Online Exhibits: Toward a Virtual Access to Museum Collections

 

The recent explosion of the internet and other associated computer technology such as digital imaging which, in return, produced thumbnail pictures and virtual tours have provided museums with new opportunities.  Museums have now the possibility to present their collections to computer users via the internet.  An online exhibit or "sampler" is a collection (or part of) that has been digitized and reformatted so one can view it on the internet.  By giving users free access to collections, online exhibits have opened the door to a new kind of museums: virtual museums.  Virtual museums offer certain advantages over typical museums such as viewing collections from one's home.  They are challenging and revolutionizing the concept of a museum by making museum collections accessible to an audience distributed around the globe at anytime.  The virtual museum is an ideal space for the deployment and experience of art and events created specifically for the interactive digital medium.

The purpose of this pathfinder is to provide basic knowledge about online exhibits.  This pathfinder will focus on virtual museum collections to narrow the pathfinder's audience to college students and art amateurs.  It will try to answer the following questions: what is an online exhibit?  Why do museums go online?  How can I find an online exhibit? 

I began my search by searching UTNetCAT, the University of Texas at Austin's web-based catalog, under the mixed keyword search, "museum virtual online."  My search did not give any valuable documents back.  I then decided to try the search engine Google.  I used the same keywords in my search and was confronted with a wealth of websites. I used other search engines such as Yahoo.  I then used listed links in various websites I visited to gather more information.

I decided that I would limit myself to online resources since my topic deals with online information.  The technology and the concept of online exhibits are rather new, and paper-based references are scarce. Online resources are not as reliable as paper-based references.  Online resources may not go through the same editing and publishing process as most printed sources of information.  There are ways to ascertain the validity of the online sources.  I avoided personal pages.  Official museum webpages as well as college websites usually offer a certain level of guarantee that the information provided is verified. This pathfinder is aimed at College students and art amateurs. The materials introduced in this pathfinder will provide this audience with a background knowledge of what an online exhibit is and with a user guide.  All the sources found in this pathfinder have a current internet address and can easily be accessed from a computer with an internet connection. I have included specific online articles as well as broad databases. 

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Style manual used:

Turabian, Kate L. A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations. 6th ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996.

 

 1. Andrews, James and Werner Schweibenz. The Kress Study Collection Virtual Museum Project: A New Medium for Old Masters, http://www.arlisna.org/werner.html

James Andrews and Werner Schweibenz discuss the emergence of virtual museums.  Their site contains a short but valuable bibliography.  The authors explain that virtual museums are the key to sharing with the public treasures that are rarely displayed.  Andrews and Werner explain the different steps involved in the creation of online exhibits including digitizing images and creating the database.

 

 2. Beauchamp, Carrie. Museums in Cyberspace: Serving a Virtual Public on the Technocratic Frontier, http://www.du.edu/~cbeaucha/cybermuseums.html

Museums in Cyberspace was creates by Carrie Beauchamp, a currently enrolled college student at the University of Denver.  The student offers a deep analysis of virtual museums and their use.  The student obviously researched her topic thoroughly and has included a selection of links to virtual museums and online exhibits such as the Heard Museum or the Louvre that Beauchamp ranks.  The targeted audience is college student.

 

 3. Bowen, J. P. Museum Lists, http://archive.comlab.ox.ac.uk/other/museums/lists.html

Museum Lists was created by J.P. Bowen from the University of Oxford.  This page includes a collection of World Wide Web services providing lists of links to virtual museum exhibits and related information as part of the WWW Virtual Library museums pages.  This page is almost as complete as the Yahoo index on virtual museums (that it lists as one of its links).  This site would be appropriate for college students and art amateurs alike.

 

  4. Century, Michael. Beyond the Virtual Museum: Towards ART (augmented reality telepresence), http://www.music.mcgill.ca/~mcentury/Papers/ART.html

Michael Century tries to offer a perspective on what the future of online exhibits may be.  It tries to go beyond the level of virtuality one may experience and explores future technologies such as "augmented reality."   According to Century, "augmented reality" is a term that defines hybrid systems which link virtual and real spaces.  This page can be accessed from the McGill University home page under Faculty of Music.

