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Portable Computers & Interactive Multimedia: A New Paradigm for Interpreting Museum Collections
Abstract
This paper describes a GEMISIS doctoral research project nearing completion at the University of Salford, U.K. and offers some preliminary findings. The aim of the project was to design an interactive multimedia application for a portable computer in a museum setting, to assess the application as an aid to interpretation and to examine its impact on the visitor's understanding and enjoyment of the museum experience. It will discuss the introduction of portable computers into museum galleries, briefly describe the design and development process of the interactive multimedia application, review the methodology employed and provide a summary of preliminary findings.
... It was later enhanced by the audio guide, a more technological medium which is commonly used nowadays. Audio guides free visitors from having to read text panels, and thus allows them to concentrate on the exhibits [Evans and Sterry, 1999]. ...
... This fusing of technologies resulted in a portable computer with an interactive multimedia application called "GEMISIS 2000," whose use was demonstrated in the "Fibers, Fabrics and Fashion" section of a museum gallery featuring a textile mill at the museum of ????. The findings of an evaluation of "GEMESIS 2000" showed that portable computers are popular with visitors, enhance their learning, and increase the time they spend in the gallery [Evans and Sterry, 1999]. However, the size and weight of the portable computer and its display are critical for museum application [Sparacino, 2002]; indeed the least-liked aspect of the portable computer in "GEMISIS 2000,", was that it was too heavy [Evans and Sterry, 1999]. ...
... The findings of an evaluation of "GEMESIS 2000" showed that portable computers are popular with visitors, enhance their learning, and increase the time they spend in the gallery [Evans and Sterry, 1999]. However, the size and weight of the portable computer and its display are critical for museum application [Sparacino, 2002]; indeed the least-liked aspect of the portable computer in "GEMISIS 2000,", was that it was too heavy [Evans and Sterry, 1999]. Personal Digital Assistants (PDA's), which were found very effective because of their smaller size and lighter weight [Sparacino, 2002], have therefore been introduced into museums [Not et al., 1997]. ...
Multimedia provides new opportunities for museums to enhance their visitors' experience. However, its use poses new challenges for presentation preparation, among which are: How to enrich the visit while not diverting the visitors' attention from the actual objects in the museum, which should remain the focus of the visit? How to provide a rich information space suitable for a wide variety of visitors? These challenges need to be addressed during planning and preparation of information presentations for mobile, multimedia museum visitors' guides. This work presents lessons learned about the preparation of multimedia presentations for museum visitors' guides in the course of the PEACH and PIL projects. While planning the presentations, the designers need to consider the exhibition as a whole, its objectives, its objects, and the information in which users may be interested. Then, in light of the resulting generic goals, elicit relevant text and images and combine them using cinematographic techniques into integrated multimedia presentations. All the above is abstracted in a nine-step multimedia presentation preparation framework, described in this paper.
... However, there is currently little empirical evidence to demonstrate that interactive displays in museums have long-lasting effects or whether such displays promote better learning in museums than older forms of engagement and traditional interpretation methods (Evans & Sterry, 1999 ). Without doubt interactive exhibits are popular with visitors, especially young ones, and they do increase the time people spend in the galleries. ...
... Without doubt interactive exhibits are popular with visitors, especially young ones, and they do increase the time people spend in the galleries. But, this might simply be the result of technology's attractive character and its potential to sustain attention without this necessarily relating to visitors' attention with exhibits (Screven, 1990; Evans& Sterry, 1999). Griffiths suggests that 'we know little about how or what types of information visitors retain from media installation in galleries' and this was voiced 'as long ago as 1969 in the conclusion of one of the earliest studies of audiovisual media conducted in the museum at the Fort Parker historic Site in Texas' (Griffiths 2008, p. 275). ...
