As a member of the Museums Association U.K., I recently attended their Annual Conference in Birmingham. This is an annual opportunity to museum professionals across the U.K. to discuss topics relevant to our profession. These topics vary from what area you work in within a museum, however topics that came up more than once in conversation was digitization, social media usage and opening collections to a wider audience.
The topics listed above are relevant to Girl Museum as it is a strictly digital museum that has a far reaching ethos in its inclusion of women and girls who ordinarily would not be included in museum spaces and exhibitions. Inevitably, Girl Museum is current with its collection access to challenge the often white-centric interpretations of history within physical museum spaces. The museum does this by including stories and problems relating to girls that might not be included within museum collections. This is done through blog posts, Facebook and Twitter posts and projects highlighting problems faced by girls. Girl Museum is at the forefront of museum innovation in its digital media content and collections access.
I was able to reiterate this within in-depth discussions with fellow museum professionals at the Museums Association conference. We feel it is often the hierarchy that is too scared to use digital media for collections access. Additionally, it seems a lot of older museum managers have an often inbred fear of the Internet and sometimes veto more usage of digital media. This is where I feel Girl Museum is particularly leading the way in showing the museum world that digital is okay to use. The website itself is an example of how digital media can be used effectively through its usage of blog and social media posts.  As amuseum professional, I feel it is important to be aware of developments within both the U.K. museum scene and the museum scene within the wider world. In turn, knowledge like this can inform and inspire people we work with albeit in a digital or physical museum space.
-Rachel Sayers
Junior Girl
Girl Museum Inc.