute, Ross

Harvey, Daniel Lewis, Sasa Madacki, Rachel More, Deirdre

Prins-Solani, Joyoti Roy, Andrea Sajó, Michael Stephens,

Renyu Wang, Guo Xiaoling

FOCUS QUESTIONS:

What special and new skills do library and museum professionals

need now and in the future? How do library and museum professionals address such social needs as bridging cultures and

connecting to new demographics in their communities? How do

they respond to the rapidly changing nature of the new technologies? Is professional training designed to meet these needs?

The working group affirmed that the mission of librarians and

museum professionals is to foster conversations that improve

society through knowledge exchange and social action. Service

is a foundational value for professional development – a term that

implies a lifelong set of activities for professionals in libraries and

museums. Lifelong learning is essential to professional development and skill-building, both in and outside of formal educational

settings. The following core values permeate these topics: openness and transparency; self-reflection; collaboration; service;

empathy and respect; continuous learning and striving for excellence;

and creativity and imagination. 

RECOMMENDATIONS:

The group identified and elaborated six curricular topics essential to

building the professional skills of library and museum professional

leaders.

• Transformative Social Engagement involves values around 

activism, social responsibility, critical social analysis, public 

programming, advocacy, sustainability of societal mission, 

conflict management, and understanding community needs.

• Technology includes crowd sourcing and outreach, the ability 

to engage and evolve with technology, the ability to impart 

technology to the community across generations, and creating

and maintaining an effective virtual presence.

• Management for Participation involves institutional sustainability,

advocacy for our own institutions, economics, ethics and values,

sharing benefits and the barriers to sharing, collaboration within

interdisciplinary teams, and assessment/analytic impact.

• Asset Management involves understanding the preservation 

and safeguarding of collections and organizing assets.

• Cultural Skills needed include communication, the ability to 

analyze and function in intercultural settings and activities, the

ability to comprehend languages and terminology, and the 

support of multiple types of literacy.

• Knowledge/Learning/Innovation Topics include constructed 

knowledge, improvisation or innovation, interpretation,

dissemination, and persistent information-seeking.

Joyoti Roy, Deirdre Prins-Solani Mary Chute, Kidong Bae (right)

Fluency in critical social analysis, “participating deeply within the community,”

as our group defined it, transcends the more simple notions of community outreach

and “going where the users are.” Consider the public librarian participating in

community planning or development, or the academic librarian housed full time

within their assigned liaison department. The potential for enhanced understanding

of the needs of those particular communities is enticing. Stressing this need for

participation, our working group leader posited: “Why showcase culture if we are

not enabling conversations about that culture?” – Michael Stephens
GROUP 5: Demonstrating Public Value

Facilitator: Luis Herrera

Working Group Members: Sharon Ament, Pablo Andrade,

Richard Atuti, Tina Dunkley, Irina Eydemiller, Minna Karvonen,

May Pagsinohin, Marsha Semmel, Felton Thomas, Georgios

Zachos

FOCUS QUESTIONS:

How can libraries and museums better understand, demonstrate,

and articulate their social, cultural, educational, and economic

value to societies and to their own communities? How can they

measure and assess success? What kinds of processes for accountability do they need to have in place?

Public value is based on a universal principle of access to culture,

information, and knowledge and is inherent in the mission of

libraries and museums. This group began its discussions by asking

how their organizations can better understand and demonstrate

their value. Public value includes by definition a family of values,

such as monetary, social, economic, civic, and other tangible or

intrinsic variables. Libraries and museums have both positive

attributes and challenges that provide multiple opportunities to

succeed in demonstrating and delivering public value. These include:

Strengths – whereby libraries and museums have a set of positive attributes that provide multiple opportunities to succeed in

demonstrating and delivering public value. Some of these strengths

include the fact that they are trusted, apolitical, and credible;

reportedly enjoy positive public perception; are dedicated to the

public good; and contribute to societal cohesion.

Barriers include a number of challenges within which libraries

and museums operate and which act as impediments to delivering public value. Some of the challenges noted by the group

include a lack of internal alignment and resistance to organizational

change; a sometimes negative public image; staff perceptions of

evolving technologies as threats; the failure to create customer

loyalty; and the lack of effective communication among museum

and library departments/agencies. 

Stakeholders (and potential stakeholders) for libraries and

museums include the global collective, the political sector, funders

(philanthropic, corporate, public), community leaders, ourselves,

users and non-users (visitors, non-visitors), friends and volunteers,

a range of cultural institutions, the media, academic and educational institutions, members, boards of trustees and other policy

bodies, labor/unions, and the private sector. 

Techniques and strategies for demonstrating public value include

conducting perception and impact studies, testimonials, multipronged marketing and communications, institutional transparency,

engaging social media, and crowdsourcing.

