Chiming in on Museums and Participatory Culture

Abstract The deep trove of information available on the Internet and the expanding connections it affords to new communities online have been a transforming force in museums in the recent past. A single individual can publish thoughts and ideas to an audience of millions with a few simple clicks of a button. The cultural sector has made great strides in adopting these same methods to advance the missions and content of our organizations; however, a rise in participatory culture poses a number of challenges for the role of museums and our place in the evolving culture of our community. A debate surrounding the changing nature of authority and the participatory expectations of society is central to defining how museums can meaningfully engage with contemporary audiences. When making decisions that define how audiences play a role or not in their organizations, museums must consider the far‐reaching consequences of these choices on the relationships they have with their communities.     

Participatory Communication with Social Media

Abstract Major museums worldwide are starting to use social media such as blogs, podcasts and content shares to engage users via participatory communication. This marks a shift in how museums publicly communicate their role as custodians of cultural content and so presents debate around an institution's attitude towards cultural authority. It also signifies a new possible direction for museum learning. This article reports on a range of initiatives that demonstrate how participatory communication via social media can be integrated into museum practices. It argues that the social media space presents an ideal opportunity for museums to build online communities of interest around authentic cultural information, and concludes with some recent findings on and recommendations for social media implementation.     

Evaluation, Research and Communities of Practice: Program Evaluation in Museums

Museums present different contexts for learning, particularly when compared with places such as schooos, universities and libraries. They have been described as free-choice learning environments visited by a broad range of people. Museums have the opportunity to shape identities—through access to objects, knowledge and information visitors see themselves and their culture reflected in ways that encourage new connections, meaning making and learning. However, across the world museums are finding themselves competing with other leisure and learning experiences in an increasingly global world. The long history of audience research in the cultural sector demonstrates the interest museums have had in their visitors over time. This paper outlines the development of audience research in museums, the context within which it operates, and describes the processes of audience research through a series of case studies drawn from the work of the Australian Museum Audience Research Centre. It is argued that the shift in museums from mission-led program development to balancing content and audience needs through a transaction approach requires a broader research-focused agenda. While traditional ways of conducting evaluations are necessary and useful, to remain viable audience research needs to be more strategic, working across the sector in new ways and utilising new methods. How programs impact on users and facilitate learning about a wide range of key issues that museums are concerned with is a leadership role that audience research can take across both the cultural sector and other free-choice learning contexts. To achieve this, a communities of practice approach is suggested as a potential framework for audience research in the contemporary museum.     

A Synopsis and Perspective of Concerns and Challenges for the International Community of University Museums

University museums and their collections are among the oldest and most significant in the world, yet their role and future is being questioned. They have critical needs for facilities, staff, and support. At risk are millions of objects that document our natural and cultural history and programs for research, teaching, and public education and exhibits. The museums are attempting to redefine, reposition, and clarify their educational mission. Museums such as the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural history are successfully meeting the challenges through strategic planning and funding for new facilities. Other museums are finding solutions with partnerships, links, and tailor‐made service programs. New leadership and management will need to emerge for university museums to reestablish their stature and relevance. Physical and intellectual access to the museums and their objects is a key to their future. The new technologies are tools that museums can use to improve their interpretive programs and increase the depth of their research. Facing shared concerns and challenges, the museums are generating a growning sense of collective urgency and a call for intenational organization, advocacy, and cooperation, resulting in formation of the International Committee for University Museums and Collections.     

NAGPRA: Effective Repatriation Programs and Cultural Change in Museums

A survey of museums in the United States sought to identify evidence of broad impact on the organisational culture and practices of museums in their relatioships with indiginous peoples as a result of the passage of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act 1990 (NAGPRA). NAGPRA establishes a process for the repatriation of human remains and other specified items held in museum collections to Native Americans who can prove they are lineal descendants or members of tribes which are culturally affiliated with identified items covered by the legislation. Effective repatriation programs are characterised by: * a genuine belief in the primary rights of indigenous people in the management of their cultural material presently held in museum collections; * a commitment to greater collaboration between the museum and indigenous people in the management of scientific research and public programs pertaining to items of indigenous cultural heritage; * practices which are indicative of an organisational culture which acts in ways which go beyond the minimum requirements of the legislation. Our research shows that museums are engaging in consultation with indigenous people in the management of collections of indigenous cultural heritage, and that this engagement is influencing conservation strategies. Museums espouse goals which promote external consultation, the involvement of indigenous people in their activities, respect for the cultural goals of indigenous people and a commitment to increasing public awareness of indigenous cultural heritage and social issues. However, only in the areas where NAGPRA has mandated it should happen—collections of human remains and secret/sacred material—is there evidence of communication and consultation, commitment of resources and sharing of authority with indigenous people consistent with the outcomes intended under NAGPRA.     

