From Velvet Ropes to Freeware: Museums and Web 2.0

When you think of museums, it’s likely that you think of artifacts, art, or guided tours rather than Web 2.0 and “freeware.” Of course, most museums would prefer to have their visitors focus on the content of their collections and programming rather than the means by which they present them – whether it’s glass cases and velvet ropes or twitter and blogging.

Faculty Scholar, Matthew Edney (left) with students

Students who wish to work in public history and museums, however, need to focus on and master the various tools of the field as they evolve. Fortunately for students at the University of Southern Maine (USM), the University’s participation in the Sloan Consortium is encouraging faculty such as myself to nudge students into the Web 2.0 realm. Here’s just one example why. A recent survey by the New England Museum Association (NEMA) shows that out of 90 museums “87% feel that new technologies have changed the way their museum communicates with the public and/or press.” (4) Depending upon the software, one third to 82% of the museums reported using software such as Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, or blogging software (primarily Blogger or Wordpress) (4, 10).  What are the benefits of employing a strategy of interlocking social media? Most museums see it as a way to build a broader and more diverse audience and visitor base and to communicate more readily with that audience.

Seminar at Osher Map Library, USM

I was given the opportunity to teach graduate students in the American and New England Studies program at the University of Southern Maine recently, a program which includes a “Public Culture and History” track. I challenged my master’s students to convert their original research into online museum exhibits using Web 2.0 tools. It was an unorthodox request for these students. Didn’t I just want a final research paper?

With the movement afoot at USM to encourage online education and digital literacy, I designed my “blended” seminar to require students to take their original research  into museum and archival collections and convert it into an illustrated, digital narrative that would be available to the general public. Our topic area? "Top of the World: America in the Arctic," in other words, the history of American interests in the Arctic, a rich area to explore, particularly on the heels of the International Polar Year and the centennial commemoration of the discovery of the North Pole.

"Northward Over the Great Ice" exhibit showcases Peary flag

We visited the Arctic collection at USM’s Osher Map Library with Faculty Scholar Matthew Edney (above) and took advantage of a special exhibit "Northward Over the Great Ice" at Bowdoin College's Peary MacMillan Arctic Museum (right). But then they set off to explore, virtually speaking, the Library of Congress, National Archives, Alaska State Library, University of Washington Special Collections, New Bedford Museum, and many more. I’m biased, of course, but I think the students produced engaging interpretations that drew from primary source collections without the costs of their travel or publication costs. These same advantages are precisely those that attract heritage or public history industry to Web 2.0 technologies.

Photo by John Hess, from Briskey's online project

Please join me in congratulating these students by visiting our Top of the World site that centralizes all of their excellent work.

For more information about the growing relationship between museums and various digital technologies see Museums and the Web.

(Source: New England Museum Association News (33:4) Summer 2010)