Galt earns international recognition
By Yoos, Cam on April 6, 2020.
Greg Bobinec
Lethbridge Herald
The Galt Museum & Archives has received an international award from MuseWeb, an international professional organization, who awarded the museum with top place in the Behind the Scenes category for their new online booking program.
The Galt Museum typically takes over 12,000 students, teachers and adult chaperones through school programs each year. Arranging dates and times for hundreds of school classes has been a time-consuming task for the museum educators in the past. One of the projects the Galt has been focused on has been how to streamline the education booking process to simplify and automate as many steps as possible.
This January, marketing officer Graham Ruttan and museum educator Rebecca Wilde launched a new online booking system that completed that booking automation project.
“The booking process was lengthy and consumed quite a bit of time for teachers at schools as well as for staff here at the museum,” says Wilde. “This system has greatly simplified the process, with teachers booking programs, getting notifications and reminders, as well as follow up emails, all without us having to do anything.”
MuseWeb, formally known as Museums and the Web, showcases the best work in the field to engage, inform and excite people both on the web and across the myriad networked platforms and contexts innovative cultural practices.
“The Galt did a great job doing what many other institutions have not achieved by creating a system to actually give teachers a way to self-book their group visits to the museum,” said the award judges. “Rather than the usual back-and-forth, they truly automated the process, keeping ease of use for the teacher at the core.”
Teachers began using the site immediately and found the changes helpful and easy to use. Many teachers commented on the convenience of booking with the museum and being able to see the booking dates in front of them, opposed to in the past booking without seeing what is available.
“We are extremely pleased with the recognition of this project as outstanding in our field,” says Susan Burrows-Johnson, CEO/Executive Director. “This particular system has greatly simplified an ongoing task that many museums and cultural institutions face, and it is easily implemented by an institution of any size. It has let our educators focus more time and effort creating and preparing engaging educational experiences for students.”
As the Galt Museum & Archives continues to improve the quality of service they can provide to the community and to visitors, they continue to share the stories of the community and area throughout history. For more information on their services or to access some of their services while in isolation, visit galtmuseum.com
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