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Characteristics of the Virtual Museum
Dr. Ofra Keinan
E-mymuseum.com
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Virtual Museum Defenition
A virtual museum is a museum that houses collections in digital form and exhibits them via the Internet. Most virtual museums are part of physically existing museums that hold actual collections. A virtual museum refers to a broad range of websites from a simple personal website and portal site, a collection of links to museums and galleries, to a full scale website which has all functions of a museum.
The Door
The door to the virtual museum is electronic. You drive up for a visit on the Information Highway, but you need no car. A computer and an Internet account serve as your entrance ticket and transportation combined.
http://www.fno.org/museum/museweb.html
Based on Computer
As the third millennium enters, several institutions responsible for displaying and interpreting diverse aspects of history found themselves in a crisis. The society they were accustomed to serving had undergone a transformation and was now based on computer technology...”[1]
Technology & Culture
The impact of this change was dramatic, and the importance of linking technological change with the modes of operation employed by the institutions became paramount. As long ago as 1957 Marshall McLuhan said: “As our culture becomes more technological, technology becomes more cultural”.
Response to the new Technology
According to MacDonald and Alsford, heritage institutions have lagged behind in this development, and have difficulties in finding the appropriate response.
Schools;
Libraries;
Museums
Museum and the Web
During the last decade extensive literature has been written about the subject of virtual museums. For example, "The Museum and the Web" is one of the most important international organizations that deal with issues pertaining to virtual museums.
http://www.archimuse.com/mw99/papers/teather/teather.html
Virtual Museums Establishment
The establishment of virtual museums was one of the strategies used by museums for adjusting themselves to the third millennium.
The concept of virtual museums has many interpretations and actually includes a diversity of presentations on the internet.
[1] McKeown, Roy, "Accessing the virtual museum: bringing museum information into cyberspace" , The New Review of Information Networking 2003, pp. 40-53.
[2] McKenzie, Jamie Building a Virtual Museum Community, 1997.
The physical museum limitations
The physical limitations of the museum do not allow it to present all the knowledge it possesses about each item or exhibit. Thus, the information revealed to visitors is partial, limited and superficial, offering but one specific approach
New possibilities to present more information
Visitors, in most cases, accept this as the absolute truth. With digital technology, however, it is possible to present much more – even most – of the information online, leaving it to the visitors to choose the materials most suitable to their needs.
Creating links
Furthermore, the virtual museum offers the option of creating links to a variety of institutions of knowledge, such as libraries, research institutes, and of course other museums on similar subjects. Nor are visitors limited only to the information and documents on display in the museum they entered online; they can be linked to any place in the world offering material that suits their interests.
Virtual museums vis a vis traditional methods
The Virtual Museum provides multiple levels, perspectives, and dimensions of information about a particular topic: it provides not only multimedia but, more important, it provides information that has not been filtered out through these traditional methods
Budgetary limitations
For the same reasons of space and budgetary limitations, the museum cannot present its collections in their entirety. Digital space, however, is virtually unlimited, making it possible to present entire collections online.
A Virtual learning museum
A virtual museum has the following characteristics:
The online collection is substantial.
The content offerings are rich.
The "lobby" or entrance is both inviting and user- friendly.
It would take dozens of visits to explore the contents.
The museum offers many different kinds of learning activities suited to different age levels and learning styles.
The virtual visit increases desire for a "real time" visit to the original museum building.
Examples:
The online collection is substantial.
The content offerings are rich
http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/search/citi/category%3A111
The "lobby" or entrance is both inviting and user-friendly.
http://www.virtualmuseum.ca/English/index_flashFT.html
The museum offers many different kinds of learning activities suited to different age levels and learning styles.
http://www.metmuseum.org/
The virtual museum as a marketing museum
The virtual museum as a marketing museum is characterized by technical information for visitors planning a tour of the physical museum. Details include location, entrance fees, opening hours, access by public and private transportation, telephone and fax numbers, email, a map of the area and instructions for how to get to the physical museum.
This type of virtual museum also provides technical information about the physical museum and the options it offers: details of museum departments and main subjects, often with samples of items on display; names and subjects of rotating exhibitions in the physical museum, and illustrations of these exhibitions; information about the museum's educational system, the physical museum and other activities.[1]
[1] Ibid., ibid.
Marketing the physical museum
http://www.nationalmuseum.sg/nms/nms_html/nms_content_4.asp?cat=all%20exhibitions
The End
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© Copyright Dr. Ofra Keinan
Best Regards,
Dr. Ofra Keinan
Founder and owner
E-mymuseum.com
972-3-6201205
972-54-5535444
ofra@e-mymuseum.com
www.make-mymuseum.com
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