I just read the MIT communications forum from March 8, 2001 titled "The Digital Museum." This forum was compiled by Brad Seawell and featured speakers including Lori Gross (pictured on the left), Director of MIT based Museum Loan Network and Terry Martin, Director of the Harvard Law Library. Based upon this compilation, it became clear to me that libraries have been at the forefront of the digitization of their collections and a number of museum representatives attended this forum in order to learn from them and pose questions.
This forum touched upon a number of issues that I'm interested in and relate to the topic of digitization. For example, Lori Gross stated, "...predictions made five years ago that digital replicas of objects would make visiting museums obsolete have proven false, and that museum crowds are growing along with web access to museum collections."
The speakers for the most part seemed to agree that the digitization of their collections was extremely helpful for researchers, provided numerous projects for teachers and students and made their collections accessible to the majority of people who may never have the opportunity to visit museums in person.
The topic of deacessioning and selling objects from museums' collections is an extremely controversial one. After stating that there are "...too many museums..." and "...not every object deserves to be venerated...," Terry Martin, Director of the Harvard Law Library stated, "Why not sell off some of the stuff and use part of the purchase price to digitize the artifact; the buyer can take the original while its image would be available on the net." I'm sure this line of thinking put some people on edge and provoked others to consider it. Do you think such a proposal is ethical?
I must agree with the comment that Lori Gross concluded with. She stated, "Well, virtual museums are wonderfully important and exciting. But when all is said and done, nothing substitutes for the real object."
To read the complete compilation go to http://web.mit.edu/comm-forum/forums/digitalmuseum.html
And, check out MIT's Museum Loan Network which promotes collection sharing where you can examine objects from different angles if you have The Live Picture Zoom Viewer 3.2 for Windows 95/NT and Macintosh at: http://amps-tools.mit.edu/mln/main_about.html
This forum touched upon a number of issues that I'm interested in and relate to the topic of digitization. For example, Lori Gross stated, "...predictions made five years ago that digital replicas of objects would make visiting museums obsolete have proven false, and that museum crowds are growing along with web access to museum collections."
The speakers for the most part seemed to agree that the digitization of their collections was extremely helpful for researchers, provided numerous projects for teachers and students and made their collections accessible to the majority of people who may never have the opportunity to visit museums in person.
The topic of deacessioning and selling objects from museums' collections is an extremely controversial one. After stating that there are "...too many museums..." and "...not every object deserves to be venerated...," Terry Martin, Director of the Harvard Law Library stated, "Why not sell off some of the stuff and use part of the purchase price to digitize the artifact; the buyer can take the original while its image would be available on the net." I'm sure this line of thinking put some people on edge and provoked others to consider it. Do you think such a proposal is ethical?
I must agree with the comment that Lori Gross concluded with. She stated, "Well, virtual museums are wonderfully important and exciting. But when all is said and done, nothing substitutes for the real object."
To read the complete compilation go to http://web.mit.edu/comm-forum/forums/digitalmuseum.html
And, check out MIT's Museum Loan Network which promotes collection sharing where you can examine objects from different angles if you have The Live Picture Zoom Viewer 3.2 for Windows 95/NT and Macintosh at: http://amps-tools.mit.edu/mln/main_about.html
2 comments:
I think I have to disagree with the speaker from the Harvard Law Library--though I, personally, think that to some degree it should be ethical to deaccession artifacts and use the funds to benefit the care and safety of the overall collection, turning the "lost" object into a digital archive would be, to me, "lying", in a sense. If the object still existed in the collection, and it coudln't be displayed for conservation reasons, then a digital replica would be appropriate--as long as the object was really in the collection. It speaks to the institution overall, th entirity of their collection, when a piece digitally represented actually exists somewhere in the building. In theory I could find an image of the artifact anywhere on the web--what makes it special in the museum if it doesn't reflect an object that's really there?
Thank you for posting this forum. I find their points quite fascinating and will use it for my own scholarly pursuits into the topic.
Coming from an archives and library perspective, digitizing seems to be a really positive thing. Most visitors, researchers, scholars etc. are interested in the content rather than the original book or record. It is much easier to have the information contained within available online...than it is to feature artwork and especially three dimensional objects. Anyone wishing to experience the actual book or record will still take the time to come in person to take a look. It creates a real connection between the person and the people, events, or places who created it and/or were written about in it.
In reference to your poll question, I know that in such a case, I would make sure any specific items I wish to view were indeed available before visiting. It would be a bit disappointing to make the effort and have it come to naught. However, especially due to the poor condition of certain kinds of paper in particular, it is easy to set that disappointment aside in favor of thankfulness that a replica is just a few clicks away on the computer.
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