Ether Education

ETHER Education is a business unit within The ETHER Initiative, which addresses the training and educational needs of the heritage sector, with a focus on museum and collection management practices.

Governance of Museums and Heritage Institutions

Governance of museums and other heritage institutions must follow best practice guidelines, codes, and standards. Heritage institutions have a number of unique characteristics which demands a specialised approach to learning and practical application. This is presented in the form of an interactive training workshop, by making reference to the institutions current position, and by targeting a future best practice environment. More…

Introduction to Web-site Development for Museums and other Heritage Institutions

Every museum should have a web-site which is a primary touch-point for all stakeholders and visitors. We all expect that the Web provide us access to everything, and it is largely true that if it is not on the Web it does not exist!

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Collection Management Best Practices using Spectrum 5

Spectrum is the world-wide best practice standard for managing museum collections and heritage collections. It has been developed over a period of more than 30 years, and has been adopted by more than 30,000 museums world-wide.

Spectrum is developed and provided by Collections Trust UK and covers the range of procedures, and associated practices and data records, which must be formalised and implemented within well-run museums.

Spectrum 5 has been recently released, making some significant changes to previous versions, including the handling of reproductions and collections review processes. Our CEO, Dr Roger Layton, was a contributor to Spectrum 5.

Social Media

Training workshop on Social Media and Digital Marketing for Museums and other Heritage Institutions

A large portion of the population expect to find what they want on the social media challenges. Museums, and all heritage institutions, must capitalise on this social media trend in order to market themselves, and to built and promote their digital brand.

This requires a solid understanding of the social media options available and the markets which they serve, and also the capacity to exploit these channels in a way to suit your budget, capacity, and your market.

This workshop is designed for people new to social media marketing, and who have a specific interest or involvement with museums and other heritage institutions.

Digitisation and Digital Preservation

Digitisation is the process of converting analogue objects into digital form. However, this term is also used to describe the life-cycle for the handling of all digital information, including born digital objects and data sets. 

This workshop provides practical guidance on how to move your institution into the digital age.

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Database Development for Museum/Heritage Collection Management

All museums and related heritage institutions have collections at the core of their knowledge. These collections may consist of thousands or even millions of objects and other items. One important part of best practice collection management is to document the collections including both the catalogue information concerning the collections and their items, and also the records associated with these for administrative purposes.

GRAP 103 Readiness for Museums

GRAP 103 is an accounting standard for reporting on heritage collections—an audit compliance requirement for all institutions holding heritage assets. With the large size of museum collections this has become an almost impossible task, requiring the museums to fully inventorise and value every item, and to conduct audits and valuations on a regular basis. This training workshop will help you to prepare for GRAP 103, on the basis that at least 90% of the work in reaching compliance with GRAP 103 is based on good museum practice.