Jemma Conway, community heritage curator, Barnsley Museums

We work for the public benefit, therefore we should provide a service which is educational, inspirational and aspirational.

My professional ethical values are to strive to work towards a high standard in everything I do, from accessioning an item like a first world war diary into the collections, interpreting people’s views in an exhibition on the miners’ strike or encouraging people to explore and enjoy our collections, regardless of their background or needs.

What do the public need from the code of ethics?

For the public, the code should be about ensuring museums are working ethically and responsibly and are held accountable for their actions.

The public should be able to ask the museum, or people in museums, what their ethics are and how they are applied, particularly since many museums spend public money.

If we made the link between the code and the use of public money more explicit would this encourage the public to care more?

If you could change one thing about the code of ethics what would it be?

The code of ethics already provides great content with clarity and guidance on ethical issues of all natures.

However, it could be made more accessible and user friendly in different formats, for example could it be downloaded onto a smartphone as an interactive app? There are many platforms out there to utilise and I’d like to see it applied in new ways.