David Dawson
Resource: The Council for Museums Archives and Libraries
16 Queen Anne's Gate
London
SW1H 9AA United Kingdom
http://www.resource.gov.uk

David is the Senior ICT Adviser within the Libraries and Information Society Team (LIST) of MLA.

David studied Archaeology at Durham University, and completed the Museum Studies Course at Leicester in 1985, and later becoming an Associate of the Museums Association in 1988.

His first post in a museum was working on a documentation project, completing cards for the archaeology collections of the Museum of Sussex Archaeology . He then worked for Canterbury City Museums , becoming Curator of Human History. While in Canterbury he worked on the displays of the new Canterbury Heritage Museum, and helped commission a new museum store. In 1988 he moved to Oxfordshire Museums Service as Assistant Keeper of Antiquities, taking on responsibility for documentation in the County. He then became Curator of the County Museum and Head of Documentation.

He joined Museum Documentation Association (mda) in 1992, as Business Manager of mda Services, before becoming Outreach Manager (ICT), giving advice and training to museums in documenting their collections, with a focus on helping small museums as well as working with a number of museums in the UK and abroad. Whilst at mda, he was closely involved in the development of the Aquarelle Project.

In 1998 David joined the Museums & Galleries Commission as New Technology Adviser, before becoming Senior ICT Adviser. He managed the DCMS/MLA IT Challenge Fund, and is currently working on a range of other projects and strategic developments. He represents MLA on many different Groups and initiatives including:

# UK Co-ordinator of the EU Digitising Content Together initiative - an e-Europe action.

# Expert adviser to the New Opportunities Fund on the nof-digitise programme.

# Adviser to DCMS on the development of Culture Online.

# Works with mda and the 24 Hour Museum.

# Member of various committess, including UKOLN Interoperability Focus, Metadata for Education, Archaeology Data Service, HEIRNet.

# Has contributed to a number of strategic developments, including JISC, Office of e-Envoy Broadband Research Group, TASI, and NAACE.

David will present User evaluation: sharing expertise to build shared values.