Museum Content Research Articles

Responsible Practices for Crowdsourced Transcription and Accessibility for Web‐based Library, Archive, and Museum Content

ABSTRACTHundreds of Libraries, Archives, and Museums (LAMs) around the world run crowdsourced transcription projects in order to engage users with their collections. Some LAMs explicitly use crowdsourcing projects to make non‐machine‐readable images of documents, such as manuscripts, discoverable to people who are blind or have low vision. We present findings from Crowdsourced Data: Accuracy, Accessibility, Authority (CDAAA), a 3‐year Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) grant project that investigates whether and how LAMs integrate crowdsourced transcriptions into their discovery systems, and whether these efforts result in accessible web‐content for blind people and those with low vision who use assistive technology to navigate the web. We share research findings as well as practical suggestions for those in charge of crowdsourcing projects, the resulting transcription data, or similar web‐based textual content such as scholarly editions. These research and practice‐oriented findings are relevant to any national or local context where inaccessible images are transcribed, and are especially timely in the US context given recent Federal rule‐making to ensure that all web and app‐based content provided by US State and local governments is accessible, including tools, resources, and content created in‐house, through contracts or by license (2024).

The digitalized ‘innovation lab’: valorizing the museum outside the museum

ABSTRACT Today museums are called to be innovation laboratories. Although value co-creation within museums is framed in the broader tangle of interactions concerning the destination, digitalization management has so far been studied almost exclusively with reference to visit experience. Furthermore, the managers’ point of view has been rather neglected despite their significant role in designing and shaping experiences. By providing a more holistic analysis, this study tries to fill these gaps and move a step forward. The research seeks to understand how digitalization strategy can succeed in fostering and coordinating multiple interactions that occur in the various museum-mediated ‘experience-environments’. The findings highlight the possibility of identifying a greater number of value-creation opportunities. In reference to recent changes in social and tourism dynamics, digitalization can no longer exclusively concern museum contents but, if appropriately managed, becomes a tool for connecting with the outside stakeholders and exploiting the potential present in the destination.

Linguistic landscapes of intangible cultural heritage museums representing minority languages: the case of the ‘Gerhard Rohlfs’ Museum of the Calabrian Greek Language

ABSTRACT Interest in the intangible cultural heritage of minority and Indigenous communities has grown in recent years. Minority languages are often a key element of this heritage but require constant safeguarding and practice to be available for future generations. The linguistic landscapes of (in)tangible cultural heritage museums can play a crucial role in this. In this study, the linguistic landscape of the ‘Gerhard Rohlfs’ Museum of the Calabrian Greek Language is therefore explored to understand how it can contribute to the safeguarding of a severely endangered language. A linguistic landscape analysis of 248 photographs revealed a significant presence of Calabrian Greek (Greko), reflecting a more equal status and prestige compared to Italian. The most widely used language, however, was Italian, ensuring museum content was accessible to the presumed main target audience. The lack of English suggests lower international visitor numbers, potentially benefiting the safeguarding of Calabrian Greek by reducing competition with another majority language. The findings thus demonstrate how language choices can support safeguarding measures for languages as intangible cultural heritage, through challenging language hierarchies and hegemonies. Further research should explore tourists’ and locals’ perceptions of such museums and the potential use of minority or endangered languages as sustainable tourism resources.

A study on changes in online digital content of major national and public art museums in Korea, focusing on COVID-19 from 2018 to 2023

A study on changes in online digital content of major national and public art museums in Korea, focusing on COVID-19 from 2018 to 2023

A grounded theory-based model of information communication in cultural heritage digital reading on the social media from the perspective of the embodied theory

New media technologies have opened up new possibilities for the communication of cultural heritage, and digital reading aligns with the participatory shift in museums, becoming an indispensable part of information communication. Currently, there exists a certain contradiction between the professional content of cultural heritage and the non-linear and immersive narrative style of new media. In order to find a balance between form and content, and explore the information communication pattern of cultural heritage in the era of mobile media, starting from practical issues, this article introduces the theory of embodied cognition, combines it with relevant theories in communication studies, and systematically explores the impact of embodied factors on audience reading behavior by using semi-structured interviews and grounded theory. The research reveals that embodied cognition, situational cognition, and interactive cognition have a significant impact on the digital reading information communication of cultural heritage on social media, which includes six factors: functional experience, sensory experience, interactive experience, scene simulation, emotional elevation and social experience. This study further constructed a theoretical model of the factors influencing the effectiveness of information communication in cultural heritage digital reading on the social media platform under the influence of embodied cognition theory, which confirms that these six factors play a significant role in the process of museum content generation, audience understanding, as well as the emergence of and the feedback loop of new meanings.