A multimodal semiotic approach is applied in this chapter to three examples to illustrate how the use of digital technology in museums and galleries can re-mediated the visitor experience (Jewitt, 2009; Kress, 2009). The examples are selected to expand upon the themes raised in Chapter X. They each explore different technologies, contexts and purposes and to illustrate the successful use of digital technology in exhibitions, galleries, or interventions: 1. You Tube and Flickr: The Weather Project by Olafur Eliasson at the Tate Modern Museum; 2. Interactive artefacts, virtual tours and Websites: The Winston Churchill Museum; 3. Mobile Technologies: OOLK at the D-Day museum
... However, there is currently little empirical evidence to demonstrate that interactive displays in museums have long-lasting effects or whether such displays promote better learning in museums than older forms of engagement and traditional interpretation methods (Evans & Sterry, 1999). Without doubt interactive exhibits are popular with visitors, especially young ones, and they do increase the time people spend in the galleries. ...
... Without doubt interactive exhibits are popular with visitors, especially young ones, and they do increase the time people spend in the galleries. But, this might simply be the result of technology's attractive character and its potential to sustain attention without this necessarily relating to visitors' attention with exhibits (Screven, 1990;Evans& Sterry, 1999). Griffiths suggests that 'we know little about how or what types of information visitors retain from media installation in galleries' and this was voiced 'as long ago as 1969 in the conclusion of one of the earliest studies of audiovisual media conducted in the museum at the Fort Parker historic Site in Texas' (Griffiths 2008, p. 275). ...
When in June 2013 The Guardian newspaper (UK) asked us to ‘help create the whole picture’ with the GuardianWitness app (‘upload your part of the story faster with 4GEE at witness.guardian.co.uk’) we know the citizen reporter and the eyewitness photographer have been allied to faster, participation and the double page spread (The Guardian, Saturday 06.07.13 pp 2 and 3). Undermining the authorship, authority and arguably the professionalism of the journalist and photographer, the amateur enthusiast, key eye-witness or commentator are crowd-sourced to open up, enhance and create a whole, diverse picture of world events that, in the advertisement at least, speaks of a change in the relationship of passive consumer to traditional authorities such as newspapers.
... However, there is currently little empirical evidence to demonstrate that interactive displays in museums have long-lasting effects or whether such displays promote better learning in museums than older forms of engagement and traditional interpretation methods (Evans & Sterry, 1999). Without doubt interactive exhibits are popular with visitors, especially young ones, and they do increase the time people spend in the galleries. ...
... Without doubt interactive exhibits are popular with visitors, especially young ones, and they do increase the time people spend in the galleries. But, this might simply be the result of technology's attractive character and its potential to sustain attention without this necessarily relating to visitors' attention with exhibits (Screven, 1990;Evans& Sterry, 1999). Griffiths suggests that 'we know little about how or what types of information visitors retain from media installation in galleries' and this was voiced 'as long ago as 1969 in the conclusion of one of the earliest studies of audiovisual media conducted in the museum at the Fort Parker historic Site in Texas' (Griffiths 2008, p. 275). ...
When in June 2013 The Guardian newspaper (UK) asked us to 'help create the whole picture' with the GuardianWitness app ('upload your part of the story faster with 4GEE at witness.guardian.co.uk') we know the citizen reporter and the eyewitness photographer have been allied to faster, participation and the double page spread (The Guardian, Saturday 06.07.13 pp 2 and 3). Undermining the authorship, authority and arguably the professionalism of the journalist and photographer, the amateur enthusiast, key eye-witness or commentator are crowd-sourced to open up, enhance and create a whole, diverse picture of world events that, in the advertisement at least, speaks of a change in the relationship of passive consumer to traditional authorities such as newspapers. Another recent example (summer 2013) links the rhetoric of social change to technology and visual culture. However it reveals a different set of coordinates. The Renoir Cinema, Bloomsbury, London (the ultimate homage to auteur in acknowledging the primacy given to the film director's role in cinema) is now showing films of exhibitions of 'great' artists: 'A global revolution bringing the world's greatest art exhibitions to a cinema near you!' (Renoir advertisement). A cinema poster campaign promotes images of paintings as introductions to the following exhibitions Manet: Portraying Life Screenings From the Royal Academy of Arts, London; Munch: Munch 150 From the Munch Museum & National Museum Oslo; and Vermeer: Vermeer and Music from the National Gallery, London. Dates and participating cinemas are available at, 'great art on screen' or for those living in Australia www.exhibitionsonscreen. The YouTube trailer proclaims, 'The world's greatest art presented exclusively for the big screen: enjoy world class art, history and biography through the works of the great masters'. It is a global first with the short-date screenings offering 'a unique perspective
... Electronic guidebook products include a wide variety of systems from industry leaders Acoustiguide and Antenna Audio, as well as from other vendors such as Ameritech (smARTour), JVC (Audio Guidance System), Organic (eDocent), Visible Interactive (iGo) and Vulcan Northwest (Museum Exhibit Guide). Many research systems have also been built (see, e.g., [5][6][14][15][16][17][18]). ...
