Our web-accessible collections database is used by (for example):
faculty at 4 area colleges to plan class visits, students looking for
research projects, photo researchers in search of illustrations,
individuals looking for information about particular artists, other
museums preparing exhibitions, etc. etc.
For some recent interesting work on how viewers respond to originals
and reproductions, see Brad Taylor's work at the UM School of
Information
http://www.si.umich.edu/
Ann Sinfield
Assistant Registrar
University of Michigan Museum of Art
http://www.umich.edu/~umma/
I really wonder about user studies of searchable online collections.
I'm going to go out on a limb and predict that either no convincing
studies have been done, or that most people don't really use them.
I spend a lot of time thinking about this, but I feel like I have
yet to see a really interesting use for searchable online
collections. In my mind, they serve a narrow set of people,
relative to the varieties of people the entire museum serves, and
provide scant service to those people. I'm sort of struck by
Claudio's message, since I previously thought searchable online
collections might at least serve academic purposes, but they don't
help him, I guess.
It seems that nobody has addressed, online, the fact that a visit to
a museum is an interactive social event that people conduct in the
presence (either actual or implied) of several other kinds of
people: experts, strangers, and friends. I have not once seen any
interesting interactive capabilities on a museum web site
(discussion between visitors, ask-the-expert--to name a couple
really obvious possibilities). And the sort of mental exercise that
a visitor goes through when faced with a challenging exhibit ("why
is this artwork here? Who thought this was any good? Why are those
people over there reacting in that way to that artwork that had no
effect on me?")--how is that even approached by a searchable online
collection? Outside the context of an exhibition, even with related
descriptive information, artworks lose a lot of their impact. Of
course, they also lose a lot of their impact when reduced to
digitized colors, a flat monitor, and the size of the computer
screen (or less).
What kinds of people use searchable online collections? For what
purposes? For the amount of money you can spend on this vs. the
benefits, I'm more amazed how many museums have searchable online
collections, than how many don't have them. I'm not talking about
for internal collections-related purposes, where there's tremendous
value, but for viewing on the internet.
At 04:50 PM 7/11/2002 -0300, you wrote:
OK,
I'm researching about cybermuseu. There are many problems in those museus.
for exemplo: informations about objects, 3D in the objects. Those problems
are impossible to the master or doctor's study in museum.
Cláudio.
----- Original Message -----
From: <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, May 15, 2002 11:20 AM
Subject: Online Catalogue Planning
Like the Cincinnati Art Musuem, the Gallery of Art at Washington
University
in St. Louis is also in the planning stages of developing an online,
searchable catalogue of its collection (we recognize we are behind the
times). I too am interested in learning about end-user studies and other
helpful resources to guide us in the planning process.
Stephanie Parrish
Washington University Gallery of Art
Saint Louis, Missouri 63130
> http://galleryofart.wustl.edu/
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