Exhibiting the Great Patriotic War in Soviet capitals: Moscow, Kyiv, Minsk

During World War II, Soviet museums constituted an important part of the war propaganda machine and were used by the Soviet state to mobilize its population and to create a public historical narrative about the war. Staff at Soviet museums began organizing war-related patriotic exhibitions from the very first days of the German invasion in June 1941. This article focuses on two types of war-themed exhibitions and museums that were prominent in the Soviet urban spaces during the war and immediately after: trophy exhibitions and exhibitions and museums that focused on constructing historical narratives about the war. Among the main topics of the latter exhibitions were partisan resistance, German atrocities, and the central role of the Communist Party and Stalin personally. While the creators of these war museums adhered to the ideological frameworks and museum content plans developed by Moscow’s professional ideologists, I demonstrate that local museum workers were able, to some extent, to deviate from centrally prescribed narratives and to engage their own agency and creativity, and that the extent of this deviation was largely defined by regional specifics and by individual efforts and local circumstances. The impact of regional differences in the narration of the war is especially evident in the comparison of the representation of the Holocaust in museums in Kyiv and Minsk. Finally, I demonstrate that local circumstances were a major factor in the fate of each museum after the end of the war.

A. V. Shemansky's contribution to the preservation of the former royal residence in Peterhof

The study is devoted to the activities of A.V. Shemansky in the museum organization established on the basis of the former Peterhof imperial residence in 1925-1937. A student of Leningrad University, who has gained experience in preserving the historical and artistic heritage in his native Tambov province, gets a job in the Management staff of the Peterhof palaces-museums. In the mid-1920s, there was an active search for new forms and contents of museums. Unsuccessful experiments led to the closure of expositions and the repurposing of former royal palaces for the needs of the young Soviet state. A.V. Shemansky joined the working group on the creation of a new type of museum exposition from the first days of his work. The study of the activities of A.V. Shemansky as deputy for scientific work made it possible to consider the policy of power in relation to the symbols of the royal system on the example of the Peterhof palace. The research methodology is based on the principles of historicism, objectivism and systematic scientific analysis. The article is based on extensive archival materials from various repositories and pre-war travel guides to Peterhof and the suburbs. The scientific activity of A.V. Shemansky has not yet become the subject of a separate study. The name of the Peterhof researcher is often found in studies of the biographies of his closest associates: N.I. Arkhipov and S.S. Geichenko. Also, the activity of our hero is noted in the works devoted to the method of thematic exposition. The scientific novelty of the work lies in the fact that, based on specific historical material, the ways of creating museum expositions in the conditions of the prevailing state ideology are shown. The study reveals the importance of the role of A.V. Shemansky in the development and popularization of Peterhof Palace museums. A. V. Shemansky was a true guardian of cultural heritage, opposing the closure of museums and the transformation of historical sites into parks of culture and recreation. In the name of the true mission of the museum business, A. V. Shemansky sacrificed himself and survived a terrible ordeal, going through the investigation and the camp.

Історико-культурна спадщина України в умовах екзистенційного виклику

The aim of the article is the assessment of the situation of Ukrainian historical and cultural heritage in conditions of an extremely high level of threat for its existence because of the full-scale war of the russian federation against Ukraine and future prospects. Scientific novelty is based on the formulation and presentation of the complex of theoretical and methodological aspects of identification, personification, decolonization, national and global significance of the historical and cultural heritage of Ukraine, its preservation and use; the analysis of objective trends in the formation of conditions for its future existence. Conclusions. The presentation of the material, in particular of certain debatable issues, allows us to draw conclusions about the main conceptual provisions, the identification, personification of Ukrainian material and spiritual heritage, the decolonization of museum content. It opens the way to determine the scope, national, multicultural and global components, the contribution of Ukrainian historical and cultural heritage to the world civilization development. Today’s realities require the formulation of new foundations for the protection and preservation of monuments of history and culture (monumental art and archeology as immovable and movable heritage components; museums, reserves, research and educational institutions as establishments of its location.); study of the peculiarities of new contours of the historical and cultural space formation, its existence and development in the conditions of the continuation of military operations and after their termination, new principles of the search and return of the historical and cultural heritage on the basis of international law; the improvement of the existing world legislation taking into account the specificity of modern forms of aggression and military crimes based on the factual material of the russia-Ukraine war.

A Holistic Approach for Enhancing Museum Performance and Visitor Experience.

