Dear Matthijs,

We are about to install a number of touch screens into our public reading room.  These will give access to the COMPASS database of 5000 objects in our collections.  Later we hope to have more PCs with access to external internet resources (web).  I have done some research to find similar facilities, and I can point you in their direction as well.

In answer to your questions:

A.  I expect our touchscreen computers to attract a few new visitors, depending on how much publicity we can get.  Ideally a few mentions on TV will encourage some new visitors, but I don't expect much of an incease after that.  The aim is to provide a better visit for those who are coming anyway, not to attract more visitors.  However, when we get PCs with web access in the Reading Room I expect we will see more students in there.  Most of all it depends on what you offer - restricted access, unrestricted access, e-mail, printing.  For example, the New York Public Library has huge numbers of PCs in the Rose Main Reading Room in the Humanities and Social Sciences library, some with the library catalogue, some with recommended web links, and some unrestricted web PCs.  It is the third class that in constant demand, for people to access their e-mails.  The person to speak to at NYPL is Stuart Bodner.

By contrast, the Hazen Centre at the Metropolitan Museum of Art has restricted acces to the web, through a carefully managed page of links.  It has a much greater ratio of support staff to users.  My contact there was Carolyn deLuca. (http://www.metmuseum.org/education/er_lib.asp#lita)

In the British Museum Reading Room when COMPASS is installed we will be selling high quality printouts.  I hope these will attract people to use the system.

B.  All  of the objects on COMPASS are available on the web as well as on site.  However, in the Museum the images are at a much higher resolution, which allows visitors to see in greater detail.  We also have some animations which at the moment are too big to provide on the web, although we expect to reformat them for the web soon.

C.  We do not have data to answer this yet.

D.  We use a browser based interface, which is protected by a 'kiosk' software called NetShift (http://www.netshift.com/index.shtml).  The main problem so far is removing links to other sites (which Netshift blocks) and making sure that Netshift is compatible with all the other software applications on our touchscreen terminals.  I expect there will be a need to provide some support, which will depend on how good the interface is, and in particular how good our system is for ordering, collecting, and paying for printouts.  We are going to automate this using a smart card which can be purchased from vending machines and used at the printers. 

E.  In this respect we act as two things, a museum and a library.  As far as the Museum goes, the provision of information about objects on the web and on computers inside the Museum should encourage visitors to explore the collections more widely, since it will be easier to do this on the computer before going into the galleries.  When visitors see the artefacts in the galleries they should find it more informative and enjoyable, since they will have seen more information on the computer than we can provide in the gallery.  In terms of the library inside the Museum, we believe that all libraries should now offer access to resources on the web as well as to the books in the library.  The issue here is whether to provide unrestricted access to the web, or to provide an interface that has links to recommended on-line resources such as encyclopaedias.  If you want to recommend of guide people to web resources there is work to do to develop a home page with all the links, and to keep it up to date as new resources become available on the web.

I hope this is helpful.  Please get back to me if there is anything further you wish to know.  You can see COMPASS on the web at www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/compass

Regards,

David Jillings
Head of New media
The British Museum
tel. +44 (0)20 7323 8742

>>> Matthijs Keesman <[log in to unmask]> 25/06/01 13:49:46 >>>
Hello dear listers,

My name is Matthijs Keesman and I´m currently working on a project to create an exhibitionhall for the 21th century for a museum in Haarlem, The
Netherlands. For this project we are researching how internet/computer  facilities work within musea.

At this moment I´m very curious to hear the stories of those people who have experience with Internetfacilities or Internet reading rooms in musea,
particulary according to the following questions:

A. Do internetfacilities attract visitors at all? Is it a new audience or an existing audience?
B. Is everything that can be accessed in the museum accessible through the internet? Are there any extra goodies offered?
C. Do people actually spend more time with these facilities or do they cannibalize ( i.e. spend less time in shop, restaurant or the collection)
D. What is the most common problem with the internet terminals?
E. How would you define the function of these internetfacilities in relation to the museum?

It would help me a lot if anyone could share his or her ideas or experiences to one or more of these questions.

Thanks.

Kind regards,


Matthijs Keesman
Society for Old and New Media, Amsterdam
[log in to unmask]