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Museums, libraries and archives of London are more influential than ever before

from Victoria Ward, Friday, January 18, 2008

We’ve been getting imaginary futures in order, with the help of a workshop last week and a final meeting of our lively advisory group this week. I’ll be posting more specifically next week when I’ve assembled my understanding of their versions of the future and the possible pilots and projects which could move towards it.

Meanwhile, here’s an edited version of some of the imaginings that we were working with this week. I’d be most interested to be offered a) fine (or blunt) tunings b) suggestions for actions, activities, provocations, pilots, projects which would be fruitful investments of time and energy towards a re-ordering of things and c) research, monitoring, evidence-gathering, theoretical frames and measuring systems which might contextualise and estimate the worth in the flows between MLA and business.

A couple of working labels have been cooked up which allow us some kind of temporary language in which to construct and describe the future. I’m a bit coy about sharing them and fear charges of consultant-ese and excess flower levied at me in a mocking kind of way. But I can’t think of a way to duck using them. So be gentle with them, or perhaps suggest improvements rather than merely withering me. The two main terms I’ll throw about with a little abandon are “Information & Inspiration” (I&I) as a relabelling of the whole MLA world (inside and outside organsiations). (There was an argument for an Insight in there somewhere but it feels, for now, a little like excess I think. All we need to know is that there are two quite different ends to the spectrum of experiences and services on offer with many mash-ups in the continuum which lies between the extremes.) “Inspiration Instigator” replaces the duller but serviceable working team of “Product Development Officer” and a previous and rather aerated “Animateur” to describe those people willing to move and negotiate between worlds, languages, timescales, and senses of urgency and forge meaningful new connections and activities.

I’d also say that some of what’s here is happening already, but it’s hidden from view and happening piecemeal. Other parts simply don’t exist, or are such a patchwork that it will take an upheaval and collective will to bring them about. Some of it simply won’t, or shouldn’t, happen. And I’d like to emphasise that the speculations and imaginings were a means to an end, meant to set the scene and provoke discussion, which it did. They are not the final report of some minor, wild and radical thinktank with delusions of grandeur and nearly of of what’s said below comes from something someone said, with a couple of obvious exceptions. Not yet anyway. Please get stuck in. Here goes. At some future date of your own choosing…..

Museums, libraries and archives of London are they are more influential than ever before in the history of the city.

Now known as the Information& Inspiration (I&I) sector, London’s collections, spaces and custodians, public and private sector, now run themselves as an extended body with one voice, articulate and enthusiastic orchestrators of, and campaigners for, an extended and vibrant knowledge network that puts culture at the heart of London and transformed its work, workers and workplaces, beyond recognition.

London’s growing position as a world city and international workplace is boosted by high standards in information provision and bursts at the seams with innovation and dense fertile connections between people from all walks of working life.

Much of this can be traced directly to the radically reinvented role of museums, libraries and archives in the business world. The places, people, collections and events, the conscious blurring of boundaries between high and low culture have made for an explosive and energetic meeting of the worlds of corporation and culture, both extending out from the successful partnership between business and higher education that existed before and coming in all kinds of other sources and ventures. The ability of the Information & Inspiration offer to help root the present in the past; to give people breathing space to put policy and strategy back into context and take a long view rather than shuffling in-trays to out-trays with furious thoughtless speed; the nudge to come at things sideways for a fresh take; all of this has led to a kind of festival of culture. In fact, culture is now viewed as the essence of vital business activity to such an extent that DBERR and the Department of Culture and Media have been merge (Sport had already been hived off into Health). It can only be a matter of time before DIUS is re-integrated as well. And the senior minister is known as the Minister of Information & Inspiration.

This is a city where Information & Inspiration professionalism is taken for granted as essential to any business activity whether performed by dedicated experts, or as part of the skillset of the rounded worker.

New modules have been seeded into the education curriculum. Everyone enters the workplace confident in information handling, competent in developing his or her own skills through reflection and learning, and open to being inspired from unlikely quarters. It’s not just the privilege of those who’ve gone into further and higher education.

In larger businesses the Information & Inspiration specialists walk arm in arm with the front-line workers, helping them shape their enquiries, nudging them towards the right information, challenging their research methods, sometimes carrying on complex research on their behalf. It’s a partnership.

In smaller businesses, people might turn outwards to those who run professional associations, or orchestrate the networks and professional development of people in them. Small enterprises would no more give up their business membership of the local library than they would fail to file a tax return: not only because it fulfils their information needs but also because it give them a chance to meet colleagues and mentors that will help their business grow.

Local authorities have merged the economic and culture departments and started to invest heavily in local communal business and entertainment spaces. Museum, library, town hall, concert hall are all places which pay as much attention to the adult to professional working alone or with colleagues as to the adult en famille on a weekend outing. Opening hours have changed, standards of service and support have been sharpened. The best examples of collaborative workspaces, and of business services from business, higher education and other cities have been imported and there is now a London-wide business library and culture strategy directly harnessed to local economic, regeneration and community plans.

There is a clear, and desirable, career path and development programme for anyone wanting to become an orchestrator of information and inspiration assets and services.