Finally, the qualitative and quantitative data that support the

demonstration, assessment, and evaluation of public value utilize

a variety of techniques for measuring that public value and include

qualitative and quantitative measures, recognition and awards,

testimonials and stories, funding support, and strategic planning,

all tied to creating public value.

RECOMMENDATIONS

• It is imperative that strategic planning and priority setting be 

driven by the concepts of public value and stakeholder

engagement.

• It is essential that leadership within libraries and museums 

continually strive to ensure excellence in public value, putting 

it at the heart of the organization.

• It is a prerequisite that libraries and museums work in partnership with communities to define public value at the local level.

• It is essential that stakeholders demand that libraries and

museums collaborate to demonstrate public value.

“One Thing I Will Do Differently After This Session...”

At the end of the seminar, the fellows submitted a list of personal commitments for action to be undertaken in their own

countries and institutions after their return. Inspired by the

presentations, the case studies, and the informal conversations

with their colleagues in Salzburg, they made pledges in several

broad areas. 

For some of them, the action would take place within their home

institution. For example, they would share the key ideas from the

seminar with their colleagues and boards; incorporate the concept

of participatory culture into their strategic plan and internal

structure; work to break down barriers to access; and send staff

members to visit places where exciting activities for public engagement are occurring. Others stressed collaboration; for example, three

library directors promised to work with museums in their communities, while a museum director wrote of creating a partnership with

the library in his city – and another participant spoke of creating

arenas for collaboration between practitioners and academics.

Several of the fellows committed themselves to creating national

impact: one of them planned to establish a group on library and

museum change nationwide; another determined to increase

awareness of the public value of all libraries in his country through

his role as president of the library council; and a third will try to

create a common platform of communication and cooperation

for institutions throughout her country.

Others made commitments to being more “global” in their

thinking – translating the content in a museum to many languages

other than English; instilling staff with the vision of the local/global

role of libraries and museums; “acting and planning strategically

in a more global context;” and “reconsidering culturally diverse

content and participation” in future activities. Several also committed themselves to using technology more effectively, especially

social media and crowd sourcing, thus providing for more feedback and input from the community.

Improving courses and curricula in the training of museum and

library professionals, based on the themes of the seminar, and

“inspiring students” to think differently about their future work

were goals of several of the fellows. They spoke, for example, of

incorporating a global perspective and multi-cultural values into

their teaching, and articles, books, and presentations are already

being written on the topics of the seminar.

Finally, several fellows noted the importance of this report in

reaching politicians, media, and governing authorities in order to

justify the path already taken by a museum or library or, perhaps,

to pave the way for their institution to become more participatory

in nature.

27

I have been taking a lot of notes because all things that are related to libraries,

related to technologies, are things we are interested in. From crowdsourcing, multilingualism, to participation, social media – these are the topics that we are interested

in and we are looking for exposure to this type of international experiences because

when we are in Colombia, and working in Colombia, we do not get this exposure.

Just having the opportunity to talk to peers and other people who are doing different

things from what we are doing... it’s just invaluable. There is no way I could have gotten

all this information just in Colombia. I could have browsed the web, I could just search,

but having the live examples here, having the opportunity to talk to people from all

over the world is just amazing. That is the value that this type of setting and this

space bring to us. – Catalina Escobar
Elpinki Meintani

Administration and Finance Officer, 

National Gallery and Museum Alexandros

Soutzos, Hellenic Ministry of Culture,

Athens, Greece

Rachel More

Deputy National Librarian, National Library

of South Africa, Pretoria, South Africa

Henry Myerberg

Principal, HMA2architects, New York, 

United States

May Pagsinohin

Executive Director, Philippine Foundation

for Science and Technology, Marikina City,

Philippines

Deirdre Prins-Solani

Chair, AFRICOM; Director, Center for 

Heritage Development in Africa, Mombasa,

Kenya

Joyoti Roy

Project Coordinator, National Culture Fund,

New Delhi, India

Anupam Sah

Head of Art Conservation, Research and

Training, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu

Sangrahalaya Museum, Mumbai, India

Andrea Sajo

Director-General of National Széchényi 

Library, Budapest, Hungary

Greg Silvis

Assistant Director for Library Computing 

Systems, University of Delaware, Newark,

United States

Rudo Sithole

Executive Director, AFRICOM, Nairobi,

Kenya

Silvia Stasselová

President, Slovak Librarians Association,

Bratislava, Slovak Republic

Robert Stein

Deputy Director for Research, Technology,

and Engagement, Indianapolis Museum of

Art, Indianapolis, United States

Michael Stephens

Assistant Professor, School of Library and 

Information Science, San Jose State University, California; Creator and Primary Author,