 

 5. Drutt, Matthew, Hani Rashid, and Lise Anne Couture, Guggenheim Virtual Museum, http://www.guggenheim.org/exhibitions/virtual/virtual_museum.html

The Guggenheim Virtual Museum page offers a glimpse of what users will be able to access online.  The virtual museum will provide users with all Guggenheim Museums, archives, and collections.  In addition, users will enjoy events created specifically for the interactive digital medium.  The Guggenheim Virtual Museum is still under construction and no date of completion has been given.

 

6. Fradet, Jean-Luc. Make your own virtual museum!, http://perso.wanadoo.fr/jlf/etrucs2.htm

Jean-Luc Fradet gives a short definition of what a virtual museum is.  The author also gives tips on how to create your own inexpensive online exhibits by taking pictures and digitizing them with a scanner.  Once the pictures are in digital format, the user can edit, format, and then post them online.

 

7. Google, Inc. Google. http://www.google.com/

Google tries to match sites to one's query using a system of algorithms that offers a higher matching percentage than most search engines.  Google is also the first search engine to have indexed over 1 billion websites.  Anyone who has surfed the internet should give it a try because it really is easy to use and is more accurate (in most cases) than its competitors (e.g. Yahoo).  The keywords used in Google to retrieve data on online exhibits are "virtual museum" "online exhibits" "online museums" and any other combination of terms linked to online exhibits.

 

8. Henry, Walter. Conservation OnLine: Resources for Conservation Professionals, http://palimpsest.stanford.edu

CoOL offers tips on how to manage an online exhibits.  It also addresses important questions such as copyrights and intellectual property.  It also has links to various organizations that deal with online museums and virtual museums such as the Washington Conservation Guild or the United Kingdom institute for Conservation.  This page was created by Walter Henry at the Preservation Department of  the Stanford University Libraries.  It is aimed at professional librarians.

 

9. Manke, Michelle. Virtual Museums, http://www.snc.edu/bbb/museum.htm

This site provides a definition of what virtual museums are.  It also lists a number of links, some of which are worth looking at.  This page is taken from a presentation entitled "Visiting Virtual Museums."  This page was created by Michelle Manke, Reference and Information Services Librarian at St. Norbert College Library.  Virtual Museums is aimed at college students.

 

10. Musée du Louvre. Bienvenue au musée du Louvre, http://www.louvre.fr/

This is the Louvre website.  The Louvre is the largest museum in the world and is sharing some of its treasures online such as the "Salles des Antiquités orientales" or the "Salles des Sculptures."  This website offers a selection of the Louvre collections.  It is possible to view the site in either French, English, or Chinese.  This site has a general appeal due to the wealth of art, culture, and history it contains.

 

11. Refaat, Nahed K. Arab Region Virtual Museum, http://www.unesco.org/webworld/public_domain/tunis97/com_23/com_23.html

This webpage offers a definition of what a museum is and what a virtual museum is.  Nahed K. Refaat argues that online museums are the key to preserve and share Arab culture.  The author argues that Arab presence over the Internet is minimal and he therefore thinks that the creation of virtual museums would help consolidate the Arab presence over the internet.  What users will find most interesting is the author's definition of what online exhibits are.

 

12. Schweinbenz, Werner. The "Virtual Museum": New Perspectives for Museums to Present Objects and Information Using the Internet as a Knowledge Base and Communication System, http://www.phil.uni-sb.de/fr/infowiss/projekte/virtualmuseum/virtual_museum_ISI98.htm

This is the online version of a paper that was first published in Proceedings des 6. Internationalen Symposiums für Informationswissenschaft by Professor Werner Schweibenz from the University of Saarland, Germany.  The author of that paper tries to bring a new perspective to the notion of museums and addresses the use of new technologies and their impact on museums.  This page can easily be accessed from Google with the keyword search "virtual museum."

 

13. Sergi, Giovanni. Virtual Museum, http://www.italcultny.org/_disc2/00000002.htm

Giovanni Sergi discusses the importance of online museums.  He compares a European approach to an American one in defining what virtual museums are.  The author, from the Italian Institute of Culture in New York, comes to the conclusion that virtual museums will lead to a radical change in the functions, the organization, and the management of the museum.  This page can easily be accessed from the main page of the Italian Institute of Culture.

