Democratising Access to Museum Collections & Using Digital Innovation to Explore Archaeological Data
Channel: Recording Archaeology
Date: 15/10/2019

How can we use digital technology to democratise access to archaeological and museum collections? Increasingly archaeological projects and heritage institutions are using digital technology to both disseminate knowledge and connect with researchers and audiences. Over the last four year the British Museum has been experimenting with a series of innovative digital tools, including 3D modeling, 3D printing, crowd-sourcing, and interactive AR/VR experiences, to order to develop new and inventive ways of engaging with the collections, archival, and archaeological data. This paper will examine and review the achievements as well as the technical challenges of various recent digital heritage projects connected to the British Museum (MicroPasts, African Rock Art Image Project, Global Perspectives) and how they offer lessons and propositions for running major digital heritage projects in a museum environment, and how we can use digital technology to ensure ongoing, global open access to the archives and museum collections.

(Jennifer Wexler, Daniel Pett, Elizabeth Galvin)