Cost of Online Collections

Dear Sir / Madam,

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Museum.

We will endeavour to answer all emails received within twenty-four hours.
However during some busy periods the reply time may be slightly longer.

Regards

Steve Payne
Ticketing and Information Manager
The British Museum
Great Russell Street
London
WC1B 3DG

Please continue to read below for information that you may find useful:

Opening Times for The British Museum

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The opening times of some galleries may be limited at short notice.

Late Night Opening Times

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This applies to some of the galleries only. Please call 020 7323 8599
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The Great Court

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Sundays – Wednesdays 09.00 – 18.00
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Dates of Museum Closure

The Museum will be closed 1 January, Good Friday, 24, 25, 26 December

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British Museum, Great Russell Street, London, WC1B 3DG

There is an alternative entrance on Montague Place

To help plan your visit including floor plans, tours, ticketing
information and what’s on, visit www.britishmuseum.org/visiting.aspx

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Local Roadworks

26 January – 22 February 2009

Great Russell Street will be closed to traffic. There will be limited
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23 February – 22 March 2009

The junction between Montague Street and Great Russell Street will be
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By London Underground

The nearest underground stations to the Museum are:
• Holborn (approx. 7 minutes on foot)
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The following buses stop near the Museum
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Stop on New Oxford Street
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Stop on Tottenham Court Road, northbound and Gower Street, southbound
59, 68, X68, 91, 168, 188
Stop on Southampton Road

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There is limited parking in the Museum’s forecourt for disabled visitors
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the Information Office on +44 (0)20 7323 8299 or email
[The British Museum request email].

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Booking tickets for special exhibitions, Lectures, films and Events

To book tickets for our current special exhibition “Babylon Myth and
Reality or our upcoming exhibition “Shah Abbas the remaking of Iran”
please call us on 0207 323 8181*. Alternatively you can book online at
www.britishmuseum.org **

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* Please note that a booking fee of £2 per ticket will be charged on
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to process tickets on the telephone for the same day.

** Please note that a booking fee of £1 per ticket will be charged on all
orders made online. Online orders must be made 48 hours in advance.

School and Group Bookings to the Museum

Please contact the Ticketing and Information Team on 020 7323 8181 or
email [email address]

BABYLON: MYTH AND REALITY

13 November 2008 - 15 March 2009

BOOK NOW

+44 (0)20 7323 8181

www.britishmuseum.org

Thank you for your email.

I have forwarded your email to the Information Services who will respond
in due course.

Regards

Laure
Information
Telephone ++ 44 (0)20 7323 8299/8599
Facsimile ++ 44 (0)20 7323 8616
Email [email address]

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From: Dan Zambonini [mailto:[FOI #7879 email]]
Sent: Tue 10/02/2009 13:21
To: Information
Subject: Freedom of Information request - Cost of Online Collections

Dear Sir or Madam,

With regards to your online collections (i.e. website(s) that allow
users to browse your collection(s)), can you please detail:

1) How much it cost to put your collections online? (Not including
digitisation costs)

2) How many page views, on average, the online collections receive
per month?

3) If you have participated in any cross-institutional collections
projects (e.g. Europeana, People's Network, NMOLP), how much it
cost to make your collections available to the project (or how much
it is expected to cost, for current projects)?

Yours faithfully,

Dan Zambonini

P.S Please note that this same request has been made to a number of
UK museums and galleries covered under the Freedom of Information
Act, and that your response will be automatically made public at
[1]http://www.whatdotheyknow.com

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BABYLON: MYTH AND REALITY

13 November 2008 - 15 March 2009

BOOK NOW

+44 (0)20 7323 8181

www.britishmuseum.org

References

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1. http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/
2. http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/help/about...
3. http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/help/contact

Dan Zambonini [mailto:[FOI #7879 email]]

9 March 2009

Dear Mr Zambonini,

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST: COST OF ONLINE COLLECTIONS

Thank you for your request for information from the British Museum, which
has been forwarded to me for reply. Your request has been dealt with in
accordance with the Freedom of Information Act (2000).

Your request, received on 10 February 2009 was:

1) How much it cost to put your collections online? (Not including
digitisation costs)

2) How many page views, on average, the online collections receive per
month?

3) If you have participated in any cross-institutional collections
projects (e.g. Europeana, People's Network, NMOLP), how much it cost to
make your collections available to the project (or how much it is expected
to cost, for current projects)?

In response to your questions:

1) It is not possible to provide a figure for the cost of putting our
collections database online as this is included within the Museum's
overall web development programme and expenditure on specific aspects of
the project cannot be disaggregated. The collections database project has
been running for some 30 years: for full details of the history of the
project see:
[1]http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/se...

The total cost of delivering the Museum's web programmes addressing the
redevelopment of the main web site and the build and delivery of
Collections Online was £900,000. The cost of setting up the Museum's web
infrastructure hosted by Vialtus, of which Collections Online forms one
element, was £136,500.

2) Since we made the collection database online accessible through the
website in December 2007, we have had an average of around 106,000 page
views per month in this section, which is around 2.6% of total site
traffic. As we have made more material available, traffic is steadily
growing: e.g. Feb 2009 traffic to the collection online (554,820) has
accounted for over 13% of total site traffic.

3) In respect of NMOLP the cost of the implementation of OpenSearch is in
terms of staff time rather than a monetary value. This was 30 man days
split across programming and technical services. The Museum has not yet
participated in any other cross-institutional collections projects, but is
actively considering Europeana, and other smaller projects.

I hope this information is helpful. However, if you are dissatisfied with
the response you have received and wish to make a complaint about how your
request has been handled you should write to me in the first instance. I
will refer your complaint to the Director of Administration who will
respond within 10 working days.

Your request for an internal review should be submitted to us within 40
working days of receipt by you of this response. Any such request received
after this time will only be considered at the discretion of the Director
of Administration.

If, having exhausted the review process, you are not content that your
request or review has been dealt with correctly, you have a further right
of appeal to the Information Commissioner. To make such an application,
please write to:

FOI/EIR Complaints Resolution
Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire SK9 5AF

or complete the complaint form at:
[2]https://forms.ico.gov.uk/freedom-of-info...

Thank you for your interest in The British Museum.

Yours sincerely,

Christopher Denvir
Information Manager

BABYLON: MYTH AND REALITY

13 November 2008 - 15 March 2009

BOOK NOW

+44 (0)20 7323 8181

www.britishmuseum.org

References

Visible links
1. http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/se...
2. https://forms.ico.gov.uk/freedom-of-info...