Managing modern museum content and visitor data analytics to achieve higher levels of visitor experience and overall museum performance is a complex and multidimensional issue involving several scientific aspects, such as exhibits' metadata management, visitor movement tracking and modelling, location/context-aware content provision, etc. In related prior research, most of the efforts have focused individually on some of these aspects and do not provide holistic approaches enhancing both museum performance and visitor experience. This paper proposes an integrated conceptualisation for improving these two aspects, involving four technological components. First, the adoption and parameterisation of four ontologies for the digital documentation and presentation of exhibits and their conservation methods, spatial management, and evaluation. Second, a tool for capturing visitor movement in near real-time, both anonymously (default) and eponymously (upon visitor consent). Third, a mobile application delivers personalised content to eponymous visitors based on static (e.g., demographic) and dynamic (e.g., visitor movement) data. Lastly, a platform assists museum administrators in managing visitor statistics and evaluating exhibits, collections, and routes based on visitors' behaviour and interactions. Preliminary results from a pilot implementation of this holistic approach in a multi-space high-traffic museum (MELTOPENLAB project) indicate that a cost-efficient, fully functional solution is feasible, and achieving an optimal trade-off between technical performance and cost efficiency is possible for museum administrators seeking unfragmented approaches that add value to their cultural heritage organisations.

Creative aging in virtual spaces: using museum content and music therapy to explore cultural diversity

IntroductionDuring the pandemic, many creative aging programs stopped being delivered in person, and practitioners turned to various virtual platforms to deliver content for older adults to maintain their cognitive, physical, and psychosocial well-being. Collaborators from a university-based music therapy program and a global music museum developed asynchronous virtual programs, one for wellness populations and another for memory care settings. Content was developed and delivered by the paper’s principal investigators in collaboration with the museum’s curatorial team and an upper division music therapy class composed of juniors and first-year graduate equivalency students (n = 21). The asynchronous program included museum gallery content and music therapy interventions of singing, movement, and/or instrument playing based on highlighted geographic regions. The purpose of the study was to explore older adults’ experiences when participating in the program.MethodsFifty-six older adults from three post-acute care facilities (two skilled nursing facilities and one assisted living center) served as participants. Older adult participants were categorized as cognitively healthy (n = 27) or those diagnosed with dementia (n = 29) and attended five music sessions over 8 weeks, ranging from 30 to 60 min in length. A within-subject repeated measures design was used to investigate the impact of the creative aging program on older adults’ psychosocial well-being and engagement behaviors. Psychosocial well-being for cognitively healthy older adults were measured with the Multicultural Quality of Life Index, Engagement in Meaningful Activity Survey, and the PROMIS Social Isolation Short Form-4a. Psychosocial well-being for older adults with memory loss was measured with the Quality of Life in Late-Stage Dementia tool.ResultsCognitively healthy older adults showed an increase in psychological/emotional wellness after participating in the program, while older adults with memory loss appeared less irritable and physically uncomfortable and seemed to enjoy interacting with others more. Surprisingly, the cognitively healthy older adults also showed an increase in social isolation between the start and end of the program, which may not be related to the intervention, but to the fact that all three sites had COVID outbreaks during the study and had to pause their group activities programming and residents were required to stay in their rooms. Additionally, the music interventions fostered engagement behaviors of interest (facial expression, posture), and response (body movement, eye contact, and musical interaction with the leaders in the videos) for both groups of older adults. Instrument interventions were most engaging for cognitively healthy older adults. Singing interventions were most engaging for older adults with dementia, whereas movement interventions were less engaging for older adults with dementia.DiscussionFindings suggest that creative aging virtual programs can be delivered in asynchronous settings to enhance older adults’ well-being and foster engagement. Additionally, virtual programming may be used to augment ongoing programming or used to reach older adults when distance is a factor to enhance older adults’ well-being.

The application of digital display in heritage museum

Museum as a basic platform for urban construction and cultural propaganda, its purpose is to let people understand the historical development context and the experience of historical figures, to provide collection, research, display integrated service system, is an important witness of historical development. With the continuous development of social economy and science and technology, while attaching great importance to spiritual pursuit, people will get more spiritual satisfaction from the museum platform. Especially in the background of the digital era, heritage museums pay more attention to providing people with high-quality and efficient cultural services while actively exploring new display modes. Therefore, how to apply digital display theory and technology? It has become a core subject for museums to explore actively in the new era. After understanding the content and requirements of site museum display design under the digital background, this paper mainly studies the design framework of digital site museum dynamic panoramic virtual display system, and then from the perspective of practical development, defines the digital display design content of site museum in the new era, in order to provide an effective basis for the construction and management of site museum in the new era.