... Unlike our work, these studies used a quantitative approach to measure specific aspects or effects of the systems. A University of Salford team evaluated the design of a tablet computer guidebook prototype at the Museum of Science & Industry in Manchester [6], and a Lancaster University team evaluated the design of another tablet computer guidebook prototype in historic Lancaster [5]. ...
We describe an electronic guidebook prototype and report on a study of its use in a historic house. Supported by mechanisms in the guidebook, visitors constructed experiences that had a high degree of interaction with three entities: the guidebook, their companions, and the house and its contents. In this paper, we report a qualitative analysis of how different properties of the guidebook helped or hindered visitors' attempts to balance the competing demands of these attentional entities. Based on the visitors' comments and behavior, we distill a set of design principles.
... Electronic guidebook products include a wide variety of systems from industry leaders Acoustiguide and Antenna Audio, as well as from other vendors such as Ameritech (smARTour), JVC (Audio Guidance System), Organic (eDocent), Visible Interactive (iGo), and Vulcan Northwest (Museum Exhibit Guide). Many research systems have also been built (see, e.g., [6][7]13,[16][17][18][19]21]). ...
... In both cases, the methodology was, like ours, based on a combination of interviews, observation, and device activity log analysis. A University of Salford team evaluated the design of a tablet computer guidebook prototype at the Museum of Science & Industry in Manchester [7], and a Lancaster University team evaluated the design of another tablet computer guidebook prototype in historic Lancaster [6]. ...
We describe an electronic guidebook prototype and report on a study of its use in a historic house. Visitors were given a choice of information delivery modes, and generally preferred audio played through speakers. In this delivery mode, visitors assigned the electronic guidebook a conversational role, e.g., it was granted turns in conversation, it introduced topics of conversation, and visitors responded to it verbally. We illustrate the integration of the guidebook into natural conversation by showing that discourse with the electronic guidebook followed the conversational structure of storytelling. We also demonstrate that visitors coordinated object choice and physical positioning to ensure that the electronic guidebooks played a role in their conversations. Because the visitors integrated the electronic guidebooks in their existing conversations with their companions, they achieved social interactions with each other that were more fulfilling than those that occur with other presentation methods such as traditional headphone audio tours. 1
... With the increase of the participatory culture and ubiquitous technologies, "digital heritage" can incorporate a wide range of multimedia outlets and interactive technologies including audio guides, virtual and augmented reality but can also relate to public outreach communication tools such as social media. While audio guides only allow one channel of information with limited interaction for the museum visitor, interactive multimedia is an effective interpretative medium for museums that can add to existing interpretative techniques by fostering a culture of participation and providing interactive multi-sensory experiences (Evans & Sterry, 1999). The increasing use of virtual and augmented reality in museums and heritage sites since the last decade enables museums to supplement access to and interpretation of heritage sites allowing for a complete immersion experience while also promoting conservation of heritage (Ferguson, Harrison, & Weinbren, 2010). ...
In Kazakhstan, the development of a tourism sector that highlights the repressive historical period of Soviet domination is limited. This study investigates the managerial practices of the conservation, visualisation and interpretation of Gulag heritage for tourism development at Kazakhstani museums from a multi-stakeholder perspective. A qualitative case study research approach based on interviews with museum management, policymakers, NGOs, tour operators and historians of the Kazakhstani Gulags is adopted to examine stakeholders' positions on practice. Various development and planning implications are identified: increase the cooperation between stakeholders for proactive cooperative fundraising for commercialisation and conservation of sites; and the need to consider the centrality of visual imagery in museum interpretation and initial multimedia development.
