Museum Information Research Articles

Meeting user needs in the modern museum: Profiles of the new museum information professional

This article presents results from 21 semi-structured interviews with museum information professionals who were asked about their experiences working with information resources, tools, and technologies. These interviews were analyzed to develop profiles of four types of information professionals working in museums. The article presents these profiles, focusing on the responsibilities of today's museum information professionals and their role in meeting user needs in the modern museum, thereby improving understanding of the evolving role of museum information professionals.

Dublin core and museum information: metadata as cultural heritage data

In 2000, the museum community reported on the use of Dublin Core metadata in the museum context and proposed a broader set of elements for museums. Since then, Dublin Core metadata has evolved and it is now possible to use rich descriptions (data) and Semantic Web technologies and maintain the interoperability of Dublin Core metadata. This paper reviews the museum experience in the light of developments in the DCMES. It is based on recent experience with a virtual museum of Indigenous culture using Metadata Application Profiles (MAPs) and schema cross-walks.

Finding the skills for tomorrow: Information literacy and museum information professionals

This paper presents results from 21 semi-structured interviews with museum information professionals who were asked about their experiences working with information resources, tools, and technologies in museums. The interviews were analyzed to develop an understanding of the information literacy skills of museum information professionals. This paper presents the results of this analysis, and discusses the state of information literacy in museums, and the increasing need for museum information professionals to possess information literacy skills. The results illustrate how information literacy is defined by information professionals in museums, and how perceptions of information literacy and its importance to museums have changed over time.

Import and Mapping of Distributed Ontology on Museum Information

Import and Mapping of Distributed Ontology on Museum Information

Digital libraries, virtual museums: same difference?

PurposeThis paper provides an overview of activities in the field of virtual museums and considers a number of issues for which there are parallels in the field of digital libraries.Design/methodology/approachUsing a range of illustrative examples, we attempt to determine what defines a virtual museum on the one hand and a digital library disguised as a virtual museum on the other; when it makes sense for virtual museums to work in partnership with digital libraries, or draw on digital library research and development; and how the power of the digital environment might be harnessed to further the traditional values of the museum community.FindingsFinds that virtual museums and digital libraries have much in common and the boundaries between them are increasingly blurred. The provision of object‐level metadata, needed to realise the wider potential of the digital environment to enhance and extend the traditional museum experience, gives rise to a number of issues which are shared by libraries and for which shared approaches would be beneficial. In particular, collaboration between the museum and library communities is essential if solutions to the problems of cross‐domain searching are to be found and its potential to facilitate new knowledge creation fully exploited. However, any collaborative approach must take into account the differences, as well as the similarities, between the two communities, as these differences are fundamental and defining.Originality/valueThe paper will be of interest to museum, library and other information professionals, and particularly those developing distributed and/or cross‐domain digital collections.

So You Want to Work in a Museum . . . Guiding the Careers of Future Museum Information Professionals

This paper presents results from twenty-one semi-structured interviews with museum information professionals who were asked about their experiences working with information resources, tools, and technologies in the museum environment. These interviews were analyzed to determine common elements in the participants' career paths, educational backgrounds, and on-the-job experiences. Based on this analysis, we identified five factors that we believe will influence the ability of Library and Information Science (LIS) students to succeed as information professionals in museums. This paper will provide guidance for LIS students who wish to pursue museum careers, answering the question, How do I become an information professional in a museum?

Biological Information Standards

Biological Information Standards

Technical and Intellectual Integration of Library and Museum Information: Afterthoughts of Two Session Organizers

Previous articleNext article No AccessTechnical and Intellectual Integration of Library and Museum Information: Afterthoughts of Two Session OrganizersLynda BuntingLynda Bunting Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Art Documentation Volume 23, Number 2Fall 2004 Published for the Art Libraries Society of North America Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/adx.23.2.27949316 Views: 5Total views on this site Copyright © 2004 ARLIS/NAPDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

UPM MIS: museum information system at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

UPM MIS: museum information system at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

The Evolving Roles of Information Professionals in Museums

Alors que de plus en plus de musees cherchent a fournir un acces en ligne a une information structuree sur leurs collections, le role et les responsabilites des professionnels de l'information travaillant dans ces musees sont amenes a evoluer profondement. A partir d'enquetes et d'entretiens menes aupres de professionnels, l'A. explore les changements intervenus dans le travail du webmestre de musee, en considerant quatre perspectives : les nouvelles competences et responsabilites, l'evolution des attentes et des demandes, les changements d'attitudes, la reponse aux besoins des utilisateurs.

Museum Information Professionals as Providers and Users of Online Resources

Les professionnels de l'information, bien que non seulement producteurs et fournisseurs mais aussi utilisateurs de ressources numerisees et de leurs descriptions, constituent pourtant le groupe d'utilisateurs le moins etudie. Le projet d'evaluation de MOAC (the Museums and the Online Archive of California - projet de diffusion de materiels culturels sur le Web en acces public), s'est precisement interesse aux professionnels de l'information en tant qu'utilisateurs.

The design of intelligent cross search of museum information

The design of intelligent cross search of museum information

“To Sustain the Union: Central Illinois in the Civil War.”