Tame the Web 

Beth Takekawa

Executive Director, Wing Luke Museum of

the Asian Pacific American Experience, 

Seattle, United States

Felton Thomas

Director, The Cleveland Public Library,

Cleveland, United States

Sarah Thomas

Bodley’s Librarian, Bodleian Libraries, 

Oxford, United Kingdom

Gary Vikan

Director, The Walters Art Museum, 

Baltimore, United States

Sirje Virkus

Director, Digital Library Learning, Institute

of Information Studies, Tallinn University,

Tallinn, Estonia

Johannes Vogel

Keeper of Botany, Natural History Museum,

London, United Kingdom; Director-Designate, Natural History Museum, Berlin

Renyu Wang

Research Fellow, Chinese Academy of 

Social Sciences, Beijing, China

Mats Widbom

Director, Museum of World Culture, 

Göteborg, Sweden

Georgios Zachos

Director of the University of Ioannina 

Library; Ioannina, Greece

IMLS STAFF

Mary Chute, Deputy Director for Libraries

Nancy Rogers

Special Assistant to the Director, Strategic

Partnerships

Marsha Semmel

Director, Strategic Partnerships

SALZBURG GLOBAL SEMINAR STAFF

Robert Fish

Associate Director, Communications

Tina Micklethwait

Director of Communications

Susanna Seidl-Fox

Program Director, Culture and the Arts

Jennifer Steinhardt, Library Intern

Julia Stepan, Program Associate

Elizabeth Whisman, Program Intern

29

Serhan Ada

Head of the Cultural Management 

Programme, Istanbul Bilgi University; 

Istanbul, Turkey

Noha Adly

Deputy Head, ICT Sector, 

Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Alexandria, Egypt

Gabriela Aidar

Coordinator of the Social Inclusion Program, Pinacoteca, São Paulo, Brazil

Sawsan Al-Dalaq

Director, The Children’s Museum, Amman,

Jordan

Sharon Ament

Director of Public Engagement, The Natural

History Museum, London, United Kingdom

Pablo Andrade

Studies Department Manager BiblioRedes,

DIBAM, Santiago, Chile

Richard Atuti

Director, National Library Service, Nairobi,

Kenya

Kidong Bae

Professor of Archaeology in the Department

of Anthropology, Hanyang University; 

Director of the Jeongok Prehistory Museum,

Seoul, South Korea

Dawn Casey

Director, The Powerhouse Museum, Sydney,

Australia

Américo Castilla (Co-chair)

President, Fundación TyPA, Buenos Aires,

Argentina; former Director, National Museum

of Fine Arts; former National Director of

Heritage and Museums, Ministry of Culture

of Argentina 

Michèle Cloonan (Co-chair)

Dean, Graduate School of Library & Information Science, Simmons College, Boston,

United States

Cecelia De La Paz

Associate Professor, Department of Art

Studies, University of the Philippines Diliman,

Quezon City, Philippines

Luisa De Peña

Director, Memorial Museum of Dominican

Resistance, Santo Domingo, Dominican 

Republic

Vishakha Desai

President and CEO, The Asia Society, 

New York, United States

Tina Dunkley

Director, Clark Atlanta University Art 

Galleries, Atlanta, United States

Catalina Escobar Bravo

Executive Director, MAKAIA, Medellín, 

Colombia

Gwendolyn Everett

Chair, Department of Art, Harvard University, Washington, D.C. 

Irina Eydemiller

Head of Research Department, The National

Library of Russia, St. Petersburg, Russia

Guo Xiaoling

Director, Capital Museum, Beijing, China

Elaine Heumann Gurian

Senior Museum Consultant, Arlington, 

United States

Ross Harvey

Visiting Professor, Graduate School of 

Library & Information Science, 

Simmons College, Boston, United States

Greg Hayton

Chief Executive Officer, Cambridge Public

Libraries and Art Galleries, Cambridge, 

Canada

Susan Hazan

Curator of New Media and Head of Internet Office, Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel

Luis Herrera

Director, San Francisco Public Library, 

San Francisco, United States

Michelle Hippolite

Kaihautū, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa

Tongarewa, Wellington, New Zealand

Max Kaiser

Head of Research and Development, 

Austrian National Library, Vienna, Austria

Minna Karvonen

Secretary General, Division for Cultural 

Policy, Department for Cultural, Sport and

Youth Policy, Ministry of Education and 

Culture, Helsinki, Finland

Kurt Koenig

Acting Director of Resources, Publications

Office, European Commission, Luxembourg

David Lankes

Professor, Director, Masters in Library and

Information Science, Syracuse University,

School of Information Studies, Syracuse,

United States 

Shuk Fan Lau

Chief Librarian, Hong Kong Central Library

and Extension Activities, Hong Kong SAR 

Daniel Lewis

Chief Curator of Manuscripts, Huntington

Library, Pasadena, United States

Deborah Mack (Rapporteur)

Museum Consultant, The Museum Group,

Savannah, United States

Saša Madacki

Director, Human Rights Center, University 

of Sarajevo, Sarajevo, Bosnia

Paula McGrew

Director of Library Services, West Virginia

Wesleyan College, Buckhannon, United

States

28

LIST OF PARTICIPANTS Left page: Luisa De Pena, Cecilia De La Paz :: Luis Herrera :: Henry Myerberg, Dawn Casey, Nancy Rogers 

Right page: Deborah Mack :: Sharon Ament :: Guo Xiaoling, Renyu Wang
31

● Recognize the importance of cultural, economic, and social diversity in our communities.