... The last decade there has been a considerable amount of research on the use of multimedia technologies to the museum environment to enhanced the museum visit experience and provide information and interpretations for the Museum collections (Evans & Sterry, 1999;Lehn & Heath, 2003;Proctor & Tellis, 2003;Wilson, 2004;Woodruff et al., 2004). This paper focuses on understanding the visitors' and museum requirements for developing applications, or modifying the exhibition environment to aid the museum visit. ...
This paper focuses on understanding the visitors and museum requirements to aid the museum visit. To do this it performs a comparative study which examines the effectiveness of different media: a Personal Digital Assistants' (PDAs) multimedia application; an Audio-guide; and simple paper leaflet to enhance the Museum visit. The study uses the Museum/Library Stratis Eletheriadis Teriade, in Lesvos, Greece as a case study. The paper describes the design process of the "Fables" application with the use of NaviPocket v. 2.4 by ORPHYS SYSTEMES (an authoring tool for PDA applications) to create the Audio-guide and the PDA multimedia application. It includes an evaluation of the three different media with real users.
... The need to explore the role information professionals play in museums comes at a time when new technologies have the greatest potential to revolutionize the experience of visiting a museum (Besser, 1997; Jones-Garmil, 1997; Thomas & Mintz, 1997). Researchers and professionals have studied how museum visitors use interactive technologies to augment the museum-going experience, from online experiences that reach visitors beyond the walls of the museum (Galani & Chalmers, 2002; Parry & Arbach, 2005; Teather & Wilhelm, 1999), to kiosks and handheld devices that allow visitors to explore topics in greater detail and at their own pace (Economou, 1998; Evans & Sterry, 1999; Rayward & Twidale, 2000; Schwarzer, 2001). These studies have helped museum information professionals better understand the educational opportunities that new technologies can afford museum visitors, including increased access to online information resources (Devine & Hanson, 2001; Schaller & Allison-Bunnell, 2005), innovative ways of reaching audiences in museum galleries (Hsi & Fait, 2003; Wakkary & Evernden, 2005; Woodruff, et al., 2002), and the ability to target unique user needs through personalization and pervasive computing technologies (Bowen & Filippini-Fantoni, 2004; Paterno & Mancini, 2000). ...
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 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. Keywords Museum informatics; museum information professionals; information literacy in museums.
... The importance of this new role can be seen in the number of studies completed for the benefit of museum information professionals. Studies of the information needs, seeking, and behavior of the typical users of museum information resources explored how museum visitors use information technologies in museums (Economou, 1998; Evans & Sterry, 1999; Galani & Chalmers, 2002; Schwarzer, 2001b) as well as the needs, characteristics, and interests of visitors to museum Web sites (Chadwick & Boverie, 1999; Goldman & Schaller, 2004; Ockuly, 2003; Sarraf, 1999). Kravchyna and Hastings (2002) stressed the importance of understanding the information needs of users at all stages of the museum visit, including online access before and after physical museum visits. ...
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.
... The main navigation into each room of the museum is represented by buttons' icons at the bottom of the screen. (Evans and Sterry, 1999). Recently, portable computers and Personal Digital Assistants (PDA's), have been introduced into museums. ...
Recent developments in museum visitors' guides focus on context awareness, personalization and multimodal and multimedia information presentation to individuals and groups of visitors. However, the modern museum is becoming an "Active Museum", which is a special example of an active environment that interacts with its inhabitants. Since recent museum visitors' guides have focused more on the application and less on the system architecture and infrastructure, much effort is now being invested in the preparation of infrastructure that will support the specific research application. This work focuses on the architecture of the "Active Museum" as demonstrated by two research projects on museum visitors' guides, and suggests a generic, layered architecture for such systems. Such architecture would facilitate research cooperation and increase its effectiveness, and also serve later as a basis for the development of museum visitors' guides.
