Welcome to our weekly roundup of museums in the news! For Your iOS Enjoyment: Portland Art Museum’s Place-Based App (Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon) Inside Dearborn’s Henry Ford Museum (The Henry Ford, Dearborn, Michigan) Sensors flag environmental damage to art at the Met (Metropolitan Museum …
Most of us, at some point or another, will consider life as an independent museum consultant. Linda Norris, of The Uncataloged Museum, wonders about that, and asks what’s next.
As mentioned, we’re doing occasional reviews of museum online learning opportunities written for the Spring 2012 class “Museums and Online Learning.” This author has preferred to remain anonymous.
Brooklyn Children’s Museum’s Collections Central: Useful, But Not Much Fun
Isn’t it the mission of a children’s museum to make learning fun?
If I were a teacher or a homeschooler, I would find BCM’s Collections Central Online a useful educational resource. If I were a kid, I would find the site helpful for basic research, but not very much fun.
Good Things
The collection provides access to hundreds of objects from various cultures and eras, with good accompanying information.
The site is easy to use. Although there is a lot of visual information, navigation is intuitive. Searching and browsing are both supported.
Browsing creates connections. If you select an exhibit to browse, you are given a short explanation of the theme and a grid of photos. Clicking on an image takes you to an object page, which provides basic information about the object and the people who made it. From here, you are given options to explore “more from the same place,” “more from the same category,” or “more from the same makers.” These options take you to yet another database of related objects.
Other useful features are the ability to enlarge photos to see detail, the use of questions to organize information, and suggestions for ideas to consider.
Things that Should be Better
The site is hard to find, unless you already know it’s there. Google keyword searches do not lead you to it.
Language used in information sections needs editing to make it kid-friendly. More in-depth information and a glossary of terms should be moved to hyperlinked pages.
Non-textual information would give a more rounded experience. For example, in “What’s That Noise?”, sound recordings would provide knowledge of instruments in a way that a description cannot. A zoomable map would provide geographical context better than simply listing country of origin.
The ability to “collect” objects would allow users to explore individual connections more freely.
There is an option to “draw what you see.” Cool, but drawings are not immediately posted to the site. Instead, there is a “chance” you may see your drawing on a return visit. A virtual gallery for drawings would provide a better sense of connection to the museum.
There are no games! Interactive games would make the site more engaging for children.
Overall, it’s a worthwhile site for elementary research, but I can’t really see why anyone would use it for anything else.
Last week, I posted a roundup of great On Point episodes about museums, and last week they had one to add to the list: National and State Parks at the Crossroads
Interesting post from the Freakonomics blog about why ranking charities by their administrative costs is a bad idea. In short: nonprofits should be evaluated by mission, and how they’re fulfilling that mission. Obviously, careful frugality is important, but if you look solely at the numbers …
Welcome to our weekly museums in the news roundup!
As everyone in Boston knows, the most important news is that the Bruins play tomorrow night to stay alive in the Stanley Cup Finals.
Metropolitan Museum raising suggested admission fee (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York)
Museum receives $1 million (proposed US Marshals Museum, Fort Smith, Arkansas)
Autry Center could lose grant over Southwest Museum (Autry National Center of the American West, Los Angeles, California)
National Civil War Museum curator’s 2-week journey back to 1863 reaches end (National Civil War Museum, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania)
‘Avatar’ and its blue moon land at Seattle’s EMP (Experience Music Project and Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame, Seattle, WA)
In museum fight, Armenian-American Group Refuses To Leave Disputed Site (proposed museum, Washington, D.C.)
Museum dedicated to fashion designer Balenciaga opens in Spain (The Balenciaga Institute, Getaria, Spain)
Smithsonian’s ‘Made in America’ gift shop opens (National Museum of American History, Washington, D.C.)
Tazewell County Museum looks to leave Pekin (Tazewell County Museum, Pekin, Illinois)
Squeezing 4-Wheeled Masterpieces Into the Museum (Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon)
Will Children’s Museum of Los Angeles ever open? (proposed museum, Los Angeles, California)