Investigating Critical Effect of China Palace Museum’s Social Media Service Quality on Visitor’s Satisfaction

Purpose: The integration of social media platforms within cultural institutions has revolutionized the way visitors engage with museums, enabling greater accessibility to exhibit and fostering interactive experiences. This study delves into the impact of social media service quality on visitor satisfaction within the iconic Palace Museum in China.
 
 Theoretical framework: The examination of the correlation between tourists' perceived ease of use and satisfaction can be approached from the perspective of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). In accordance with the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), the degree to which tourists perceive a particular technology as facile to employ exerts a noteworthy influence on their inclinations towards embracing and employing said technology.
 
 Design/methodology/approach: The main research methods adopted in this research is questionnaire survey. The questionnaire items designed in this study. The questionnaire is mainly designed from the perspective of tourist experience. This paper uses PLS-SEM statistical software to test the reliability analysis of each measurement variable of the questionnaire and carries out cumulative analysis of variance for these measurement variables. PLS-SEM is used to analyse the factors, and the relevant factors and fitting indexes are obtained.
 
 Findings: The analysis shed light on the complex interactions between these elements in the context of the museum visit. The results of this research highlight the value of social media sites as crucial instruments for raising visitor satisfaction at cultural organisations like the China Palace Museum. The first level of interaction that visitors had with the museum's digital interfaces was significantly shaped by their perception of simplicity of use, which is a core component of technological adoption. Visitors are more likely to investigate, interact, and fully engage with the museum's contents when these interfaces are seen as user-friendly and intuitive. Their overall happiness levels are significantly impacted by this increased participation.
 
 Research, Practical & Social implications: Through a comprehensive analysis of visitor perceptions and interactions with the Palace Museum's social media offerings, this study contributes to a deeper understanding of how social media service quality influences visitor satisfaction, thus providing valuable insights for enhancing the digital museum experience. As museums worldwide seek to adapt to the digital age, this study offers practical implications for optimizing social media strategies to create more fulfilling and engaging visitor encounters in the Palace Museum and beyond.
 
 Originality/value: This study aims to contribute to the existing body of knowledge by examining the dimensions of service quality specific to social media, including perceive ease of use and perceive usefulness with the present of public identity as mediator, this research aims to uncover the intricate relationship between these factors and visitor satisfaction as dependent variable.

The use of the materials of the research work "Documenting contractual relations between a person and the Church in the Contribution books and Synodics" in the formation of the content of the virtual museum "Feodorovskaya Sloboda"

The article considers the possibility of using the materials of the research work "Documenting the contractual relations of a person with the Church in the Contribution books and Synodics", in particular, the results of the study of the contribution book and synod of the Feodorovsky Monastery of Pereslavl-Zalessky, compiled in the XVI–XVIII centuries, to form the content of the virtual museum "Feodorovskaya Sloboda".

War and ‘museum front’ in a digital era: The Ukrainian War Museum during the Russian invasion of Ukraine

Based on the extensive literature on the digital transformation of museums, this article explores how war museums can effectively use online media to fulfil their functions related to remembering, interpreting and debating war. The author focuses primarily on the context of ongoing armed conflict as war museums engage in a struggle, shaping, mobilizing and unifying narrative to support the war effort. The main part of the article is an analysis of the online activities of the Kyiv Museum of the History of Ukraine in the Second World War during the first months of the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The author analyses the online exhibitions, online projects and content of the official Museum’s Facebook profile in order to explain how the War Museum uses its digital online resources to inform the local population and the international communities about the Russian aggression against Ukraine, and mobilize them to support the war effort.

Digital Interaction with Physical Museum Artifacts

In the digital information world, visualizing information in public spaces has been implemented in various formats and for application contexts such as advertisement, useful information provision, and provision of critical information in the cases of accidents, natural disasters, etc. Among the different types of information displays, in this research work, the focus is given to the ones that extend the experience of people visiting cultural heritage institutions. To this end, the design and implementation of an interactive display case that aims to overcome the “non-touch policy” of museums are presented. This novel display allows visitors to get engaged with artifacts and information through touch-based interaction with the ambition to extend the target audience and impact of museum content. The conducted study demonstrates that the interactive display case is an effective solution for providing relevant information to visitors, enhancing their engagement with exhibits, and improving their overall experience. The proposed solution is user-friendly, engaging, and informative, making it ideal for museums and other public exhibit spaces.

