I lurk on this list because I once worked in IT at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, was involved with the MCN, and maintain a healthy interest in how museums "work".
This may not be helpful to the current discussion, but as a layman who is curious about my own experiences and about the world at large, I am grateful for the treasure troves you all are building and for the early search tools you are providing. A quick example: Two summers ago I went canoeing with friends on the Demoine River in Quebec and was quite taken with the experience. I have since read a rousing novel called Where the Rivers Run North by Howard Frank Mosher. Hungry for more I have gone to the American Memory Project at the Library of Congress (www.lov.gov) and searched for "voyageur". The search returned 31 artifacts including a "Manuscript map, probably made by a French voyageur, of Indian lands of eastern Wisconsin, when part of Michigan Territory ..." Perhaps more interesting, at least in terms of the search tool, is the website for the Mc Cord Museum of Canadian History ( www.musee-mccord.qc.ca ). Here they supplement the search with conceptual mapping (a "think map"). If you have not tried it - give it a spin. I searched their Notman Archive for "log jam" and was rewarded with 5 fascinating images. Check out Log jam on the Nashwaak River .... I know that I am writing to a community of professionals and that many of you are more adept at plumbing the depths of the web than I - and I also know that a user study of one is, statistically, seriously flawed :) but I did want to write to counter Matt's rather gloomy assessment of usefulness of these tools. I believe they are useful now - and will build momentum over time. Now I am off to search for images from the Group of Seven ... gotta love that North Land! And please believe me these online explorations do not keep me from "interactive social event"s - they only enhance them. Bob Leming Philadelphia [email protected] "Hey wait! That's exactly what they'll expect from us...." -----Original Message----- From: MCN-L Discussion Forum digest [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Sunday, July 14, 2002 1:01 AM To: mcn_mcn-l digest recipients Subject: mcn_mcn-l digest: July 13, 2002 MCN_MCN-L Digest for Saturday, July 13, 2002. 1. Re: Online Catalogue Planning ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Re: Online Catalogue Planning From: "Jackie Zak" <[email protected]> Date: Sat, 13 Jul 2002 12:33:11 -0700 X-Message-Number: 1 Matt,=20 I believe your thinking is right on target, and the state-of- the-art for online museum catelogs is a reflection of the infancy of the concept. I just read an interesting book on creativity called "Out of Our Minds" by Ken Robinson. He used an example of the evolution of movie making to describe how new technical innovations often replicate the non-technical at first, then evolve into something new. He noted that at first, commercial film making=20 tried to capture the theatrical experience of the stage play, but=20 have now become an art form in a new medium (well ok. Maybe sometimes). Guess I think there's a place for a user centered approach to design and what we've got so far is primarily the view of a museum professional, not necessarily one from the=20 perspective of anyone else. That's not a bad thing, it's just one user's view. The thing about representing other user views is that it's seen as taking too much time and too many resources and it's hard to convince the decision makers that it's worth it. However there is work out there on "quick ethnography" which is being used for work place studies to capture user needs. Maybe that's a model we can use too. Anyway, kudos to all of you out there who are making the effort to share your museum's information (from anyone's point of view). Jackie Zak [email protected] >>> [email protected] 07/12/02 09:38AM >>> I really wonder about user studies of searchable online collections. = I'm=20 going to go out on a limb and predict that either no convincing studies=20 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=20 see a really interesting use for searchable online collections. In my=20 mind, they serve a narrow set of people, relative to the varieties of=20 people the entire museum serves, and provide scant service to those=20 people. I'm sort of struck by Claudio's message, since I previously=20 thought searchable online collections might at least serve academic=20 purposes, but they don't help him, I guess. It seems that nobody has addressed, online, the fact that a visit to a=20 museum is an interactive social event that people conduct in the = presence=20 (either actual or implied) of several other kinds of people: experts,=20 strangers, and friends. I have not once seen any interesting interactive= =20 capabilities on a museum web site (discussion between visitors,=20 ask-the-expert--to name a couple really obvious possibilities). And = the=20 sort of mental exercise that a visitor goes through when faced with a=20 challenging exhibit ("why is this artwork here? Who thought this was = any=20 good? Why are those people over there reacting in that way to that = artwork=20 that had no effect on me?")--how is that even approached by a searchable=20= online collection? Outside the context of an exhibition, even with = related=20 descriptive information, artworks lose a lot of their impact. Of = course,=20 they also lose a lot of their impact when reduced to digitized colors, = a=20 flat monitor, and the size of the computer screen (or less). What kinds of people use searchable online collections? For what=20 purposes? For the amount of money you can spend on this vs. the = benefits,=20 I'm more amazed how many museums have searchable online collections, = than=20 how many don't have them. I'm not talking about for internal=20 collections-related purposes, where there's tremendous value, but for=20 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. >Cl=E1udio. >----- 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/=20 > > > > > > --- > > You are currently subscribed to mcn_mcn-l as: [email protected].= br=20 > > To unsubscribe send a blank email to >[email protected]=20 > > > > >--- >You are currently subscribed to mcn_mcn-l as: [email protected]= rg=20 >To unsubscribe send a blank email to=20 >[email protected]=20 --- You are currently subscribed to mcn_mcn-l as: [email protected]=20 To unsubscribe send a blank email to [email protected]= ericaneagle.com --- END OF DIGEST --- You are currently subscribed to mcn_mcn-l as: [email protected] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [email protected] --- You are currently subscribed to mcn_mcn-l as: [email protected] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [email protected]