● Accept the principle of democratic access.

● Acknowledge the need for new language and vocabulary to describe our work, 

reflecting the changing realities and expectations for our institutions.

● Create innovative partnerships with the community and community organizations.

● Accept new obligations, accountability, and responsibilities within our institutions.

● Place a major emphasis on public value and impact.

● Embrace the changing nature of authority, allowing for cocreation of content 

and input from both on-site and virtual visitors as an accepted part of our work.

● Recognize the blurring of distinctions between in-school and out-of-school learning.

● Embrace early and lifelong learning as key to our mission.

● Accept the need for changes in the internal culture of our organizations 

and practice participatory culture internally as well as externally.

● Recognize that technology is a tool and that authentic participation depends 

upon people, not merely upon technology.

● Incorporate social media into our mission and strategic thinking.

● Join a new wave of collaboration with other cultural institutions via sharing of staff 

and collections and other means.

● Open our walls, break down boundaries, and orient ourselves outwardly, 

becoming the modern equivalent of the agora as a hub of communication.

● Change the curriculum for the training of museum and library professionals 

in order to address the demands and realities of participatory culture.

● Act with passion and creativity as agents of permanent change.

30

IMPERATIVES FOR THE FUTURE

Credits

Front Cover: Sq 1 Herman Seidl; Sq 2 Nashville Public Libary ́s Grand Reading Room. Photo by Gary Layda; Sq 3+4 Herman Seidl

Report Photos: p.4, 6, 10, 16, 22, 24, 26 Shutterstock; all other photos taken at Schloss Leopoldskron by Herman Seidl and Rob Fish.

Back Cover: Herman Seidl. Graphic Design: Hermann Resch; Production: Blüml & Kaind, Salzburg.

Acknowledgements

Salzburg Global Seminar Session 482 was made possible by 

generous support from the Institute of Museum and Library 

Services, Washington, D.C.

Donors that also supported the October meeting include 

• The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation 

• The Nippon Foundation 

• Paul H. and Heather Sturt Haaga

The Salzburg Global Seminar and the Institute of Museum and

Library Services gratefully acknowledge the assistance and support

of the knowledgeable international participants of the program

whose diverse experience and ideas informed this report.

Disclaimer

The report reflects many of the points raised and issues discussed

during the October meeting, but is not an exhaustive exploration

of the themes nor does it purport to reflect a consensus amongst

the participants on all of the issues and ideas presented.

The report seeks to reflect and summarize the multi-layered discussions that took place. The report does not claim to reflect the

views of the donors or the author, nor does it necessarily reflect

the views of the Salzburg Global Seminar or the Institute of Museum

and Library Services.

About the Rapporteur

DEBORAH MACK (Rapporteur) is an independent museum professional with a practice focused on museum organizational and

strategic planning; interpretive and exhibition development; 

cultural heritage and tourism. 

Since 2005 she has served on the Scholarly Advisory Committee

for the Planned National African American Museum of History and

Culture, Smithsonian Institution. She is an active member of a

number of Professional organizations, among them the Association

of American Museums, the Association of African American

Museums and AFRICOM. She holds a Ph.D. and an M.A. in anthropology from Northwestern University, and a B.A. in geography

from the University of Chicago. 

FOR THE WORLD’S LIBRARIES AND MUSEUMS, 

AN ERA OF PARTICIPATORY CULTURE DEMANDS THAT WE:

Richard Atuti Michele Hippolite, Sirje Virkus, Sawsan Dalaq Americo Castilla
1800 M Street NW, 9th Floor

Washington DC, 20036-5802, USA

Telephone: +1 (202) 6534657 

Fax: +1 (202) 6534600

Website: www.imls.gov

Contact: Nancy Rogers, 

Special Assistant to the Director, 

Strategic Partnerships

Email: nrogers@imls.gov

Schloss Leopoldskron

Leopoldskronstrasse 56-58

Box 129

5010 Salzburg, Austria

Telephone: +43 (662) 83983-0 

Fax: +43 (662) 83983-7

Website: www.salzburgglobal.org

Contact: Susanna Seidl-Fox, 

Program Director, Culture and the Arts

Email: sfox@salzburgglobal.org