Museum websites and museum visitors: digital museum resources and their use

Abstract

This article presents results from an exploratory survey (administered to more than 1200 visitors at nine different online museums) that addressed questions about the role of museum websites in the lives of museum visitors. The results provide details about the use of digital museum resources on museum websites, and indicate that the majority of online museum visitors have clear expectations for the interactions that take place between museums and museum websites. The article documents the role digital museum resources play in the lives of museum visitors, and provides strategies for supporting the information needs of all visitors as they use digital museum resources, online and in-house. The lessons learned underscore the importance of taking a visitor-centered approach when developing digital museum resources, and the need for museum researchers and professionals to better understand how new information technologies have changed the way museums visitors approach museums and their resources.

In the white cube: Museum context enhances the valuation and memory of art

“…In contrast, attendance to art museums and galleries has not been replaced by open-context and free virtual tours and galleries available on the World Wide Web. Rather, such virtual internet resources are used to complement the real visit (Marty, 2007(Marty, , 2008. What drives such individual and public investments despite the current availability of digital alternatives?…”

Image as Interface: Consequences for Users of Museum Knowledge

“…The Tropenmuseum's images were considered to have a particular and valuable temporal context (historical material and not snapshots), cultural provenance (Dutch), and international scope (internationally relevant content) (Gerardm, 2009). This is an interesting observation since it further documents how the functional convergence of various resources is developing (Marty, 2008). It highlights the fact that the digital format of the images and their widespread circulation on platforms like Wikimedia do not erase distinctions.…”

Museums and social media: Catalonia as a case study

“…But once audiences are already visiting the museum, institutions have to consider what to do with them and what to do after their visit. Marty (2007Marty ( , 2008 and Wilson (2011) provide insight into this matter, as well as suggestions for increasing loyalty among users. Marty (2007) conducted a survey among more than 1200 visitors to nine different online museums.…”