The findings from the 40 interviews were thematically developed using the Braun and Clarke six-phase framework (Braun and Clarke, 2006, 2021) (chapter 3).  The four resulting themes looked at the processes and habits, system-wide considerations, role of technology, and participant views on a cultural heritage system-wide design.

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Creating quality resources to fill gaps or meet changing requirements, is avoided where possible by user organisations when existing knowledge artefacts can be adapted, whilst providers rely on funding and generally create isolated knowledge resources, with short lifespans. Access to knowledge artefacts is variable depending on the organisation culture, and overall, volunteers have less access to knowledge resources than they need. Sourcing is a minefield, hampered by a fog of duplications, lack of a centrally managed index or depository, unclear open access status of the knowledge artefacts, and the, collectively expensive, membership wall. Updating knowledge resources is low priority for user organisations, and a missing habit for most provider organisations, both groups being hampered by lack of capacity. Effective use and learning in cultural heritage require a more sophisticated planning of a variety of formats and media for knowledge artefacts. The support networking structures and accreditation-type schemes have a significant positive impact on the presence of knowledge resources and updating habits. But there is misalignment of priorities, and the competitive funding environment discourages the social good and cooperative ethos of the fragmented cultural heritage habitats. Knowledge artefacts are ineffective without access to the supporting specialist networks, and are more efficacious when developed as a package of continued professional development. Technology, including AI, are increasingly used across every single operation, but the technological provision is still bitty, part of the era of bolt-on apps rather than comprehensive software systems. As such, constant costs, upgrades, and training needs are hampering the potential of technology use in cultural heritage. Overall, participants would like to see a joined-up, strategic approach to mapping gaps and needs, creation and distribution, of easy to access and easy to use variety of quality knowledge artefact formats, that are a package with continued professional development training and support specialist networks. They would like to see a joined-up curation of the knowledge resource stocks and flows.

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The research started by assuming, based on literature and signposting approaches, that there are plenty of useful resources available across all the operations, that can be better accessed to provide the information needed to deliver the operations. The qualitative research shows that this is not the case, there are in fact too many similar, low quality and out-of-date resources, in too technical and inaccessible formats. It is difficult to find what is needed, and users cannot know if what they are looking for exists, or which knowledge artefact is the most authoritative or up-to-date.