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In this article, we investigate the positive impact recent developments in digital technologies have on the relations between museums, their collections and the communities they serve. Our work indicates that sustainable benefit is produced with the use of existing digital literacies and infrastructures. We have analysed and evaluated the potential of emergent 3D and spherical technologies on the relationships between community and museum, participation in the formation of heritage, the 'visit' to the museum, and connection with remote audiences. The evaluation arises from our long term experience in working with community museums and through a series of workshops developed for the project entitled 'Museums and Community: Concepts, experiences, and sustainability in Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean' (EU‐LAC‐MUSEUMS). Firstly, we contextualise the work presented by examining community museums, trends in emergent technologies and the advancements in digital heritage. Secondly, we analyse the methodologies used to design and execute the elements of the workshops, along with assess case studies to demonstrate distinctive experiences and outcomes particular to each workshop. We also describe how we constructed and implemented a novel design for a cost effective Virtual Museum Infrastructure (VMI), which makes it simpler for communities to create a virtual museum and connect it with global museum networks. Our aim is to communicate our findings in relation to methodologies, workflows and technologies that will be of value in understanding how to overcome the challenges emergent technologies present but yet have the potential to strengthen both community and museum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The digital revolution has affected museums in many ways, both directly and indirectly. A major external change is the rise of user‐written reviews; that is, reviews written by museum visitors and posted on the Internet. User‐generated reviews pose challenges to museums, as they are publicly available and largely outside the control of museums. This article discusses research on reviews of accredited museums in London. Our data set consists of all reviews written about 88 London museums that were posted on TripAdvisor during 2014, a total of 22,940 reviews. Using a technique called topic modelling, we describe 19 themes in reviewers' stories of their visits. We find that museum visitors pay attention to the ancillary aspects of their visit: queues, cost, food service, toilets, and activities for children. They make fewer comments on the cultural side of the museum experience. However, these cultural aspects do matter and are associated with positive reviews. We argue that reviewers consider museums as part of a wider leisure sector. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications of our study for museum management and assess the usefulness of user‐generated content as a source of data on museum visitors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an effort to meet changing visitor needs, the Mutare Museum modernised its Beit Gallery, which presents the traditional, agricultural, healing, musical and religious practices of the Eastern Shona people through digital technology. This new display in the gallery was inaugurated to counter the decreasing numbers of visitors over the years (2000‐2015). As many visitors regretted the absence of interactive experiences within the existing exhibitions, multiple digital presentation and interpretation methods, such as videos, audios, animation, computer interactive devices and flipbooks, were introduced, in an attempt to satisfy their expectations. In this article, we will assess the impact of digital technology on audience experience and growth at Mutare Museum. We will show that, although the introduction of digital technology may have satisfied some visitors, audience growth and loyalty at the museum continued to decline. We argue that when digital technology is employed as an end rather than as a means, the impact will be minimal. Mutare Museum was grappling with the fundamental issues faced by many cultural institutions today: accessibility, high entrances fees, inadequate government funding, low visibility, competition with other attractions, inadequate and poor storage facilities. From our analysis, it became clear that the introduction of digital technology alone was not sufficient to boost audience loyalty and growth, and that a holistic analysis of the museum's fundamental issues was required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This paper examines the nature of the staff–visitor encounter in relation to the challenges presented in supporting museum visitors with varying competencies in adopting new technologies. In particular, the paper examines the organisation and operation of a museum's front desk, and addresses the highly contingent, interactional accomplishment of loans and dissemination, more specifically the conversation and the interaction between the front desk assistant and the visitors concerning a potential iPod loan. Based on 18 hours of video recordings, the paper focuses on the offering sequence and shows that participants orient to at least two aspects when making/receiving offers of an iPod loan: (1) the acceptance or rejection of the offer and (2) questions of familiarity; e.g. whether or not the iPod can be treated as a known item. These aspects are inherently related, and participants may choose to align with the terms of familiarity while disaligning with the offer, and vice versa. The study shows that museums are faced with a great challenge, as well as a great opportunity, in supporting visitors when adopting new technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Interpretation in natural history museums is generally conservative with methods of collections interpretation barely changed since the first natural history museums were founded. For all the changes undertaken by museums in the last 20 years, sector leaders such as the American Museum of Natural History, the Natural History Museum, London, the National Museum, Prague, Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin and the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Paris still operate by connecting objects with facts about their biology. The recent relocation of the Grant Museum of Zoology at University College London has offered the opportunity for the museum to become a space for dialogue and experimentation. The museum, in collaboration with the university, has developed ‘social interpretation’ designed to engage visitors with controversial questions in life sciences and museum practice. Visitor responses are recorded and used as the basis to plan future work. The paper explores how this form of engagement with visitors might allow natural history museums to add to established methods of interpretation, and – in a form of co-production with their visitors – challenge attitudes to scientific knowledge and its development. Thus, the way natural history museums function as sources of knowledge for the public and the ‘front line’ of biological engagement is potentially changed, based on the responses of museum visitors. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper explains, evaluates and reflects on the technical challenges and opportunities that underpin both the Mapping Sculpture project and its mobile interface. It provides insights into the development process as an integral component of the research methodology, and highlights the importance of meaningful collaboration between researchers and software developers. Just as the project questions the conventional notion of the lone sculpture practitioner, so the technical development needed to mirror the complex web of connections between people, places, objects, organizations and events through enabling large-scale, distributed and collaborative research. Enabling access to these rich resources on mobile devices was a further innovative and challenging development, but one that opens up the possibility for fresh modes of access and development of new audiences. The success of this technical development offers a model for representing complex relationships hidden in multiple sources, enabling innovative research and enhancing access. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]