Title: Museums in a digital age /
Authors: Parry, Ross; Parry, Ross,
Publisher: Routledge,
Year: 2010
Subjects: Museums Technological innovations.; Cultural property Digitization.; Digital media.; Digital preservation.; Museums Data processing.; Museums Collection management; Museums Curatorship
Abstract: "The influence of digital media on the cultural heritage sector has been pervasive and profound. Today museums are reliant on new technology to manage their collections. They collect digital as well as material objects. New media is embedded within their exhibition spaces. And their activity online is as important as their physical presence on site." "However, 'digital heritage' (as an area of practice and as a subject of study) does not exist in one single place. Its evidence base is complex, diverse and distributed, and its content is available through multiple channels, on varied media, in myriad locations and in different genres of writing." "It is this diaspora of material and practice that this Reader is intended to address. With over forty chapters (by some fifty authors and co-authors), from around the world, spanning over twenty years of museum practice and research, this volume acts as an aggregator drawing selectively from a notoriously distributed network of content. Divided into seven parts (on information, spaces, access, interpretation, objects, delivery and futures), this book presents a series of cross-sections through the body of digital heritage literature, each revealing how a different aspect of curatorship and museum provision has been informed, shaped or challenged by computing." "Museums in a Digital Age is a provocative and inspiring guide for any student or practitioner of digital heritage."--Jacket.
Contents: The practice of digital heritage and the heritage of digital practice / Ross Parry -- A brief history of museum computerization / David Williams -- The changing role of information professionals in museums / Andrew Roberts -- What is information in the museum context? / Elizabeth Orna and Charles Pettitt -- The world of (almost) unique objects / Robert Chenhall and David Vance -- Standards for networked cultural heritage / David Bearman -- Database as symbolic form / Lev Manovich -- The museum as information utility / George F. MacDonald and Stephen Alsford -- Museum collections, documentation and shifting knowledge paradigms / Fiona Cameron -- Semantic dissonance : do we need (and do we understand) the semantic Web? / Ross Parry, Nick Poole and Jon Pratty -- Building a universal digital memory / Pierre Lévy -- On the origins of the virtual museum / Erkki Huhtamo -- From Malraux's imaginary museum to the virtual museum / Antonio M. Battro --^