Category: Reflection Blogs

The rapid technological advancement of the last decade has significantly transformed museums worldwide, reshaping how they engage with their visitors. Some believe that it has connected more visitors to museum exhibits and artifacts than ever before, while others disagree. 

As culturally hyperlinked environments, museums are some of the world’s leading institutions in utilizing incredibly innovative and emerging digital tools for enhancing user experiences.

For example, Tokyo’s National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation features the 6-meter OLED globe, Geo-Cosmos, to visualize near real-time changes occurring on Earth through geodata.

Geo-Cosmos. Sourced from Miraikan (n.d.).

In 2019, the Prado Museum in Madrid introduced its first 360-degree immersive experience using virtual reality. 

Virtual Tours. Sourced from Museo Del Prado (n.d.).

The Prado Museum | Madrid | Spain. Sourced from 360 Cities (2021).

In 2016, the National Museum of Singapore launched its Story of the Forest exhibition as an immersive, larger-than-life digital installation that would, along with a smartphone app, provide detailed information about the animated animals among the illuminated trees. 

Story of the Forest. Sourced from teamLab (2016).

Interview: teamLab. Sourced from TimeOut (2016).

In 2017, visitors to London’s Science Museum were able to immerse themselves in UK space travel history through a VR mission that reenacted British astronaut Tim Peake’s 400 km journey back to Earth, featuring a 12-minute video narrated by him while offering a unique view inside the Soyuz space capsule – an experience difficult to replicate without the use of technology (Charr, 2020). 

Moreover, researchers at the Melbourne Museum discovered that Bluetooth technology can enhance visitors’ experiences by (consensually) tracking highly engaged visitors’ movement to provide them with personalized guides based on their visitation patterns (Oliveira & Barba, 2018).  

However, opponents argue that although social media has sparked renewed interest into museums and garnered greater attention, attendance and revenue, it’s uncertain whether visitors are there to genuinely appreciate the art or make their next instagram reel (Daily Bruin Staff, 2016). 

Photo by Maria Mena. Sourced from CanadianArt (2017).

Consequently, Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum created the #Startdrawing campaign to strongly discourage the use of cameras / mobile phones, encouraging guests to sketch the artworks rather than solely snapping pictures of them (Wanshel, 2015).  

Sourced from deMilked (2015).

References

Charr, M. (2020, June 17). How technology is bringing museums back to life. MuseumNext. https://www.museumnext.com/article/how-technology-is-bringing-museums-back-to-life/

Daily Bruin Staff. (2016, January 20). The impact of social media on museums, art. Daily Bruin. https://dailybruin.com/2016/01/20/the-impact-of-social-media-on-museums-art

Oliveira, E. A. & Barba, P. D. (2018, December 11). How does learning happen in museums? Pursuit. https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/how-does-learning-happen-in-museums

Wanshel, E. (2015, November 23). Museum ‘bans’ cameras and asks guests to sketch art instead. The Huffington Post. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/rijksmuseum-museum-bans-cameras-cell-phones-startdrawing_n_56532ff6e4b0d4093a585383

Better serving our communities and reaching everyone as @Michael noted in The Heart of Librarianship (2014) involves bridging the physical and virtual planes by “using technology to offer new ways to interact with the library” (p. 41). But before that, we need to explore resources that provide our patrons with trauma-informed care through “qualities such as empathy, emotional intelligence, and reflective action” emanating through everything we do (Garcia-Febo, 2018). 

Photo by Lina Trochez. Sourced from Unsplash (2017, September 14).

Libraries serving not only their patrons’ informational needs, but their basic mental and physical health needs too is, unfortunately, news to me. But reading about “Healthy Library, Healthy Life” (2022) and discovering the efforts librarians, like Cory Greenwood, have made at State Library Victoria to support their patrons’ health and well-being, worsened by the pandemic, is truly commendable. By creating the first strategic framework designed for public libraries to utilize globally, major libraries should follow suit and expand their crucial role as central figures representing and serving their communities and their rudimentary needs. 

Sourced from Medium (2022, December 5).

Hopefully, in the future, it will become the norm for librarians to assist their community members in distress by building library-health partnerships across various community groups and health organizations in addressing patrons’ “social connection, mental wellbeing and physical health” (Greenwood, 2022).

Sourced from Medium (2022, December 5).

Institutions enhancing this framework with emerging technological tools will be in a better position, “to support the development of healthy minds, healthy bodies and healthy communities, with a focus on prevention over cure, connection over isolation and collaborations that break down silos and amplify results” (p. 24). 

I absolutely LOVE this quote for many reasons; most of all is Greenwood’s emphasis on “prevention over cure” which I resonate with deeply. One of my many life mottos is to be as conscious as possible in every present moment; for doing so will inevitably reduce the number of mistakes and regrettable actions our egos are prone to making when we are operating within default mode. 

References

Garcia-Febo, L. (2018, November 1). Serving with love: Embedding equality, diversity, and inclusion in all that we do. American Libraries. https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/2018/11/01/serving-with-love/

Greenwood, C. (2022). Healthy library, healthy life. INCITE 43(6), 24. https://287.hyperlib.sjsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Healthy-Library-Healthy-Life.pdf

Greenwood, C. (2022). Libraries for health & wellbeing: A strategic framework for public libraries. Medium. https://hohkyo.medium.com/libraries-for-health-wellbeing-a-strategic-framework-for-public-libraries-ce6657b79af3

Stephens, M. (2016). Reaching all users. In The Heart of Librarianship (pp. 41). American Library Association.