博物馆:我们共有文化精神的前沿实验室

当代公共博物馆在经历了250余年的发展演变之后,其发展的社会、文化、专业甚至经济环境,都在发生着重要变化。新的趋势无疑为博物馆带来新机遇、新可能,同时也伴随新挑战。在今天博物馆需要回答的诸多问题中,有一个始终处于核心位置:我们的博物馆机构是否对社会很重要？无论是眼下还是长远的未来。围绕于此的相关讨论,让当代博物馆新的文化观逐渐清晰起来,让博物馆为适应新形势而进行的战略选择有了新的坐标,并最终引导出关于博物馆价值体系可能的重构以及新的运行规则。     

Engaging the Experts in Museum Computing: Seven Years of Queries on MCN‐L

MCN‐L, an email listserv administered by the Museum Computer Network, is open to anyone interested in discussing information technology in museums and other cultural heritage organizations. To determine how MCN‐L meets the needs of museum information professionals, this study presents an analysis of more than 6,000 emails sent to the listserv over a seven‐year period (2004–2011). The results of this analysis indicate that MCN‐L adds value to the online community of museum information professionals by providing an online communication channel focused on professional outreach and expert support, backed up by specific examples drawn from personal experiences. MCN‐L's emphasis on personal expertise is a key characteristic that speaks to the listserv's lasting value to the museum community and has implications for researchers and practitioners as they consider the future of computer‐mediated communication for all museum professionals.     

Museums and Virtuality

Abstract This paper investigates issues of museums and virtuality. In considering the diverse ways that museums are approaching virtuality, the focus here is on the common ground and shared objectives, rather than the differences between museums and their virtual re‐creations. Put simply, on‐site museums and their online counterparts are merely two ways of exhibiting cultures. In this sense, “virtuality” is a fundamental exhibition practice. The World Wide Web has become increasingly relevant to such core museum tasks as collecting, preserving, and exhibiting. Digitization of objects in digital heritage programs has led to new forms of collection management and unparalleled access to virtual replicas of museum artifacts. This transformation is inspiring new forms of preserving and displaying cultures both on‐ and off‐line. A successful digital expansion will largely influence whether museums can sustain their cultural authority and position in the 21st century.     

顺应大势、勇于担当，共同开辟“一带一路”科普场馆发展的光明前景

自然科学博物馆是进行科学传播和开展科学教育的机构。通过回顾自然科学博物馆的发展历程,分析可持续发展目标、地区发展不均衡、科技与社会交互对自然科学博物馆发展所产生的主要影响,目前国际社会和自然科学博物馆为解决上述问题而采取的行动,以及自然科学博物馆未来发展面临的挑战,本文指出“一带一路”倡议为自然科学博物馆应对上述挑战提供了一揽子解决方案。据此,提出促进“一带一路”沿线国家自然科学博物馆之间互惠共享的多项对策和建议:搭建交流平台,开展合作,建立长效机制,加强能力建设,为“一带一路”沿线各国之间开展更深层次的科技、教育和文化合作交流注入活力,最重要的是为构建“一带一路”沿线国家自然科学博物馆命运共同体而共同协力。     

“图文博美”四馆协同服务之研究

公共图书馆、文化馆、博物馆和美术馆之间处于一种条块分割、分散管理的状态,很少开展具有一定深度和广度的交流与合作。文章分析了“图文博美”四馆开展协同服务的必要性和可行性,阐述了如何实现公共文化服务机构之间的协同服务,并介绍了江门地区文化场馆开展资源共享和联合服务的工作实践。     

Research and Practice: One Way,Two Way,No Way,or New Way?

As learning institutions, museums have long been buffeted by currents, coming mostly out of formal education, defining what counts as learning. The field has struggled to find its way in these waters. In this article I propose a strategy for gaining a firmer footing and indeed (shifting metaphors) for beginning to shape the very landscape, in educational and cultural policy, that currently constrains how our work is perceived and understood as contributing to learning within broader educational ecosystems. Research‐practice partnerships represent a new, more equitable and perhaps more ethical, strategy for producing evidence‐based knowledge and practice. Leveraging perspectives and expertise of both researchers and museum practitioners, RPPs can help the field begin to redefine what learning looks like and how museums both support and expand it. This paper discusses the need to participate in this new approach to research and provides some strategies for getting started.     

图书馆与文化建设

讨论了图书馆在文化建设中的地位和作用。认为图书馆是文化遗产、文化传统的聚宝库；文化交流与文化整合的重要枢纽；文化研究与文化创新的重要基地；文化教育与文化传承的中心。     

Stories of impact: the role of narrative in understanding the value and impact of digital collections

Cultural heritage institutions leverage digitization to fulfill their mission to preserve, represent, and provide access to collections under their care. Despite their common interest in documenting the progress of digitization and online access, the library, archives, and museums (LAM) sector lacks a conceptual framework for assessing and demonstrating the impact of digitized ethnographic collections. Reporting the findings of a yearlong interdisciplinary study, this article underscores the importance of storytelling in articulating the value and impact of digitized ethnographic collections held in cultural heritage institutions. We begin with an overview of the literature on the assessment and describe the methods we employed in our study. Next, we identify and discuss the different ways that stories and storytelling are strategically mobilized in conversations about the impact of digitization. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of our findings for cultural heritage practice and collection development.     

