On Wed, 9 May 2001, Andrew Greg wrote:
> Does anyone know of any research on the users, or usage, of museum
> websites? E.g. who users are, what they are looking for, how they use the
> sites, etc.
> I am keen that the proposed website is designed to meet the expectations of
> potential users, as far as those can be acertained, so am very keen to find
> out if any research has been done, in the U.K. or abroad. Can any one help?
Helen McCorry and myself, from the NMS, undertook a project called
"catechism" a few years ago, based on a survey of museum enquiries. Our
aim was to determine whether or not typical enquiries could be answered by
consulting a database. The report is available on my website (URL below -
follow the "Work" link).
I also analysed the SCRAN (www.scran.ac.uk) website statistics, including
the subjects of database searches, for the first few months that SCRAN was
online. The paper that resulted from that study was published in the "New
Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia", vol.4, 1998. More recent papers I
have presented on just this subject, including one ("Lifting the painted
veil") which I am writing at this very moment for presentation in Murcia,
Spain, next Wednesday, are available on my website.
I have masses of raw statistics as well as the published analyses, if you
need any more information. Sadly very few such studies have been published,
as far as I am aware, and I would also be interested in anything else that
MCG subscribers can come up with. There seems to be a general presumption
that just making our databases available on the Web is a Good Thing (I am
not saying that it isn't!), without there being much evidence, so far,
that the Great British Public is all that interested.
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Ian O. Morrison, Scottish Museums Documentation Officer
http://ianmorrison.topcities.com/index.htm
Hostes alienigeni me abduxerunt
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