In collaborative museum learning contexts, it is problematic that groups of museum visitors are not able able to touch, handle, and pass museum artefacts around during collaborative discussions. This can be due to the fragility of the artefacts themselves or due to the people discussing them being in different locations. Interacting with virtual representations of artefacts is a solution to the...

In this article, we define the basic concepts of museum work, museum value, and contextual information with the help of a case study and literature. We base the case study on the empirical material of a project that aimed to gather knowledge of the collections of the Finnish Data Processing Museum Association. This article opens up the concepts and analyzes them in the context of museum work an...

Art museums have always been educating institutions. The meaning of this concept has changed over timeand increasingly has come to includethe use of media both within the museum and beyond the museum walls. Interactbe media are forms of publication that can significantly enhance the museum experience by making an exhibttion more accessible both to those who visa the museum and to those who wish...

Interpreting the natural environment in the cultural context of a museum is common practice in the early 21st century. It was also quite common in the 19th century. This chapter considers some of the key discourses in natural history and science museums to reveal a rich legacy of engagement with the environment. It begins with a review of a contemporary film that portrays the wonders of the mus...

The widening of roles and expectations within cultural policy discourses has been a challenge to museum workers throughout Great Britain (GB). There has been an expectation that museums are changing from an ‘old’ to a ‘new museology’ that has shaped museum functions and roles. This paper outlines the limitations of this perceived transition as museum services confront multiple exogenous and end...

Defining a physical or virtual space as a museum, seems to have clear implications on visitors’ behaviour and particularly learning behaviour. Past research shows that it is essential to identify different museum types and consider their similarities, differences and special features in order to be able to make valid research hypotheses. However, visitors would not always define certain types o...

A cultural institution such as a museum needs to attract visitors. Due to the fact that Internet has become an important information and marketing channel, the question of using a VR museum on the Internet, is the topic of this paper. The “VR Kon-Tiki” is a VR museum. It was developed by a computer games technology. In order to test the application visitors to a national Travel Fair, and visito...

This thesis introduces the concept of living exhibitions: continuously evolving museum exhibitions that are cooperatively developed and evaluated by teams of museum professionals and visitor representatives. The author argues that the living exhibition design process should draw its inspiration from multiple resources, including current research on museum learning, interaction principles and te...

This paper explores the gap between museum policy and practice in the United Kingdom (UK) by offering empirical evidence from a comparative street-level analysis of museum services in Scotland, England and Wales. Exploring devolution in cultural services from the ground-level using Lipsky’s (1980) ‘street-level’ approach gives new insights to the role of groundlevel workers in cultural policy. ...