 

14. Smithsonian Institution. National Museum of Natural History, http://www.mnh.si.edu/online_exhibits.html

The National Museum of Natural History site contains a series of virtual exhibits such as "Vikings" or "Royal Gifts from Thailand."  This webpage is from the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History at Washington, DC.  Students and art amateurs would enjoy the fabulous digital pictures and virtual tours of the museum collections.

 

15. Tinkler, Mark. Online Exhibitions, http://www.wam.umd.edu/~davreyes/A4.html

Online Exhibitions explains in a brief way why museums are going online.  It also cites some of the advantages of online exhibits.  This page was created by David Reyes, a student at the University of Maryland.  It contains links to other people's work and analysis of online museums.  While this page has less academic value it deserves some attention due to its content, such as excerpt from Carol Duncan's Civilizing Rituals.

 

16. The Franklin Institute Science Museum. List of Virtual Museums, http://sln.fi.edu/tfi/jump.html

The Franklin Institute Online has created a website that lists all the major educational online exhibits on the web including the Eiffel Tower, the American Treasures of The Library of Congress, Life in Ancient Egypt, Scientific American Explorations, the Tower of London Tour, the Seven Wonders of The Ancient World and more!  One can learn and watch how to dissect a frog or learn about the Renaissance.  This site could be a great help to teachers and is a great tool for middle school and high school students.

 

17. The International Engineering Consortium. Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) Tutorial, http://www.iec.org/tutorials/vpn/

This is a private company that offers a program for companies that would like to create their own online exhibits.  This website offers extensive training on how to create online exhibits.  This is a valuable source to any business (art galleries, museums, art dealers) that would like to go online.

 

18. Yahoo! Inc. Yahoo's directory to online museum exhibits, http://dir.yahoo.com/Society_and_Culture/Museums_and_Exhibits/

This list was compiled by Yahoo and is very thorough. Museums are either indexed by region or by topic.  There is a total of 46 topics, including, but not limited to, art, fishing, television, and toys.

 

19. Zanish-Belcher, Tanya. Archives of Women in Science and Engineering, http://www.lib.iastate.edu/spcl/wise/miss.html

State University of Iowa has developed an online collection that is constantly updated.  This page covers the history of women in science and engineering.  Archives of Women in Science and Engineering is an example of what an online exhibit can be.  A basic search on Google with keywords "virtual museums" will retrieve this page.

 

 

 

Online Exhibits: A Pathfinder

Prepared by Hugues Caby

The emergence of new technologies has created a new opportunity for museums. Museums can go online and share their collections to the world. Online exhibits provide computer users with museum virtual tours. This pathfinder will try to help users understand what an online exhibit is and will also provide users with tips on how and where to find online exhibits.

 

What is an "online exhibit?"

An online exhibit or "sampler" is a collection (or part of) that has been digitized and reformatted so one can view it on the internet.

 To find a concise definition of what an online exhibit is, click on the following links:

http://perso.wanadoo.fr/jlf/etrucs2.htm

http://www.du.edu/~cbeaucha/cybermuseums.html#def

http://www.unesco.org/webworld/public_domain/tunis97/com_23/com_23.html

 

Why do museums go online?

 

"It is the law as in art, so in politics, that improvements ever prevail; and though fixed usages may be best for undisturbed communities, constant necessities of action must be accompanied by the constant improvement of methods."

Thucydides

 This quote brilliantly illustrates that new technologies bring change. The following links discuss why museums go online.

http://www.wam.umd.edu/~davreyes/A4.html

http://www.phil.uni-sb.de/fr/infowiss/projekte/virtualmuseum/virtual_museum_ISI98.htm

http://www.arlisna.org/werner.html

 

Where do I find online exhibits?

Online exhibits may be just a click away.

Yahoo's indexed list of online exhibits 

Museum Lists (from the University of Oxford)

The following list links to various online museum exhibits: 

Louvre

Guggenheim Virtual Museum (this site is under construction but one might catch a glimpse of what future online exhibits will soon be)

Educational Online Exhibits (Franklin Institute Online)

National Museum of Natural Science

 

Museums to discover online:

 

The list that follows does not contain hyperlinks to the museum websites. The listed museums are of various interest and should be searched (using the Google search engine [http://www.google.com/] for example).

 

A FRIENDLY word of ADVICE:

If you feel you are NOT FINDING what you are looking for, do not hesitate to ASK LIBRARIANS FOR ASSISTANCE.

They will be happy to help you!

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