Virtual Museum in the Library: Models and Technologies of Creation

Abstract

The article describes the history of creation of virtual museums (VM) in global Internet space. The author considers the research areas of this resource, including the phenomena of VM development; defines the aspects of VM existence (information, social, technical) and its main types, in particular, representation of a real Museum and a virtual Museum existing only in the Web-space, and VM as an effective PR-tool. The paper presents the results of monitoring of Russian and some foreign virtual museums in libraries and describes their current state. The main specific features of the museums in the Russian libraries are the original object of exposure (book) and additional information materials (bibliography, alphabetical index, search system, etc.). Information content of the VM is mainly created basing on free programs and with minimal use of multimedia technologies; communication links to Web 2.0 services are weak. The main advantages of VM in the foreign libraries are simplicity of collections presentation and navigation through them, as well as aesthetics and dynamism, achieved by the use of original Web design (beautiful typography, sliders, tile (block) interfaces, etc.). Further development of memorial space of Russian libraries and creation of VM require theoretical study of the issue, namely the modeling of this resource. Analysis of scientific publications shows that there are different approaches to VM modeling, such as functional (educational, information, marketing models), complex (complex hardware — software system) and structural (structural model, including the following blocks: collections, library, exhibition, lecture and reference). Priority approach to the modeling of library VM at the stage of changing technological paradigm can be the technological one, which allows to reveal the set of the given resource properties, the process of the model design, consisting of the following blocks: resource, software and technology, preparation of objects for exhibiting, resource promotion, educational, cultural-educational and analytical.