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New Technologies between the ideal solution and the general approach we had to keep in mind. In doing so, it became instrumental to define what the implementation of good practices demanded, namely the writing down of a manual of instructions to help cope with variety, quantity, specificity of the situations that arose. This new and very useful tool can only meet the demands if it is continually updated and all security rules are followed, however we at the museum are happy to say it became a most effective saver of time and energy, a procurer of research and new data, while it offers a world of new possibilities when it comes to the availability and sharing of information within the institution and with different publics. Museu-Biblioteca da Casa de Bragança, Paço Ducal de Vila Viçosa www.fcbraganca.pt Social media at the Royal Armouries For many museums, social media is rapidly reshaping how people may choose to find information. Visitors are no longer restricted to actively searching for information themselves by picking up a leaflet or by reading newspapers - instead the news may find them through social media. Updates can come directly through enews, Twitter, Facebook and increasingly on mobile devices through location-based social networks such as Foursquare. If practised correctly, social media can help to empower and inform museums, allowing a ‘real-time’ glimpse into visitor opinions and shaping the way we react. As a result, the Royal Armouries has recently increased its presence on social media platforms as part of our drive to engage effectively with the public. Firstly, we researched the social media landscape to see which platforms are right for our museum visitors. To do this, we looked closely at other museums, worldwide, to see what they are producing on their social media. This helped us to monitor best practice and how to maximise our resources online. From this, we initially focused on building our Twitter and Facebook profiles, quickly building up interactions from our online audience. By Tweeting topical facts relating to the museum’s collections - and by uploading images of the collection, from behind the scenes and of events - we have shown the breadth of the Royal Armouries’ activities and in ‘real time’ have tried to help the public to interact with current museum activity. The Royal Armouries has also recently launched a new blog. This acts as an extension to our enews stories and allows us to discuss topical news stories in more depth and in a less formal setting than on our website. Current stories include a monthly ‘Collections Up Close’ section from our Curatorial Department and a log of project developments – 40 MAGAZINE ISSUE 06 including the new Power House exhibition at the Tower of London. We have also teamed up with History to push our presence on Foursquare with our colleagues at the Tower of London - raising our visitor profile. Our key aim is to create compelling and engaging content. Simply posting press releases or sales information may prompt people to instantly switch off. We aim to encourage conversation and to create interactions between individuals. A relatively cost-effective marketing tool, social media hopefully helps to create wider networks of Royal Armouries’ advocates online. For it to work, we do not create social media content in isolation but aim to involve a wide variety of staff members from as many museum areas as possible. Having a team of dedicated contributors, with different areas of expertise, helps us to make our content more accurate and engaging. For social media to work, we have to be able to gauge its success. Statistics can be one measure but it is not just about the numbers of followers a museum obtains. We aim to encourage people who respond to our posts to spread the word to others about our museums and national collections and that can be harder to quantify. Looking ahead, we now plan to build on our success by including our popular YouTube channel with video content and we will also encourage the public to upload their Royal Armouries’ images to Flickr. Join us! Twitter http://www.Twitter.com/Royal_Armouries Facebook http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Royal- Armouries/215812575369 Blog http://royalarmouries.wordpress.com/ Newsletter http://www.royalarmouries.org/newsletter Foursquare http://foursquare.com/venue/1089086 Flickr In development
