“Virtual Volunteers” – the new lifeblood of the heritage sector?

by Esther Wilson, Social Media and Digital Marketing Volunteer

COVID-19 has had an enormous impact upon all areas of our daily lives. For the heritage sector, this has been no different where lockdowns meant that, overnight, long-standing streams of support dried up. Perhaps the most well-covered aspect of this by the press and social media alike has been the loss of income from admissions-related revenue, plunging even longstanding and nationally-significant Trusts such as the Birmingham and York Museums Trusts’ into rocky financial waters, as well as smaller museum sites such as Bletchley Park. However, another key support channel has been lost; that of volunteers.

Volunteers are the lifeblood of many heritage and museum organisations, from assisting with essential collections practices to working at the coal-face of the visitor experience as passionate members of the guiding team. As lockdown slowly unfurls, sites and stores may begin to re-open but the difficulties in volunteer mobilisation are far from over. Usual organisational practices remain limited by social distancing guidelines. A key volunteer demographic is those seeking enrichment in their post-retirement years; by virtue of age a more ‘clinically at risk’ group when it comes to COVID-19 and perhaps more likely to be cautious in their own external activity.  Many other volunteering positions may be undertaken by students as part of university placements or college enrichment programmes; as a postgraduate student myself, I know that such schemes may now be difficult to arrange in the new age of online higher education learning. 

However, lockdown also provided an opportunity for organisations to adapt their practice, including through innovative uses of digital technology. Is remote assistance set to become a routine part of the ‘new normal’?

Foremost, it is important to note some difficulties with my line of enquiry. It has already been mentioned that many volunteers are those who have reached retirement; not only a more ‘clinically vulnerable’ demographic but one which generally has a lower digital skill set – this could be a key challenge to their ability to support heritage organisations in new ways. Many working adults who are now working from home may also find the prospect of spending more time in-front of a screen an unattractive prospect. Indeed, mere access to technology itself is a privilege not shared by all members of society due to financial barriers, unlike the ability to spend one’s free time in a like manner. My own position is one of privilege; as a postgraduate student, I have access to technology which enables me to complete my postgraduate studies, and both in the face of redundancy and alongside employment, has also allowed me to exchange my in-person assistance to support from the comfort of my sofa. 

Virtual volunteering within the heritage sector is actually not a new concept. For many years, large organisations from the Smithsonian across the pond to our own Imperial War Museum and National Archives have facilitated online volunteering opportunities such as transcription or research contributions, enabling volunteers worldwide to contribute to internationally-significant heritage work on their own terms. However, some organisations have more recently been able to adapt this practice and take it further. 

One approach which has really stood out to me is that of the Museum of East Anglian Life (MEAL). As a regular, local heritage volunteer and staff member for a number of years, I knew that lockdown was beginning to hit heritage hard. So, following MEAL’s advertisement on the well-known Leicester Museum Jobs Desk, I was excited at the prospect of being able to assist in the management of their collections from my home several hours away. Combined with a great deal of time spent photographing documentation cards by the on-site team, MEAL’s use of online collections management platform ‘eHive’ has enabled a large team of remote volunteers to digitise documentation cards as well as correct the Museum’s enormous local history database where necessary. Since only June, over 3,000 records have been digitised and made available for public access – a 300% increase and a real success story in opening up collections beyond the walls of the physical store or archive, as well as doing so in a digital format which should survive the test of time. Not all heritage currently use or have the ability to use such accessible platforms as ‘eHive’, particularly after the financial burdens placed on many heritage organisations over lockdown. However, it certainly appears a positive example which suggests that it may be possible for some elements of the labour-intensive collections management processes to be further opened-up to a remote public-at-large, providing museum sites with continued support and forging meaningful connections and experiences for both new and now-distanced volunteer teams. This work could even be further enhanced by the use of new technologies and practices such as photogrammetry, where teams could be trained and directed in collections digitisation with ease using new-found favourite platforms Zoom or Microsoft Teams. 

The use of such communication channels can also enable more unique volunteering opportunities to flourish which may not have otherwise been considered or even possible. I have been privileged to work with Experience Heritage in such a voluntary capacity and the opportunity to give an exciting, digital heritage start-up company an extra helping-hand has been invaluable. The countless enormous difficulties which the novel Coronavirus has placed upon our society and heritage sector has undoubtedly reverberated out to Experience Heritage as a company; with tighter budgets for heritage reinterpretation and many organisations facing serious financial difficulties, it could be easy to see this period in only a negative light. However, recent circumstances have also emphasised the need for us to be more adaptable in our approaches to work and life. What would have previously been a less-accessible, office-based position set around particular office-hours has become an entirely flexible opportunity, where I’m more able to assist on an increased, entirely remote basis, keeping in close contact with the company through G-Suite and Zoom whilst completing tasks at times which work best for all of us around existing commitments. We have been able to grow our network and skills as a company so that we can be best placed to support the heritage sector as it begins to tentatively emerge on the other side, honing skills in 3D-modelling, augmented reality and virtual reality, so that we can provide even better experiences for visitors when recovering heritage organisations are ready for them. The social-distancing demands brought by COVID-19 have only emphasised to us all how critical a sound grasp of even basic digital technology is, whilst also suggesting that more versatile, out-of-the-box thinking about how to effectively wield the benefits of technology can bring about unexpected success.

‘Virtual volunteering’ may be an opportunity which many otherwise-volunteers and heritage organisations are unable to access in the manners in which some have been able. However, recent months have highlighted how digital solutions may make a real positive difference in effectively enabling the ‘new normal’ way of operation for many museum and heritage sites across the country and their networks, providing volunteers both old and new with a way to once again do what they do best; support and share the heritage we all know and love.