Litterature regarding Virtual Museums and their potential for learning

Introduction

The literature on virtual museums is quite extensive. Much of it is in English, but important texts have even been published in French, German, Spanish etc. An overview of about 50 texts in different languages can be found at ICOM (International Museum Council)’s homepage http://icom.museum/biblio_virtual.html.

Another valuable resource is Archimuse (Archives & Museum Informatics)’s homepage  http://www.archimuse.com/conferences/mw.html. Since 1997 Archimuse organises an annual international conference devoted exclusively to Museums and the Web and the full programs and full papers from past conferences are still on-line.

On this page you will find commented references to selected texts and papers in English, which we have found particularly interesting in relationship to issues of education and learning.

Commented references

Bowen, Jonathan (2000): “The virtual museum”

In: Museum International, vol. 52, no. 1, p. 4-7

This short text is the introductory article of a special issue of the journal Museum International. The author, Jonathan Bowen, is an important figure in the field of virtual museums and the ‘founding father’ of the Virtual Library museum pages (www.icom.org/vlmp) a distributed directory of on-line museums. The text provides an overview over the most important points to consider when creating a museum Web site, but Bowen insists that virtual museums should be used to encourage actual visits to actual museums.

Giaccardi, Elisa: "Toward An Evolution of the Virtual Museum: Collective Storytelling and Social Creativity in the MUVI project" 

This text is written by an Italian researcher. It discusses a virtual museum called MUVI where especially old people from the region of Lombardia (in Northern Italy) are encouraged and helped to place photos and oral tellings about the past. The MUVI project provides a very good example of how to involve the users in the creation of a virtual museum. The article is in English, but the homepage of the MUVI virtual museum is in Italian.

Hawkey, Roy (2004): Learning with Digital Tecnologies in Museums, Science Centres and Galleries" 

http://www.futurelab.org.uk/research/reviews/09_01.htm

This report published by the NESTA Futurelab in Kings College, London is a 40 pages on-line presentation and review of the most important understandings and theories in the field of ICT and museums. The reprot is organized in a very accessible manner, and can be recomended both for students and museum professionals in need of a brief overview of the field. The report is divided into five sections:

  1. Introduction and background
  2. Theoretical perspectives (Theories of learning in museums with and without ICT)
  3. On-site learning (The use of digital tecnologies inside the museum space)
    4. /li>On-line learning (Virtual Museums on the Internet including reviews of major British museum websites)
  4. The future

McTavish, Lianne (2006): "Visiting the virtual museum: Art and experience online" In: Janet Marstine (ed.): New museum theory and practice: an introduction. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing

Lianne McTavish’s chapter is an important contribution to the development of critical theoretical tools for the understanding of the impact of different kinds of virtual museums. The text explores how virtual museums both reinforce and challenges notions of authenticity and institutional authority. In the article a number of actually existing virtual museums are examined and McTavish asks the important question whether the participation called for by museum websites is merely passive clicking or does indeed encourage new ways of thinking.

Walsh Peter (1997): The Web and the Unassailable Voice

http://www.archimuse.com/mw97/speak/walsh.htm

In this short and very clear paper from the first Museums and the Web–conference in 1997, Walsh gives the following recommendations to museums that want to build a homepage: “First, the museum site should always be built with the assumption of change and provisionality. Second, the web should exploit its powerful ability to be interactive. Third, museums should exploit the Web's ability to look below the surface, to present the layers of knowledge that museums have not previously been able to show the public”.

Witcomb, Andrea (2003): “The Virtual museum” 

In: Witcomb, Andrea: Re-imagining the Museum: Beyond the Mausoleum. London: Routledge, p. 119-127.

In this section of her book, Witcomb argues that "connectedness" and "storytelling" are the most important elements of the virtual museum, since interactivity is more than just offering a link, it means mobilising users by offering them different levels of knowledge.