Seismic assessment of free‐standing artifacts: Full‐scale tests on large shake table

AbstractRecent severe earthquakes highlighted the high vulnerability of artistic assets. Thus, the seismic assessment and formulation of preservation strategies of artifacts are key challenges of modern earthquake engineering, which require theoretical and experimental investigations. The present paper discusses the outcomes from large scale shake table tests carried out on full‐scale free‐standing artifacts. The study is also aimed at evaluating the reliability of existing simplified formulations to predict the rocking motion activation. Emphasis is on prototypes of marble busts with solid and hollow pedestals with different geometries. Comprehensive tests were performed within “Seismic Resilience of Museum Contents” (SEREME) project, which was recently funded by H2020 Framework Programme – Seismology and Earthquake Engineering Research Infrastructure Alliance for Europe (SERA). Uniaxial and biaxial earthquake natural records with different amplitudes and frequency contents were considered to assess the rocking motion of the sample specimens. Response parameters such as uplift, horizontal and vertical accelerations, angular velocity were measured to assess the rocking response of the sample freestanding busts and pedestals. Coefficients of amplification (CAF) of acceleration were also computed. The value of CAF showed that for solid pedestals they were not significantly influenced by peak ground acceleration (PGA) and earthquake type. Conversely, hollow pedestals, which were characterized by larger values of CAF than solid counterparts, ranging between 1 and 7, were affected by PGA and earthquake characteristics. Finally, the outcomes of the presented shake table tests showed that uplifts and angular velocity are effective measures for assessing rocking occurrence of tested artifacts.

Augmented and Virtual Reality to Enhance the Didactical Experience of Technological Heritage Museums

The way that the new generations approach cultural contents changed dramatically. The audiovisual language substituted traditional media. Museums face now an important challenge to survive as cultural referents in this new paradigm: the introduction of new audiovisual languages in their exhibitions and the provision of attractive online content. The work presents a case study of the use of augmented reality and virtual reality (AR/VR) in a technological heritage museum, with a double approach: on the one hand the development of AR to enhance the real visit to the museum; and on the other, the provision of VR to ease online visits to the museum for those that do not want to or cannot visit it. The results show that young visitors massively appreciate the use of these technologies. Using AR contents also contributes to the preservation of the original artifacts without damage. Furthermore, multimedia content provides some contextual information, improving the learning experience. Regarding the VR application, it is thought as a complement to the AR experience. It was developed as a virtual reproduction of the museum visit that can be experienced from any location, thus contributing to a higher diffusion of the museum contents.

Navigating into the future of science museum education: focus on educators' adaptation during COVID-19.

Repeated closures of the world's science museums to stem the spread of COVID-19 have significantly reduced visitors' access to informal science learning opportunities. Interviews with educators and an analysis of the online content of a science museum were used in this case study to examine the impact of this phenomenon on informal science education. We present several education examples to highlight how educators have attempted to adapt. Specifically, we describe and characterize educators' strategies-collaboration, networking, and feedback-to address difficulties involved in developing virtually accessible content that will engage users. In addition, we analyze essential attributes of informal learning in the science museum attributes of interaction, free-choice learning, hands-on experience, and authentic learning that the educators kept in mind while planning and redesigning educational programs and cultural events in response to COVID-19. We conclude by forecasting the future of science museums based on the educators' perceptions of their roles and the nature of informal science learning, assuming that educators are the crucial agents to build a new future direction.

Museo Nazionale dell'Emigrazione Italiana (MEI)

Museo Nazionale dell'Emigrazione Italiana (MEI)

Space Crisis: Encounter in the Museum Building or Online?

After witnessing a huge turnaround in the wider social context in the previous period, it seems that the question of the future of museums in the digital environment has begun to take on a very optimistic tone full of potential. There is a growing visibility of these heritage institutions on social networks and an increasingly diverse offer of virtual tours, as well as the use of modern virtual and augmented reality technologies in the interpretation and presentation of cultural heritage, while some works of art and collections are created exclusively for cyberspace. Nevertheless, the museum as a meeting place still seems irreplaceable. At a time of isolation, growing loneliness and fears, studies on the emotions of visitors during their stay in the museum in the last few years show that real, physical spaces of the museum encourage constructive attitudes. Encounters with other visitors as well as with the exhibited artifacts especially prove to be important for positive feelings and the need to visit the museum. We will issue these theoretical premises on selected examples and examine whether modern technologies serve as additional tools of promotion and other possible ways of presenting museum content or, oppositely, whether social media and NFT galleries manage to overcome the need for the museum itself as a place of physical encounter.