London is renowned for it’s accredited mentoring and professional development programme, handled by the Information & Inspiration Association, a body that has grown through amalgamation, vision and a lot of patient hard work and conversation. It sits at the heart the professional development programmes, conference, award systems and research programmes. The career goal for the most committed is to become an Inspiration Instigator, the bridge-builder who brings together the different worlds and timescales in new knowledge endeavours. Such is the esteem in which the qualifications are held that people come from all over the world to be trained, and continue as active alumni. The annual conference attracts thousands of information professionals from all over the world and is an exemplar of knowledge transfer in itself. The award of business Information & Inspiration professional of the year has become one of the most prestigious, hard fought, and highly prized.

The I & I sector has set up it’s own system which includes benchmarking, study tours, workshops and lesson learned days and mystery shopping.

Barriers have tumbled in every quarter, making for vibrant lateral knowledge transfer between museums, libraries and archives, and by those who play similar roles inside corporations, about what they are doing, what’s working, how things are changing. There’s a lively flow of ideas, evidence, approaches, debates and innovations right across the sector, backed up by mutual help and encouragement, entertaining publications and event and talk series which travel right round the local collections and spaces and attract all kinds of audiences and participants.

These emerging exchanges are backed up by serious theoretical and scientific research, which examines the evidence for value creation that one might infer from this lively sprawl of activity. Theory and practice feed into each other in ways which mutually contextualise and challenge.

At the heart of the I, I &I community is a practical resource, an online toolkit which encourages every institution, its workers and visitors, with the help of the Inspiration Instigator, to take a good hard look at itself and others and come up with cunning plans and clever tricks to make itself surprising, interesting and indispensable to local, London-based and international businesses and business professionals.

The Which London workplace and walking guide, first published in 2008, has become a classic reference guide.

Businesses have come to realise that they need to support the modern equivalent of spiritual refreshment, in much the way they responded to demands for volunteering support. Qualified staff will otherwise simply vote with their feet and chose those businesses that are not only ethical and conscious of work-life balance but fully behind rich variety of workplace conditions.

The I & I sector, in turn, has realised that they are sitting on the buried treasure of cafes, meeting places, workplaces, collections, experts that can inject delight and surprise into the otherwise mundane meetings that spill out of overbooked corporate spaces and into serviced offices, or perhaps local cafes and private clubs. They have geared up to be smart and organised in their offer, without diluting the essence, which was attractive in the first place.

Almost universally, dress down Fridays have fallen out of fashion, to be replaced by I &I Tuesdays – the day workers can retreat to the inner recesses of the quiet world of the library, or conduct all their meetings, wired technologically (and by plenty of caffeine), in one of the many delightful workplaces in the semi-public and public realm now on offer across the capital. Coffee franchise operations are facing severe retrenchment as the trained baristas are taking over the management of the cafes in I & I buildings across the capital. Either that or they’re going into partnership, and willing to subordinate their brand trappings to the distinctive qualities on offer in the spaces in question.

Writers, composers, scientists, designers and inventors from all over the world who love and are inspired by London and it’s collections are willing to turn up to talks and events at the new Art and Science clubs springing up in London businesses and hosted by the I & I. Speakers bear witness to their passions, philosophies and favourite treasures in a London wide event series, which is the talk of the town and featured weekly in Time Out. People queue round the block to get into these soirees, which other businesses in capital cities are starting to copy.

More and more Information & Inspiration fuels vibrant networks.

Sometimes it’s an encouraging space in which to learn, network, or get close to gurus of the industry. Perhaps an exhibit and events which show a vision of the future for, say, transport or climate change – a place to have charged conversations that would be skewed if held on less neutral territory. Or the past acts as a lens or a metaphor through which to re-examine the future or a particular challenge – the Apollo missions as a lever to build breakthrough change capacity in a utility. Leadership is taught through the National Portrait Gallery, risk taking and teamwork through seafaring pictures at the Maritime Museum, traffic management through guided tours organised by the London Transport Museum. The rent-a-museum service provides installations in the receptions of major service industry firms, encouraging momentary pause, carving out breathing spaces in which the social responsibility of the corporation, and the individuals in it, can be seen in a fresh light. Art and philanthropy mentoring encourages good investments in art and increases sensitivity, deepening the ability to be effective at work and satisfied in private lives.

The relationship between business and Information & Inspiration is no longer a patchwork of random cultural projects inspired by individuals with a bit of back-pocket budget which they spend while no-one senior is looking. Quite the opposite. Organisational development, leadership, talent management, recruitment, learning and education teams have teamed up with the librarians, curators and archivists (internal and external) and with the corporate social responsibility team. What started out of curiosity at as a small benchmarking exercise by a committed group of firms with a large London presence has evolved into a method for cultural auditing in business settings. The resulting cultural blueprint is seeded into every aspect of the business strategy, planning, human capital management and measurement systems.

There’s been considerable argument over the terminology, because to some the word culture is now so denigrated as to be counterproductive, while to others reclaiming the word and making it live is the work in hand. However to be without the Annual Culture Report is like being without a Corporate Social Responsibility report used to be at the turn of the century. The indicators that are being developed are leading to new benchmarking and comparison research by the larger ratings agencies and investment analysts, starting to position cultural competence, alongside creditworthiness and other attributes as essential to any rating. There is talk of a kitemark for Investors in I&I which will replace Investors in People.

SMEs and smaller entities, while not undertaking culture strategies at the same scale have tuned themselves and their organisations to make the most of the rich tapestry of cultural resources on offer in the capital and feel measurably better supported by their environment, with traceable results in productivity and economic health, as indicated by innovative measures developed by the LDA.