... As Hamma (2004b) writes, " Adding information management as an integral part of a museum's routine activities will or should change the organization with the addition of at least some new staff, new skill sets and a new management effort " (p.12). A number of researchers have conducted studies to provide valuable data about the information needs, seeking, and behavior of the typical users of museum information resources, both in the museum (Economou, 1998; Evans & Sterry, 1999; Galani & Chalmers, 2002; Schwarzer, 2001b) and online (Chadwick & Boverie, 1999; Goldman & Schaller, 2004; Ockuly, 2003; Sarraf, 1999). By understanding the needs of museum visitors, MIPs can better serve their clientele (Cameron, 2003; Müller, 2002; Teather & Wilhelm, 1999; Zorich, 1997). ...
This paper presents results from twenty-one semi-structured interviews with museum information professionals (MIPs) who were asked about their experiences working with information resources, tools, and technologies. Interviews were analyzed to determine 1) the challenges MIPs face as they adapt to changing technical capabilities and strive to meet the changing needs and expectations of museum users; and 2) the coping mechanisms MIPs employ on the job that enable them to deal effectively with those challenges. The paper presents the results of this analysis, exploring how MIPs cope with the changing nature of information work in museums by relying on thirteen different strategies, including assessing new technologies in relation to the museum's core mission, helping museum professionals embrace new ideas about information access and provision, and promoting internal practices that encourage the sharing of information and the integration of information science into museum work. The paper discusses the implications of these challenges and strategies for current and future MIPs, and assesses their impact on changing perceptions, roles, and research for information professionals in museums as they work to meet the information needs of all museum users.
... Projects that explore the educational potential of mobile computing devices in museums are becoming especially crucial as more museums integrate such systems into their exhibits and learning experiences (46). Several projects have demonstrated the value of mobile computers for increasing visitor interactions and improving educational experiences in museums (47)(48). ...
Museum informatics is the study of the sociotechnical interactions that take place at the intersection of people, information, and technology in museums. This article presents an overview of museum informatics, covering such topics as information representation, information organization and access, information management, information technology, information interactions, and information professionals in museums. It explores the impact of information science and technology on museums, museum professionals, and museum visitors, and argues that museum researchers must take a sociotechnical approach to studying the use of information resources and technologies in museums.
... This situation can be supported by complementary information included in the physical environment, e.g. alternative representations, concerning the historical role of the people or the artifacts presented the artistic value of a painting (Evans & Sterry, 1999), etc. This cognitive process of immersion into the cultural context, represented by the museum exhibits, could be supported by drawing upon the stimuli produced during the visit using context aware mobile devices. ...
This chapter discusses the design challenges of mobile museum learning applications. Museums are undoubtedly rich in learning opportunities to be further enhanced with effective use of mobile technology. A visit supported and mediated by mobile devices can trigger the visitors’ motivation by stimulating their imagination and engagement, giving opportunities to reorganize and conceptualise historical, cultural and technological facts in a constructive and meaningful way. In particular, context of use, social and constructivist aspects of learning and novel pedagogical approaches are important factors to be taken in consideration during the design process. A thorough study of existing systems is presented in the chapter in order to offer a background for extracting useful design approaches and guidelines. The chapter closes with a discussion on our experience in designing a collaborative learning activity for a cultural history museum.
Social communication around art and cultural heritage objects occurs mostly on location in the museums and between in-group acquaintances. Such discussions are often brief as competing array of displays and time constraints propel the social arrangement of groups of visitors forward to the next object. Discussions are more often than not fleeting and superficial, and rarely expand beyond the boundary of the group. We postulate that the interactivity afforded by augmented reality that allows the inspection of cultural heritage objects projected onto the real environment of users can be a better experience in terms of depth of viewing. We developed a mobile augmented reality application that allows multiuser interaction and propose that discussions that occur around cultural heritage objects can be replicated, and that such discussions can be expanded beyond in-groups. We conducted hypotheses testing across 10 groups of 30 participants to investigate if aspects of social communication can be facilitated or impeded by the perceived realism or artificiality of objects and explore which features of Social AR are more important for communication. The research aims to understand how social communication would work for AR when co-viewing heritage objects. The results have implications for necessitating cross-border and cross-cultural exchanges in an increasingly virtually connected world.
