ABSTRACT
The influence of digital media on the cultural heritage sector has been pervasive and profound. Today museums are reliant on new technology to manage their collections. They collect digital as well as material things. New media is embedded within their exhibition spaces. And their activity online is as important as their physical presence on site.
However, ‘digital heritage’ (as an area of practice and as a subject of study) does not exist in one single place. Its evidence base is complex, diverse and distributed, and its content is available through multiple channels, on varied media, in myriad locations, and different genres of writing.
It is this diaspora of material and practice that this Reader is intended to address. With over forty chapters (by some fifty authors and co-authors), from around the world, spanning over twenty years of museum practice and research, this volume acts as an aggregator drawing selectively from a notoriously distributed network of content. Divided into seven parts (on information, space, access, interpretation, objects, production and futures), the book presents a series of cross-sections through the body of digital heritage literature, each revealing how a different aspect of curatorship and museum provision has been informed, shaped or challenged by computing.
Museums in a Digital Age is a provocative and inspiring guide for any student or practitioner of digital heritage.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part One|107 pages
Information: data, structure and meaning
part |4 pages
Introduction to Part One
part Two|60 pages
Space: visits, virtuality and distance
part |2 pages
Introduction to Part Two
chapter Chapter 15|6 pages
The Virtual Visit: towards a new concept for the electronic science centre
chapter Chapter 16|11 pages
Empowering the Remote Visitor: supporting social museum experiences among local and remote visitors
part Three|48 pages
Access: ability, usability and connectivity
part |2 pages
Introduction to Part Three
chapter Chapter 20|4 pages
My Dream of an Accessible Web Culture for Disabled People: a re-evaluation
part Four|66 pages
Interpretation: communication, interactivity and learning
part |2 pages
Introduction to Part Four
chapter Chapter 25|10 pages
When the Object is Digital: properties of digital surrogate objects and implications for learning
chapter Chapter 27|15 pages
Interactivity and Collaboration: new forms of participation in museums, galleries and science centres
chapter Chapter 28|10 pages
Visitors' Use of Computer Exhibits: findings from five gruelling years of watching visitors getting it wrong
part Five|60 pages
Object: authenticity, authority and trust
part |2 pages
Introduction to Part Five
chapter Chapter 30|8 pages
When All You've Got is ‘The Real Thing': museums and authenticity in the networked world
chapter Chapter 31|18 pages
Authenticity and Integrity in the Digital Environment: an exploratory analysis of the central role of trust
chapter Chapter 33|8 pages
Defining the Problem of Our Vanishing Memory: background, current status, models for resolution
part Six|66 pages
Delivery: production, evaluation and sustainability
part |2 pages
Introduction to Part Six
chapter Chapter 39|11 pages
A Survey on Digital Cultural Heritage Initiatives and Their Sustainability Concerns
part Seven|53 pages
Futures: priorities, approaches and aspirations
part |2 pages
Introduction to Part Seven