Internet: museum information <http://www.mchistory.org> (Jan. 5, 2003). I had high expectations for this exhibition; the McLean County Museum of History has a well-deserved reputation for informative and entertaining exhibitions that place the history of central Illinois in a broader context. Unfortunately, although “ To Sustain the Union” is informative and sometimes entertaining, it ultimately presents a generic military-focused version of the Civil War, neglects the home front, and fails to discuss how soldiers from central Illinois were different than those from elsewhere. Although the museum's visitor's guide claims that “ To Sustain the Union” covers “every aspect of the war, from the soldiers' daily lives to the battles they fought, to the efforts of home,” this is primarily a military history exhibition, and the emphasis is clear even before visitors enter the exhibit hall. Outside the exhibit door a large panel asks each visitor to “muster in” (sign...

Factors Affecting Controlled Vocabulary Usage in Art Museum Information Systems

Previous articleNext article No AccessFactors Affecting Controlled Vocabulary Usage in Art Museum Information SystemsAlison GilchrestAlison Gilchrest Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Art Documentation Volume 22, Number 1Spring 2003 Published for the Art Libraries Society of North America Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/adx.22.1.27949230 Views: 11Total views on this site Copyright © 2003 ARLIS/NAPDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Information architecture for the Web: The IA matrix approach to designing children's portals

AbstractThe article presents a matrix that can serve as a tool for designing the information architecture of a Web portal in a logical and systematic manner. The information architect begins by inputting the portal's objective, target user, and target content. The matrix then determines the most appropriate information architecture attributes for the portal by filling in the Applied Information Architecture portion of the matrix. The article discusses how the matrix works using the example of a children's Web portal to provide access to museum information.

The Design of Metadata Interchange for Chinese Information and Implementation of Metadata Management System

With the development of Internet, digital libraries/museums have received worldwide attention and many developed countries are doing extensive researches on digital libraries/museums. In Taiwan, many institutions have digitized their collections. In addition, major research projects such as Digital Museum Project, Digital Archive Program, Digital Local Document Program, and CMNet are either in progress or about to begin. To digitize resources and present them on the WWW is the first priority; nevertheless, it is more important to organize these resources based on their characteristics, so users may retrieve and use them effectively. In digital library/museum systems, metadata plays a crucial role: its formulation has to begin with understanding the user demands and object characteristics, and standardization is essential for * The work is partially supported by National Science Council under grant NSC 89-2750-P-002-012.

MUSiCAL: An object-oriented hypermedia data model for the reuse of museum information for computer-aided learning and the World-Wide Web

As museum databases are computerized, a rich and extensive resource that could be reused to create World Wide Web pages and computer-aided learning materials is being created. This reuse can be facilitated using a complex set of views of museum data for many different contexts and applications. This paper presents MUSiCAL, a data model and methodology for the structuring and encoding of all types of museum information to do this. This model supports all museum uses of the information, and the retrieval and manipulation of this material by computer aided learning and World Wide Web authors. In this model, museum information is stored as distinct units called entity-objects, which capture all information relating to an object, person, place or company. Novel hypermedia techniques (called layers and wrappers) are used to create varied abstractions of the entity-objects for different users and uses. Material is stored in a context independent manner, but context sensitive views can be created, allowing units of information to be connected together in more than one contextual view. These structures facilitate the organisation and retrieval of objects and create a varied range of abstractions to help support reuse.

Effective levels of adaptation to different types of users in interactive museum systems

Users interact with museum application interfaces for many reasons. There are various types of users, who want to perform various tasks, in various contexts, that can access the same Web site. Thus, it is important to have user interfaces able to adapt to these different user requirements to facilitate the accomplishment of the desired goals. Most current interfaces to museum information do not take into account this variety of types of users, thus providing interfaces that some users find confusing to achieve their goals. In this article we discuss the various possible levels of support that can be given to different users during navigation of museum information. In particular, we focus our attention on how to obtain adaptable and adaptive interfaces using the web site for the Marble Museum, which we have designed and developed, as a source of examples for our discussion of possible solutions.

Effective levels of adaptation to different types of users in interactive museum systems

Users interact with museum application interfaces for many reasons. There are various types of users, who want to perform various tasks, in various contexts, that can access the same Web site. Thus, it is important to have user interfaces able to adapt to these different user requirements to facilitate the accomplishment of the desired goals. Most current interfaces to museum information do not take into account this variety of types of users, thus providing interfaces that some users find confusing to achieve their goals. In this article we discuss the various possible levels of support that can be given to different users during navigation of museum information. In particular, we focus our attention on how to obtain adaptable and adaptive interfaces using the web site for the Marble Museum, which we have designed and developed, as a source of examples for our discussion of possible solutions.

The impact of electronic developments on museum librarians

According to a survey by Esther Bierbaum, museum libraries have poor status within their parent institutions, where they are often isolated entities. Yet current electronic developments as part of the information service model are resulting in a repositioning of such libraries within the organisational structure, as well as making them the best locations for museum information centres. Museum librarians are natural guardians of knowledge, and need to focus on supporting the development of information about the museum collections and taking on a leading role as information strategists.