2.1 Introduction: The Changing Museum Environment

This section of the report will contribute to the discussion on the impact of technology in museums by synthesizing recent literature on the topic and summarizing interviews with 16 senior North American museum professionals. Specifically, this report is intended to provide an overview of the changing museum environment and the impact of technology on museum work, as well as a discussion of the impact on the main museum functions: administration, collections and collection management and audience services.

Many suggest that museums have been transformed by their societal context and the proliferation of information technology in our contemporary moment. Parry (2007) argues that digitality "helped to support a realignment of museography that was taking place, from object-centred to experience-centred design" (p. 81). Bearman and Gerber (2008) posit that new technologies have fundamentally changed the ways museums communicate. They state "since the late 1980s, computer-based interactive programs have delivered more varied and exciting information on the museum floor than traditional mechanical interactives or static signage. Today, a museum without a collections database and a Web presence is hardly considered professional". However they go on to note "not all institutions are using online access equally well" (p. 385).

Almost all North American museums today use some form of new technology in their daily practices (from specialized software for fundraising and collections management services to audio-visual technologies in exhibition spaces, from Web 2.0 technologies for museum web pages to GIS systems for visitor programming). Most museums have a website, at least one computer, and part of their collection described in a database, collection management system or listed in an electronic file. These technologies are having a profound impact on the way museums function and interact with their audiences at all levels of the museum's operations: administrative, collections and curatorial, and public (exhibitions, programming and dissemination).

There is a large and growing literature evaluating the intersection of new technologies and museums by writers such as Paul Marty, Ross Parry, Sarah Kenderdine, Fiona Cameron, and Katherine Burton Jones. This literature addresses issues ranging from museum informatics [as Paul Marty (2008) defines the field, "the study of the sociotechnical interactions that take place at the intersection of people, information, and technology in museums" (p. 3)], to resource development (such as imaging, digitization, and integrated information systems), from new media technologies and critical digital theory (pertaining to object morphologies, virtual systems, digital objects, communication technologies) to visitor interaction and online technology. The diversity and profusion of this literature gives some indication of the myriad ways in which new technologies – communication technologies in particular – have come to influence the ways in which museums communicate with their diverse publics.

Underscoring the pivotal impact that new forms of technology have had on museums over the past 5-10 years, is the shift in curricula of Museum Studies programs. Many Museum Studies programs incorporate some aspect of new technologies into the curriculum [the Museum Studies program at the University of Toronto offers courses on Museums and Information [(MSL2500H) and Museums and New Media Practice (MSL2325H), for example, while the Museum Studies program at New York University offers a course entitled Museums & Interactive Technologies, (G49.2225)]; others, such as Johns Hopkins University's MA in Museum Studies and the undergraduate Cybermuséologie program offered by the École multidisciplinaire de l'image at the Université du Québec en Outaouais, emphasize technology in every area of study.

Important national initiatives have also contributed to theoretical discussions about the impact of technology on museums, while offering support for museums putting technology into practice. For example, the Canadian Heritage Information Network (CHIN) has been proactive in developing programs to assist museum workers navigate new technologies. As Parry (2007) explains, by 1994, CHIN was "immediately engaged with the potential of the Web for the museum community, with a CHIN home page, using Mosaic directing users to information about its groups, services and products" (p. 93). Museum professionals interviewed for this project also identified several institutions that they consider to be leaders in their use of technology in various ways. These included the Royal BC Museum (Vancouver), Royal Ontario Museum (Toronto), Musée McCord Museum (Montréal), and the Glenbow Museum (Calgary). The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (San Francisco), Museum of Modern Art (New York), and the J. Paul Getty Museum (Los Angeles) in the United States were also mentioned.

Undeniably the impact of technology on daily and long-term museum processes is wide-ranging in scope, and still unequal in application, depending on the scale and budget of the institution in question. On a philosophical level, the possibilities brought about by the use of technology in museums has led to a general re-thinking of fundamental mission statements of museums. As Nicole Vallières, Director of Collections, Research and Programs at the McCord Museum, reminds us, technology is only a tool – an interface – and it is essential to remember that content is at the heart of the museum and its functions.