Museum TrendsWatch 2025: Stop, Look, Think: How to Manage Digital Vulnerabilities

Each year the Center for the Future of Museums (under the American Alliance of Museums) publishes the TrendsWatch report. With each report, the Center uses strategic foresight to analyze trends in the museum field. This year the report theme is TrendsWatch: Mapping Complexity and includes three main trends: The Next Era of Volunteerism; Stop, Look, Think: How to Manage Digital Vulnerabilities; and Facing the DEI Backlash.   

The intention of this miniseries is to offer TrendsWatch snapshots to support distillation and application at museums. For our purposes, we will cover each trend with a post.

Today’s post will focus on Trend #2: Stop, Look, Think: How to Manage Digital Vulnerabilities. For this main trend I will provide a summary of what the Center presents as the current challenges, how it applies to the museum field, and the Center’s advice for what museums might do. Throughout, I will offer analysis, insight, and tie-ins. 

The Challenge

There are at least three challenge areas to consider. While TW did not break them out, I found it helpful to frame the challenges within the following categories: decay, loss, and other.  

Decay: 

• Data degradation (bit rot) 
• Decay of media storage 
• Technology obsolescence 

Loss: 

• Websites going dark (link rot) 
• The human element (mistakes, theft, attacks) 
• The nature element (oddly, not included by TW)

Other: 

• Fragile and complex interconnectivity of systems 
• Heavy adoption of “free” systems that can disappear or atrophy 
• Constantly changing hardware and software 
• Financial challenges to adequately preserve all things digital 
• No preservation plans in place leading to a Digital Dark Age 
• Limited Emergency Response plans focused on analog disasters 

 One category that appears to be missing is the numerous logistical challenges. I have provided a more detailed breakdown of these challenges in a Relicura webinar available on YouTube: 

What This Means for Museums

When considering emergency responses, museums tend to overemphasize the physical. For the 69% of museums that report having a response plan, the majority of them only cover the analogue collections. As we saw in the section above, a number of disasters can befall a digital collection, and the cost of data and asset loss can be staggering.

For example, think of all the thousands of hours spent on digitization and cataloging. It is an expensive endeavor. Not to mention the cost of hardware replacement. Museums face further challenges in this area as many cannot afford the consultation or tools needed to help build a resilient technical infrastructure.  

For resources and advice on how to address digital precariousness and build a more resilient digital infrastructure, please see this section of the Relicura webinar: 

Digital Precarity and the Path to Resilience (March 2025); start at timestamp 30:30. 

Advice for Museum Professionals: “Museums Might…”

The following section is advice provided by TW for museums and their staff to consider. I have added clarification where applicable.  

• Create resilient, “anti-fragile” systems 
• Integrate risk management/mitigation techniques 
• Practice good digital hygiene 
• Budget for digital preservation (the concept of the Reserve Study) 
• Consider “Digital Depreciation” 
• Inventory digital platforms and login credentials 
• Avoid using a single platform* 
• Train on cybersecurity 
• Include a plan for cyberattacks in the emergency response plan 
• Cultivate a healthy digital skepticism re: new tools 
• Create a procedure for backing up museum data 
• Implement a digital preservation plan that reflects resources and capabilities 

*This appears to contradict an earlier statement made about the “fragile and complex interconnectivity of systems” in the challenge section of the report. 

If this seems like a long list, that’s because it is. Many museums face numerous gaps in this area. TW leaves us with the following reminder: something is better than nothing. Meaning, it is important to get started so any future loss that occurs may be minimized. The good news is many of these things are achievable, even on a shoestring budget. Finally, there are resources available including via your Collections Management System (CMS) vendor.  

Focus On Incremental Progress

This particular TW topic benefits from being a largely internal matter. As of now, there are no politics to navigate regarding digital infrastructure investment. While there are serious challenges, it is almost a relief that these are technical in nature, versus the incredibly difficult, human-related aspects of our other TW topics. If you are feeling overwhelmed by what to tackle, I recommend centering yourself in this area. Incremental progress can be made, and will help give you and fellow museum staff a sense of momentum. 

Additional Reading 

For additional reading regarding digital preservation and building a more resilient digital infrastructure, please see these previously published posts on Lucidea’s Think Clearly blog:  

• Building a Comprehensive Museum Digital Program (May 2019) 
• Figuring out a Museum DAMS Solution When You Only Have a CMS (October 2021) 
• Museum Digital File Preservation: File Integrity (October 2022) 
• Museum Digital File Preservation: File Access (October 2022) 
• Museum Digital Projects: Digital File Storage (February 2023) 
• Considering a Museum Digital Storage Approach (May 2023) 
• The Purpose of Museum Digital Storage (May 2023) 
• Requirements for Museum Digital Storage (May 2023)