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This paper analyses how the evolution of the railway sector and the changes brought by the railways are perceived and represented in the People's Republic of China. In doing so, we focus on four railway collections (three of them belonging to the same museum) and three temporary exhibitions, among other materials. That lets us build an interpretation giving prominence to material culture and to the symbolic use of objects and images, allowing us to pursue the meanings of railway heritage and history in China. Furthermore, this analysis compares the information available in Chinese and English in the museums, exhibitions, and some media (in this last case we include Spanish too). In terms of methodology, we combine tools from archaeology, museums studies, applied linguistics and cross-cultural communication. We think this approach is innovative and also appropriate to perceive the messages created by the Chinese museum sector and sent both to national and to international audiences – ie, how China uses railway heritage and history to represent itself domestically and to the rest of the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Museums must adapt to the increasingly massive use of the Internet, and use it to reach new audiences and find new ways of enhancing culture, or consolidate the relationship with their existing public. Therefore, defining an online strategy that conforms to the museum's mission may prove difficult. One of the challenges cultural organisations face in this regard is how to define, measure and evaluate their efficiency and approach. In the present article, we will study the digital instruments adopted by Italian museums to communicate on and promote their heritage collections on the web, and enhance the involvement and participation of audiences in the digital environment. Our aim is to present and discuss the results of the first online web strategy survey conducted in 2017, by ICOM Italy and the Italian Ministry of Culture (MiBAC). The survey and its findings show that Italian museums have risen to the challenge, by working on defining and developing their digital web strategy. The conclusion will highlight the gaps and some points for future reflection with a focus on open data. We hope that a wider museum community can adopt our monitoring tool, the 17 web strategy parameters, and share results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increased reliance on technology has driven museums to consider the technology required to provide a creative cost effective experience. Technovation is a process of developing and innovating services using technology. This research will contribute to a better technology investment decision-making for museum managers and advance understanding of consumer value, co-creation, technology use and museums. Structural equation modelling was conducted on a survey administered to 412 museum visitors to test technology efficacy, technology acceptance, service quality, museum value and repeat intent in museums. Results indicate the significant relationships of technology self-efficacy, technology acceptance, service quality, museum value to repurchase intention. Consumers supported the role of technology and suggested that technology innovation in museum service delivery is essential. The research suggests that to ensure value co-creation, technology management must guide and support the visitor with the interaction. This is the first known paper testing this system of relationships in the museum context. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The purpose of this article is to emphasise the importance of exhibiting archival records in art museum spaces as a knowledge development and information dissemination stance. The article also draws attention to the limitations that are encountered in fostering the public programming of archives through digital technology in art museums. The 2013 Revised White Paper on Arts, Culture and Heritage states that cultural and creative industries should ensure that as many South Africans as possible have access to arts, culture, and heritage offerings, and this includes archival records. However, art museum archives continue to be exclusionist and often act as historical, social, and information barriers for end users. This qualitative study accentuates the importance of physical and remote public programming activities for art museums and art galleries. The study followed a phenomenological research approach and explored the experiences and perceptions of art museum end users in relation to the adequacy of archive public programming. The findings suggest that exhibiting archival holdings at art museums can create awareness among audiences and expose such audiences to cultural history through the archival exhibits, which could be shared externally through digital media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Museums are organizations that need to maintain relationships with several stakeholders in order to achieve their economic and social objectives. In this context, the current paper explores the effect of an organization's bonding social capital and a manager's social capital on the organization's ability to build external relationships, in other words, bridging social capital. Results from the study indicate that the structure of internal social capital (cohesion and diversity) and the manager's role as a bridging tie facilitate relations with stakeholders and other museum networks. Moreover, collective social capital (bonding and bridging) has a direct impact on innovative proposals, on the museum's image and on incomes, all of which entail key management implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the interconnection between the creation of museum and the management of information units and the new information technologies as practical means of registering objects with cultural and heritage content. These are also analysed as representative of social behavior. Having in mind the characterization of collections and the use of technological novelties, museums try to adapt some traditional practices to the new realm of innovative computer technologies. As such, combining multimedia elements and electronic catalogs created from Collections Management Systems hypermedia used as primary resource to present museological items gained space. By posting those catalogs in the Internet the museum reveals its relationship with electronic resources. Furthermore, the socialization strategies of the museum on what concerns information dissemination are also made clearer by the use of these new collection management systems. Statements on citizenship and cultural values are made evident side by side with strategies to preserve collective memory in a field where museums have been working as pioneers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]