Every year a handful of scholarships are awarded for emerging professionals and those new to MCN to attend the annual conference. The scholarship covers the registration fee and includes a $500 stipend for expenses. The five 2007 scholarship award winners were picked from a “fierce” pool of dedicated, passionate and super smart applicants.The recipients were asked to submit a post for this blog, and to write to what they got out of the conference.

This week, I will be posting each person’s reflections on the conference and how it impacted their work. It is over four months since the conference, and we are well into a new year. Perhaps it is a good time to take a step back and think about what we get out of professional conferences – networking and the exchange of ideas among peers. The MCN conference provides a platform to understand where we are with regard to the roles we play working with and implementing technologies in cultural organizations. These essays will show you five different points of views and perspectives on this. As I read them, it made me think about where I fit. I was surprised that my thoughts led me to identify the different stages in my career that has brought me to where I am now. Where do you stand?

The 2008 MCN conference scholarship award process will begin in late summer and announcements will be made on the MCN list serve. Look out for them and consider applying.

This first post is from Douglas Patinka, Website Manager, New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs. http://www.nmoca.org/

On Community

Shhh. . . don’t tell anyone. I’m keystroking this in late at night after having attended a full day of sessions at MCN 2007. What a whirlwind of ideas.

I came here thinking that this was a real opportunity for me to learn about what was happening around the country in the area of Museums and information technology. I sold the idea to my supervisor by telling him just that. I figured I’d probably see a bunch of super cool demonstrations of hot new Web 2.0 applications, find out all about interesting ways museums are integrating interactivity into their exhibitions, and come home wondering how to make it all happen on no budget with no staff and too little time.

What I didn’t really realize at the time—but now it seems obvious—is that conferences are as much about the people as they are about the information that’s shared. What’s key to success then, is, after it’s all over, making sure that relationships are maintained, and continuing the conversations that began—or at least were inspired by—the conference sessions.

First of all it’s important to say, that everyone at MCN was extremely nice. I know that this is in part because I was granted a scholarship to attend—and made to stand up and wave to a group of 300 folks—but it seems to me that the kind of genuine friendliness that I encountered was driven by more than just a desire to make me feel welcome at the event. I was a real effort to make me feel part of a community.

Whether it was intentional or not, much of the discussion at the conference was about sustaining communities, as well. Certainly, the first day’s forums had community at their heart: Museum Studies Programs: That Was Then, This Is Now looked to the future of the museum information profession, asking if new professionals are getting the training they need; The Town Hall Conversation on Professionalism and Leadership presented different ways of sharing information related to the field; The MCN Presidents’ Roundtable reviewed past concerns and accomplishments and outlined the course for the future; and finally Directors and IT Professionals: A Conversation about Leadership presented a “frank discussion” about the status of IT professionals within the professional museum community—and also spotlighted a couple museums and the relationships between museum administrators and IT professionals. The presentations and ensuing discussions during this first day set the stage for the rest of the conference; they were, for me, among the best of the sessions.

Although they didn’t provide answers or even concrete direction, these sessions started me thinking about the place of information technology in museums, the role of professional organizations in nurturing and sustaining professionals, and the role that I ought to take within my own organization, the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs.

With that introduction, I’d like to outline some of what has been going on among the staff members of the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs as a way of supporting and facilitating interest in the use of information technologies within our institutions.

The New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs is cabinet-level state agency that serves as the administrative center of New Mexico‘s state-owned cultural institutions. Among our 15 divisions are included eight museums, six state monuments, the state library, the state arts agency, an archaeological services agency, and the state’s historic preservation division. To various degrees each of these institutions maintains collections of objects or records, presents exhibitions and performances, or provides support to other cultural organizations throughout the state. Geographically, we are spread across New Mexico, and our collecting and exhibition interests range from natural history and science to folk art. We are a diverse group of institutions and individuals. One commonality is that, like most cultural heritage organizations, we have little resources or staff for expanding our technology-related programs. A small, centralized IT staff in Santa Fe administers a helpdesk, while those institutions outside the capitol city have a single individual dedicated to IT related issues: maintaining computer networks and phone systems, supporting various types of software, and performing the various unrelated tasks that generally fall under the classification “I.T.” Among our 15 divisions and 500 employees is one individual whose focus it the development and maintenance of the department’s more than 30 web sites.

And yet, despite our challenges, we, as a group, have a real interest in using technology to reach out and tell our stories, share our collections, and complement our programming.

Following the 2006 Museums and the Web conference in Albuquerque, a group of individuals—educators, curators, collections managers, and others—within DCA formed an informal “community of practice” intended as a way of supporting and coordinating projects seeking to use technology to meet our mission goals. The “New Media and Technologies Group” has meet periodically—sometimes monthly, sometimes less frequently—and has had some impact on the way we work. We’re an informal group, usually meeting over lunch, and with no direction except what we deem is appropriate. Yet we’ve made progress.

Among our successes:

· Development of standards and best practices for all new Web-based projects

· The production of a publication inventorying and documenting all collections-related digitization projects in the department

· The implementation of a departmental intranet (complete with Web 2.0 features we’re not quite ready for), intended to facilitate communication and sharing of resources among department staff

But the greatest benefit of holding our irregular meetings—usually focusing on a particular topic or project—has been the personal connection our meetings have fostered. Now each of us—working quietly alone on a Web project in Alamogordo, or seeking advice on a digitization project in Santa Fe—has somewhere to turn, and importantly, with the creation of the NMTG and the department’s intranet site, the mechanism to sustain such relationships.

I came away from MCN 2007 thinking about these things, seeing the importance of communication among individuals engaged in similar activities, and with a renewed interest in finding better ways for those within my organization to share what we learn.