Environmental conditions for the safeguarding of collections: Future trends

This paper sets out the role of the International Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (IIC) in facilitating the current international debate on the selection of appropriate environmental conditions for collections to optimise their future condition while minimising energy consumption. It looks back 35 years to when Garry Thomson first published The Museum Environment and forward 35 years to demonstrate how IIC can care for the future as well as care for the past. It asks whether we are posing the right questions in this debate, draws attention to leadership in the cultural sector, and suggests that more conservation professionals should aspire to leadership positions directing museums and heritage organisations.     

Building context-based knowledge of government social media communication through an ethnographic study of the US Coast Guard

Governments are increasing digital communication with citizens, yet little is known about how the public sector influences communicators’ daily social media activities. This ethnographic study uses interviews, documents, and participant observation to offer a rare emic view of the US Coast Guard (USCG) social media program. Breaking up the monolithic public sector communication context, influences on social media communication were nested within five contexts: organization, military, parent agency, federal government, and the US public sector. By observing how the contexts and related attributes influence personnel and the program, the study provides insights related to social media communication processes rather than merely content products. Findings extend theoretical and practical applications by identifying enablers and challenges to government social media communication within an applied context. USCG's culture and history of transparency and engagement drive the strategy, while resource constraints and a devaluing of social media within the decentralized organization constrain program effectiveness and real-time engagement.     

Problematizing "New Media": Culturally Based Perceptions of Cell Phones,Computers, and the Internet among United States Latinos

Recent studies of new communication technologies have shown that broad terms such as “new media” are problematic. This study expands previous research by exploring how first-generation, working class United States Latino participants perceive and use new communication technologies in relation to their cultural values. Discussions generated across seven focus group sessions (N=78) about three common new communication technologies, 1) cell phones, 2) computers, and 3) the internet, showed that United States Latinos positioned the perceived usefulness of each communication technology differently, based upon their cultural values regarding good communication. In particular, participants discussed how cell phones provide an effective way to make interpersonal contact whereas computers and the internet were viewed as damaging to the communication necessary for good social relations. The findings show that this group of United States Latinos did not view new media as a homogeneous category, but instead had very distinct perceptions and ideas about the expected uses of cell phones, computers, and the internet in relation to their cultural values regarding communication.     

New Ways of Looking and Learning in Natural History Museums: The Use of Gigapixel Imaging to Bring Science and Publics Together

This article describes a series of demonstration projects that use multiscalar gigapixel image technology to iteratively design, test, and study how visitors learn to observe more scientifically in museums, online, and through museum‐based programming. We consider how the particular affordances of systems like these can move science communication and learning from didactic approaches centered on one‐way communication toward technology platforms that encourage shared observation, dialogue, and engagement.     

自然科学博物馆学术交流平台建设概述

学术是博物馆的立馆基础,学术交流是自然科学博物馆高质量发展的基础保障。我国自然科学博物馆已搭建了以学术会议、学术出版与新媒体为主的多渠道多层次的学术交流平台体系,但在学术会议数量与参与度、学术出版物的影响力、新媒体平台互动性等方面存在较大提升空间,需进一步重视学术研究与交流、搭建综合服务平台、完善学术激励机制、丰富交流手段等,以提升自然科学博物馆学术交流的质效,促进科普事业高质量发展。     

From Tagging to Theorizing: Deepening Engagement with Cultural Heritage through Crowdsourcing

Crowdsourcing, or “obtaining information or services by soliciting input from a large number of people,” is becoming known for the impressive productivity of projects that ask the public to help transcribe, describe, locate, or categorize cultural heritage resources. This essay argues that crowdsourcing projects can also be a powerful platform for audience engagement with museums, offering truly deep and valuable connection with cultural heritage through online collaboration around shared goals or resources. It includes examples of well‐designed crowdsourcing projects that provide platforms for deepening involvement with citizen history and citizen science; useful definitions of “engagement”; and evidence for why some activities help audiences interact with heritage and scientific material. It discusses projects with committed participants and considers the role of communities of participants in engaging participants more deeply.     

Looking Back to the Future: The Path of German Industrial Culture in the Rhine‐Main Region

Museums have the fine task of collecting and preserving history for future generations. By presenting the collections to the public, museums not only document different epochs but also try to look at them via new aspects, widening cultural understanding. In the Municipal Museum of Rüsselsheim, German industrial culture in the Rhine‐Main region is described and understood as a “route” that serves as a conceptual key identifying crucial architectural, historical and cultural resources of the region. In this cultural model, past, present and future are directly intertwined, and the invisible door between the world of museums and the “outside” world has vanished.