April P AkinsIS 590 Social Informatics

Presentation

The Changing Museum Experience

Museum InformaticsMuseum Informatics is the study of the impact of information science and technology on museums, museum professionals,

and museum visitors.

Museums & Technology 1960s – Museum professionals start using

computers for information management. Valued for automating repetitive and time-

consuming tasks 1968 – First conference about computers and

their potential in museums Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York

1997 – First Museums and the Web conference held

Museum Professional Roles

Museum Professionals must manage a wide variety of information about their collections. This information is needed to identify and describe museum objects and integrate them into particular collections. Objects are accessioned, weighed and measured,

photographed, marked with a unique identification number and so on.

Information about how the museum received the object, how long it will be in the museum’s collections (if it is on loan), and where it will be stored or displayed must be recorded. Details of the object’s provenance, historical importance, and cultural significance must be researched.

Evolution of Technology &

MuseumsCard and Ledger

FilesMultimedia KiosksCD-ROM TechnologyUser-Managed

Virtual Layers (Social Tagging & Social Networking)

Technology’s Impact on Museums

Technology Within the Museum

Technology housed in the museum to enhance the experienceMultimedia Kiosks, Interactive Exhibits, 3D TechnologiesGallery One - Cleveland Museum of Art

Bringing Technology in

MuseumsMobile technologies being used while visiting a museumSmartphone & Tablet Applications, QR Codes (Quick Response Codes), Social Networking SitesMobiles in Museums

Bringing the Museum to

UsersDigital Collections, Databases & Applications to access the collectionDigital Libraries & Database Websites, Smartphone & Tablet Applications

Google Art Project

Information Professionals

Role information professionals play in the meshing of technology and

museums

Where do you fit into a Museum Environment?

Multimedia Developers Interactive Exhibits in the Gallery Online Virtual Environments

Information Expertise New Hardware and Software Possibilities

Information Management Planning Digitization Projects Purchasing Collections Information Systems

Museum Education Connections to Schools and other Institutions

Tate Museum MoMA * Louvre

Museum Mobile Apps

Resources: Where to go Books

Marty, Paul F., and Katherine Burton-Jones, eds. 2008. Museum informatics: People, information, and technology in museums. New York: Routledge.

Journals Archives & Museum Informatics Museum Management and Curatorship Curator: The Museum Journal Museum and Society Museum Museums Journal

Resources: Where to go Organizations

American Alliance of Museums (http://www.aam-us.org) Institute of Museums and Library Services (http://www.imls.gov) Museums Association (http://www.museumsassociation.org/home)

Websites and Blogs Museums and the Web (www.museumsandtheweb.com) Archives & Museum Informatics (

http://www.archimuse.com/index.html) Musematic (MCN/AAM): (http://musematic.net/) Museum 2.0 (Nina Simon): (http://museumtwo.blogspot.com/) Museum Blogging (Leslie Madsen-Brooks): http

://www.museumblogging.com/

Summary

Take Away Points Museum Informatics is a growing field that has

been around since the 1960s. Technology has been integrated into Museums

and this relationship will continue to grow. Information Professionals can work in museums

in a variety of ways. The goal should be to incorporate virtual

information into a physical world rather than to replace the physical with the virtual.

Comments & Questions

References:J. H. Canós, et al. "MoMo: enabling hybrid museums." IEE Proceedings -- Software 152, no. 5 (October 2005): 245-251. Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed March 25, 2013).M.R. Nikou. “Museum Informatics: Educating the Public and Use of Digital Technology.” (February 2008): http://windward.hawaii.edu/people/Marty_Nikou/AMST683_Paper.pdf.J. Trant. “Steve.Museum: Exploring the potential for social tagging and folksonomy in art museums: Proof of concept. New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia, vol. 12, no. 1, 2006.