In the educational process, interactive applications are an important component. The information communicated by interactive
method determines the dynamic character of the educational process, enabling collaboration, exchange of ideas and opinions, continuous
communication. The beneficiary of the educational act becomes active participant engaging in intellectual effort, involving exercise capacity
analysis, selection, debate and discovery.
This paper presents some of the interactive methods used in museum exhibitions and cultural and educational activities carried out
within partnership agreements, between years 2015-2017.
A visit to a public collection is potentially one of the most effective and entertaining ways of knowledge acquisition open to the viewing public. Such collections are nevertheless coming under increased pressure, due to competition from alternative forms of ‘edutainment’ and ‘digital convergence’, to improve the Quality of Experience given to visitors. This paper reports on the convergence of elements of pervasive and adaptive computing, in the construction and implementation of an interactive museum exhibit, which uses fuzzy inference from user behaviour to personalise the exhibit’s behavioural response. We describe a usability experiment which shows that the technological enrichment of conventional environments and artefacts, together with intelligent decision-making, can have a positive impact on Quality of Experience.
School field trips to museums, zoos, nature parks, and wildlife centers are a common activity in education. The trips are generally seen as enhancing learning in a variety of subject areas, as well as providing a motivating and rewarding experience for students. Despite being widely accepted as having value, research suggests a lack of integration between the visits and the school curriculum. What should be a high quality educational experience, which reinforces and motivates learning, often turns out to be no more than a fun day out. This paper will describe a model software system to support school visits to zoos museums and nature centers and to better integrate them with school curricula. The system integrates a mobile device, the educational technique of journaling, and a collaborative web site.
Personal digital collections systems, which encourage visitors to museum websites to create their own personal collections out of a museum's online collections, are the latest trend in personalization technologies for museums and other cultural heritage organizations. This chapter explores the development, implementation, and evaluation of different types of personal digital collection interfaces on museum websites, from simple bookmarking applications to sophisticated tools that support high levels of interactivity and the sharing of collections. It examines the potential impact of these interfaces on the relationship between museums and their online visitors, explores the possible benefits of involving users as co-creators of digital cultural heritage, and offers an analysis of future research directions and best practices for system design, presenting lessons learned from more than a decade of design and development of personal digital collections systems on museum websites.
Museum Informatics explores the sociotechnical issues that arise when people, information, and technology interact in museums. It is designed specifically to address the many challenges faced by museums, museum professionals, and museum visitors in the information society. It examines not only applications of new technologies in museums, but how advances in information science and technology have changed the very nature of museums, both what it is to work in one, and what it is to visit one.
This paper explores requirements application authoring tools should satisfy for the development of cultural applications tailored for deployment on Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) and mobile phones. The paper reviews the use of mobile technologies in the context of cultural organizations and tourism. It identifies and evaluates the development and design facilities provided by state-of-the-art multimedia application development tools for PDAs and mobile phones: Macromedia Flash Lite, Navipocket and Java 2 Micro Edition. It describes the way these tools have been used in the implementation phase of two projects that have been developed at the Cultural Heritage Management Lab (CHMLab), at the Department of Cultural Technology and Communication, University of the Aegean. These projects focus on the use of PDAs and mobile phones for providing cultural and tourist information, keeping the visitors' interest and attention, as well as promoting various cultural organizations' and tourist facilities. Based on these two case studies the paper extracts a set of PDA and mobile phone application requirements. The paper concludes with a set of suggestions related to the way application authoring tools should be exploited in order to gratify application and designer needs for developing operational and profitable cultural and tourist applications.
The feasibility of using handheld computers to customize learning opportunities was explored using a design research process with 68 visitor groups to a small interactive science museum and aquarium. The authors discuss the iterations of the research process, reasons given for both using and not using the handheld computers, and findings related to participants' prior use of handheld computers and their perception of the effects of using the device on their visit. The authors discuss the findings in light of current research on visitor motivations and identities, as well as models of customization. Recommendations for practitioners interested in implementing similar programs, and suggestions for further research are included.