The Basiliscoe Mercury Ruth Rhynas Brown Ican still remember a day, some time in the last century, when Bob came home from the Royal Armouries one evening and told me that David Starley had suggested I try a new search engine, called Google. That’s how revolutions occur. As a researcher, I was always coming across interesting sites and snippets of news on the internet and I would send these off to colleagues in Britain, Europe, North America. I was constantly struck both the quantity and quality of information available on the Internet and how grateful people were for it. So I kept sending out these websites and snippets. Now, Google opened up the web much more easily. Lists and blogs began. Someone, I thought, will do one for the arms and armour people, soon. And I kept sending individual messages out. Eventually I suggested to Bob when he attended IAMAM congress in Canada in 2005 if people would be interested in a fortnightly newsletter on arms and armour subjects. Bob was a little sceptical as to whether I could fill a whole newsletter, two a month, for more than a few months or perhaps half a year, but I knew there was a lot of interesting stuff out there, you just had to find it. So the first Basiliscoe Mercury went out on 2 August 2005; it quickly settled down into the format it retains today. Half the newsletter is concerned with historical news, culled from papers, Google News, other lists and ICOMAM’s members; typical items here would be a mammoth story, a Roman fort, a castle being renovated and a mass grave being discovered. There are special sections on my particular interests, cannons and underwater news, which always seems to involve a U-boat. The next section relates to museums, with news, new displays, conservation, objects and interesting exhibitions. This is followed by diary dates with conferences, events and sales; publications - the increase in the availability of e-books means there is always now at least one online book in this section as well as new publications and specialist publishers. There a special part for popular arts - a new film, TV series or novel may drive visitors to a museum or create a new interest in a subject; this is an area I think we can learn from. The final section is a just a selection of useful sites I have come across or been sent. Normally this would involve a museum’s website, archaeological reports or a relevant club. I interpret arms and armour quite widely - obvious topics such as arms and armour, fortifications, war, hunting, but additional material will creep in, because it has taken my fancy - whaling; anything to do with horses, strong women. Areas where I think my reach has been weak are medals and uniforms and I do try to search for these. Most of my searches are carried out in English, but I do include items in foreign languages. New Technologies The Basiliscoe Mercury goes out twice a month and is hosted online at the ICOMAM main site. It is intended to appeal and be a service to the museum curator and conservator, the scholar, the collector. One of the delights of the Internet is that we can now sit at our desks anywhere in the world, and read about an exhibition or online catalogue in another continent which I hope adds to our sense of being a community. We can learn what our colleagues are up to, spotting trends in exhibitions and conferences. But it also intended to entertain; items may be included because, frankly, they are funny and this world is serious enough. And I do try and keep a light touch, to draw my readers in with the occasional intriguing or more acid comment. And I try and finish off on a light-hearted item. You can find past editions of the “Bazzy” at the ICOMAM website. And like so much internet items, we are interactive - you can e-mail me with your news and I will include it. It is there to be enjoyed. http://www.klmmra.be/icomam/icomam/basiliscoe_mercury/frame.html ISSUE 06 MAGAZINE 41
Page 1 and 2: ISSUE 06 APRIL 2011 MAGAZINE 26 Uni
Page 3 and 4: Welcome to the sixth edition of MAG
Page 5 and 6: congress in Rio de Janeiro in 2008
Page 7 and 8: In 2011, the Universalmuseum Joanne
Page 9 and 10: Friday, 23rd September 2011 09:00-1
Page 11 and 12: century. We encouraged our colleagu
Page 13 and 14: Camouflage takes centre stage F rom
Page 15 and 16: National Treasures From arms and ar
Page 17 and 18: Upcoming conferences The Wars of th
Page 19 and 20: News from the National Museum of th
Page 21 and 22: the mame of soldiers wives, that I
Page 23 and 24: http://www.nam.ac.uk/exhibitions/sp
Page 25 and 26: ‘The Unknown Warrior’ Royal Eng
Page 27 and 28: US milk. These were found in Poland
Page 29 and 30: Publications Arms and Armour of Kni
Page 31 and 32: Martin Roemers Kabul, Dutch troops
Page 33 and 34: dimension to the Web that allows fo
Page 35 and 36: Royal Engineers Museum, Gillingham,
Page 37 and 38: The project brings together and ope
Page 39: The database of the Armoury of the
Page 43 and 44: active presences on Twitter and Fli
Page 45 and 46: Articles Art of the possible: Trans
Page 47 and 48: Early Engineers Showcased The Herit
Page 49 and 50: Pieces of the Weald in Oman Ruth Rh
Page 51 and 52: oth sides of a war. Britain and Por
Page 53 and 54: Another, in poorer condition intend
Page 55 and 56: The ‘secret’ Shuvalov howitzer
Page 57 and 58: A secret weapon in the collection o

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