Fairlynch considers digital engagement

 

Check out the old fossils on the Jurassic Coast Partnership's website at http://jurassiccoast.org/fossilfinder

I mentioned ‘digital’ elsewhere a couple of years ago on this blog in relation to local businesses and their use of the internet. 

Since then, more and more Budleigh people seem to be ‘digitally engaged’, and using social media like Facebook and Twitter.

 

Fairlynch Museum's Nick Speare 

Image credit: Mo Sandford FRPS

For museums, digital engagement can mean something pretty broad and quite radical, including the sensible way in which visitors on the other side of the world are able to admire Fairlynch’s artefacts.   “Many museums are making much more use of the internet to make their collections and catalogues available to the public and this is the direction Fairlynch should be following,” says the Museum’s Treasurer Nick Speare.

A start was made in October 2013 with the arrival of the Jurassic Coast Partnership team in Budleigh, as I reported at http://budleighbrewsterunited.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/fascinated-by-fairlynchs-old-fossils.html

 

A total of 35 fossils in Fairlynch’s collection have now been databased and classified as seen above, and are viewable online in the Fossil Finder here  

There’s even an ancient fossil root which can be admired from every angle thanks to the 360-degree photographic techniques used by the Jurassic Coast Partnership. It was discovered at High Peak between Budleigh and Sidmouth, and is 225 million years old.

More and more items in Fairlynch’s collection will be seen in this way.

Do you have a favourite item in our Museum that you would like the world to admire?  Drop me a line at mr.downes@gmail.com and I’ll see what we can do.