This article presents results from a survey designed to assess the relevance of library and information science (LIS) expertise—here defined as those topics typically, but not exclusively, taught in LIS programs—for museum professionals. The topics covered in this article are information representation, information organization and access, information management, computer technologies, digitization technologies, interactive technologies, information policy, evaluation methods, and collaboration initiatives. An online survey assessed the degree to which museum professionals possess skills in these topics, perform work in these topics, and consider these topics important for future study. The article examines the relative value of each topic for museum professionals and discusses the importance of strengthening relationships between LIS and museum studies by better understanding the relevance of LIS expertise in museums.
This paper addresses the design and evaluation of a Personal Digital Assistants’ (PDAs) application to enhance the visit experience
at the Museum/Library Stratis Eleftheriadis Teriade in Lesvos, Greece. The paper reviews the use of new technologies to enhance
Museum visit experiences, and focuses on the use of PDAs for providing information and interpretation, keeping visitors interest
and attention, as well as promoting various museum facilities. The paper describes the design process of the "Fables" application
with the use of NaviPocket v. 2.4 by ORPHYS SYSTEMES (an authoring tool for PDA applications), includes an evaluation of the
application and the authoring tool’s effectiveness, and concludes with directions to further work on this area of research.
This paper explores requirements that authoring tools and development platforms should satisfy for the development of cultural applications tailored for deployment on Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) and mobile phones. To effectively determine such requirements the paper reviews the use of mobile technologies in the context of cultural organizations and tourism and examines three �real world� case studies that focus on the use of PDAs and mobile phones for providing cultural and tourist information, keeping the visitors� interest and attention, as well as promoting various cultural organizations and tourist facilities. This approach allows the extraction of a set of PDA and mobile phone application requirements, the implementation of which is based on the apparatus offered by authoring tools and development platforms. The paper reviews and evaluates the design and development facilities provided by state-of-the-art multimedia application development tools for PDAs and mobile phones: Macromedia Flash Lite, Navipocket, Java 2 Micro Edition and Microsoft .Net platform for the Mobile Web. The paper concludes with a set of recommendations related to the way authoring tools and development platforms should be exploited in order to gratify application and designer needs for developing cultural and tourist applications
Attractions are both an essential element of the tourism product, and an important catalyst for economic activity, particularly in regional locations. The ability of competing tourist destinations to differentiate their tourism product by emphasising the distinctive nature of attractions within their domain, is central to tourism marketing, and thereby to viable tourism industry. Ensuring their sustainable operation is an important priority. Like most organisations however, attractions are subject to a range of internal and external influences that impact on their ability to operate effectively. The ability to successfully respond to constant and pervasive change presents a significant challenge for this important sector of the tourism industry. Despite their importance however, the specific elements of change confronting the attraction sector, or the means by which they adapt to such shifts, are not well understood and this thesis seeks to help address this gap. Drawing on the perceptions and opinions of key stakeholders in two regional heritage visitor attractions, the research seeks to identify structural and strategic responses to change. Aggregation of the data points to significant commonality between the two case studies, in terms of perceived success factors and impediments to the process of adaption.
The paper describes the Euesperides research project set in Oxford. This involved: a) the design of a multimedia prototype program for an archaeological exhibition b) formative evaluation of the prototype with parts of the targeted audience, and c) summative evaluation of the use of the program in the exhibition. The evaluation study showed that the multimedia program was an effective interpretative tool both in its own right, as well as an integral part of the exhibition.
This paper discusses the issues related to the application of wireless communication and positioning technologies to the development of hand-held electronic tour guides. These issues are discussed presenting HIPS, a project recently funded by the European Commission that aims at developing a hand-held electronic tour guide allowing tourists to navigate both the physical space and a related information space when visiting a museum or a city. HIPS detects the position of the tourist and provides personalised and contextual information. The methodological approach of the project plays a fundamental role for the development of such a system: user-centred design and scenario-based design are means for assuring that the final system is appropriate to the user and to the context of use. The usability issues of HIPS are also discussed comparing its features to other audio guides like the one currently available in the Louvre Museum. 1. Introduction The integration of hand-held computing wit...
