Ian O Morrison

An article in Scottish Museums Journal, Spring 1994 edition

Introduction

I wrote about the background to the Western Isles National Database Evaluation Exercise (WINDEE) in the Autumn 1993 issue of Scottish Museum News. The project has been fully operational for over six months, and a useful quantity of data has been gathered from the public installations in Lewis, Benbecula and Barra. Analysis of the results has enabled some conclusions to be drawn.

WINDEE was installed at Museum Sgoil Lionacleit, Benbecula, in early June and at Stornoway Library, Lewis and Castlebay School, Barra in early September 1993. The system was accessed over one thousand times across all three sites up to early December 1993.

There were some unexpected problems. The Benbecula installation had to be operated by a computer mouse rather than the planned touchscreen. It was unavailable for a few days as a result of malicious emasculation of the mouse. There were problems with fuses blowing on the Stornoway and Barra machines, probably due to surges of the mains power. A user in Stornoway managed to disrupt the software configuration. These difficulties were overcome largely by on-site expertise, and will be taken into account when planning the way forward.

Recording objects

The Western Isles National Database Evaluation Exercise was never intended solely as a public access project. Most of the funding, in fact, has gone towards the collection of data on objects in the Western Isles. Roddy John Campbell, a native of Lewis, was appointed to do this task, under the supervision of Richard Langhorne, Museums Curator for Comhairle nan Eilean. Following a week of training with myself and other staff in the National Museums of Scotland, Roddy John set to work and has been very successful in seeking out and recording relevant material. The number of new records generated, to the time of writing, has been 3000.

General observations

WINDEE was accessed 1107 times between June and December 1993. About 50% of the users completed the optional questionnaire. Of those who did, 64% were male and 72% were under 25 years of age. The proportion of users aged under 16 years varied from 34% in Barra to 78% in Stornoway. The average amount of time spent by younger users was five minutes 35 seconds, compared to four minutes 27 seconds across all age groups.

Most of the users of WINDEE lived within the respective local island groups. The proportion was lowest in Barra, with 46% living on Barra itself. This figure is probably distorted because Vatersay was not listed as an option amongst the places. A majority of the 38% from Western Isles Other" probably live on Vatersay. Almost three quarters of users of the Stornoway machine lived in Lewis or Harris. The proportion of users from outside the Western Isles was highest in Benbecula, with 38%. This may be because this site was the only one where WINDEE was installed in a recognisable museum.

The proportion of users choosing the Gaelic language option varied widely, with 20% in Stornoway, 28% in Benbecula and 53% in Barra.The proportions were highest amongst females, those from outside the local area and the older age groups.

A third of users from outside the UK chose Gaelic, including half of those from outside Europe. Harris and Berneray residents also scored highly, at around 42%, but the proportions for Lewis, North Uist and Eriskay residents were around one in seven.

The average user reached between four and five "destinations" in the form of information screens, object listings or quizzes. The most popular choice was an object listing (42%), with general information screens on 24% and quizzes 35%. The average time spent at each destination was 50 seconds, with most time being taken on quizzes (averaging 87 seconds) and least on general information (21 seconds). Listings of objects held the user's attention for an average of 36 seconds, but there were wide differences between users, some of whom spent over half an hour browsing through the lists.

The most popular destination screens were those relating to the local areas of each installation. These attracted 43% of accesses, with 46% of the total time spent. On Barra, the local quiz was the most popular destination, with 32% of accesses and 50% of the time spent. In Benbecula, where there was no local quiz, the St Kilda quiz was most popular with 15% of accesses and 50% of the time. At Stornoway, the list of objects from the town itself was most popular, but only scored 12% of accesses and 16% of the time spent.

WINDEE has been very successful to date. The installations have attracted much interest and seem to have been found easy to use and reasonably robust. Though much of the usage has been of a fairly frivolous nature, as the quiz statistics show, the public side has also attracted the attention of more serious researchers. It has also been found useful in a formal educational context. The work done on collecting records will be of lasting value.

The development of a revised application is under way. This is being written in Visual Basic for greater flexibility and security. There will be a greater Gaelic content, more quizzes, more museum records and new information screens on the natural sciences, courtesy of Scottish Natural Heritage. We are also planning to experiment with the use of telecommunication links to provide access to other resources in the Western Isles. The recording work will continue in the islands, and in the rest of Scotland. The National Database now has a firm basis on which to build.

Ian O. Morrison

Scottish Museums Documentation Officer

National Museums of Scotland.

Raw statistics from the WINDEE project

First report on WINDEE

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