The Educational Role of the Museum

2nd Edition

Edited by Eilean Hooper-Greenhill

Series: Leicester Readers in Museum Studies

Grounded in the solid strengths of its first edition, this updated and revised second edition, collates recent and important articles that address the relationships of museums and galleries to their audiences. The Educational Role of the Museum has been entirely restructured and new papers have...

Published February 3rd 1999 by Routledge

Ekarv Essay page 205 –

Ross Parry, and Mayra Ortiz-Williams, University of Leicester; and Andrew Sawyer, Simulacra, United Kingdom

Abstract

This paper reports upon the findings of a seven-month project (funded by a HIRF Innovations Fellowship award) to build, demonstrate and evaluate a prototype of an editable, wireless, in-gallery digital label system that uses a Web-based authoring tool. The partnership between the University of Leicester and Simulacra worked with three UK museums to test the viability of building and sustaining such a system. The paper places the use of such dynamic 'labelling' in the longer historical context of museum interpretation and the relationship between museums' on-site and on-line channels. It considers the findings of both visitor observation and the impact of different 'generators' (authors) and 'triggers' (events) of the labels' live content. However, what is brought into particular relief is the range of assumptions made by the curators involved – assumptions with particular implications for the way both Web-based and gallery-based content and interpretation were seen to be valued within the respective institutions.

Keywords: authoring, label, wireless, on-site, user-generated, gallery, exhibition

Read more: Archives & Museum Informatics: Museums and the Web 2007: Papers: Parry, R., et al., How Shall We Label Our Exhibit Today?
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives

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Cite as:

Parry, R., et al., How Shall We Label Our Exhibit Today? Applying the Principles of On-Line Publishing to an On-Site Exhibition, in J. Trant and D. Bearman (eds.). Museums and the Web 2007: Proceedings, Toronto: Archives & Museum Informatics, published March 1, 2007 Consulted February 7, 2011.