Cultural Services in Transition: Bringing Museums, Libraries, Archives and Galleries into the learning world

Session outline: Museums, Libraries, Galleries and other cultural services are an essential part of the total educational effort in a learning city or region. In the UK for example, most public libraries and museums have developed mission statements acknowledging their contribution to lifelong learning. Equally the new technologies have expanded the role of museums and libraries. This session therefore explores what their new contribution in the overall scheme of things might be and how it can be implemented. It is primarily aimed to improve the understanding of those who are not immersed in the culture of museums, galleries, archives and libraries, but also the experts will find some good practice examples here from which they can learn. It may not be possible to complete all exercises here in a single session. Group leaders and/or learners should choose which are the most appropriate for their purposes.