Existing indicators - learning from others
Standard indicators are commonly developed and used in cultural research and in other sectors, as well as in global cross-sector strategic initiatives such as the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Some may not be directly relevant for your work but it’s good practice to see if the data you collect can be comparable or benefit from following others' practices.
For example, the Net Promoter Score is a common indicator used to measure satisfaction of a service or product among its users. Since it’s so commonly used, there are also rules on what scores could be considered ‘Excellent’ or ‘World Class’ (+50 and +70 respectively). It’s not useful in every context - you should check that the data you’ll collect will tell you what you really need to know.
Below we list some existing lists of indicators to help inspire your impact assessment. If you know of more that you think should be included here, email us on impact@europeana.eu.
Take a look at existing indicators for inspiration or for your own project
There are many types of indicators that have been developed to help measure and monitor social, economic or other types of impact in cultural heritage. Some of these examples might be relevant for you, depending on your project.
The Dutch Digital Heritage Network (Netwerk Digitaal Erfgoed) have developed the Digital Heritage Indicators (in Dutch only).
The State Library of Queensland (Australia) partnered with the Queensland University of Technology to develop indicators of libraries as creative places.
The indicators developed through past ENUMERATE projects on digital cultural heritage in Europe.
The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and more specifically for culture, the thematic indicators for Culture in the 2030 agenda.
Take a look at Arts Council England’s Generic Social Outcomes, centring on stronger and safer communities, strengthening public life and health and wellbeing, that result from engaging with arts and culture. You can see indicators here. The Generic Learning Outcomes similarly identify five categories of benefits that people gain from interacting with arts and cultural organisations.
DARIAH has developed the Impactomatrix with a list of 21 impact areas relating to digital cultural heritage tools and infrastructures.
Consider how digital maturity is measured in cultural heritage and pick from a number of approaches in this review of digital transformation tools and digital maturity paradigms (output of the Mingei project).
The Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) presents indicators on Europe’s digital performance and tracks the progress of EU countries.
The UK Civil Service has a number of indicator sets relating to Social Capital and personal well-being.
The Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scales (WEMWBS) is a standard used internationally. There is also a shorter version. In both cases, to use the scales you must apply for a license (free for non-commerical use, some cost for commercial use).
Are you interested in helping to develop more holistic indicators to measure digital transformation and the impact of digital cultural heritage? Email us!