Book synopsis: The national heritage and its conservation raise topical and frequently controversial issues. Yet proper understanding of these has often been inhibited the lack of a readable historical account of the way in which current policy and practice have developed. This authoritative book fills this gap in the lecture by providing an accessible and well-illustrated account of the history of the protection and appreciation of buildings, archaeological sites and other relics of the man-made past in Britain. The book brings together a team of experts who examine each of the key themes and episodes in the development of historical preservation. The role of pressure groups since the Victorian period is described, as are the origins of the listing of historic buildings, the scheduling of ancient monuments and the declaration of Conservation Areas. Other chapters deal with changing attitudes to country houses and their growing popularity as tourist attractions, and with the rise of purpose-built heritage centres which cater for nostalgia about the rural and industrial past. The book also includes an invaluable bibliographical essay which surveys existing literature on the subject. Preserving the Past offers a thorough and long overdue description of the birth and growth of the preservation movement. The book should become essential readings and reference for professionals, academics and students concerned with the conservation of landscapes, buildings and archaeological sites. It should also find an audience among planners, architects and archaeologists who need a broad understanding of the background to historic preservation in order to confront the challenges and dilemmas that face everyone workingin the field today.
The fundamental role that the new optical multimedia information technologies play in the museum context is analysed as a solution to problems in the management of museographic documentation. The advantages that the new technical means can give museums are assessed. The new optical means of information storage are analysed and the problems hindering the hypermedia interactive development in these institutions are exposed; legal, technological, standardisation and resources. Finally, the state of some existing applications is described at three levels; a) projects of collaboration for the growth and spread of information on projects for the development of multimedia databases; b) institutional projects for research into computerised system managers of image documentation; and c) individual projects from different centres belonging to different countries.
Good management begins with planning, and at the foundations of planning must lie an understanding of the nature of the institution: what its role is in society and how it goes about fulfilling that role. In my own institution, the Canadian Museum of Civilization (CMC) the driving vision of the Director, George MacDonald, was crucial to the project, during the '80s, to create a new museum responsive to the needs of the society it must serve. Of course, a guiding vision is not by itself enough; you must also instil it into the corporate culture. But I do not wish here to address practical issues such as getting management to "buy in", communicating the vision to staff, and ensuring fiscal and other resources are sufficient to achieve the goals implicit in the vision; although these things are vital to managing any project. Rather, I propose to restrict myself to the rationalization underlying the use of interactivity in museums. In creating a museum, all individual projects must fit into the overall picture, as parts of the puzzle. When faced by fascinating and seductive technologies such as those lying behind hypermedia, there is the temptation to climb the mountain just "because it's there". Before embarking on the climb, an institution should know what it expects to achieve, and how the venture contributes to its raison d'tre.
Multimedia technologies open a new data set for DOT organizations. By adding pictures, sounds, animation, and video, new computer applications can be developed that will bring many benefits. This project investigated the utilization of multimedia into DOT operations. Applications were developed in three different topical areas: Employee Information or Orientation, a Bridge Plan Reading course, and a Construction Equipment utilization prototype. The first two are fully developed implementable tools that will be utilized by INDOT. These developments provide insight into how multimedia can be a useful tool for training and providing performance support to DOT employees. Other tools can be developed like these that provide the benefits of reduced training time and reduced costs, while improving the training and work processes. Also, performance support is very important to INDOT or any other organization that has gone through downsizing while the volume of work has increased.
Museum Piece The Transformation of the Museum and the way it is Perceived The Wired Museum
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Beishon, M. (ed.), " Museum Piece ", PsionUser (Summer 1997): 3. Besser, H., " The Transformation of the Museum and the way it is Perceived ", in K. Jones-Garmil (ed.), The Wired Museum (Washington: American Association of Museums, 1997), pp. 153–169.
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The Transformation of the Museum and the way it is Perceived The Wired Museum
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Heard the Latest on Audio Guides?”
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The Transformation of the Museum and the way it is Perceived
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