A New York Museums and Pratt Partnership: Building Web Collections and Preparing Museum Professionals for the Digital World (Booth 3)

Demonstration
Tula Giannini, Pratt Institute, USA, Jonathan Bowen, London South Bank University, UK

Published paper: A New York Museums and Pratt partnership: Building Web collections and preparing museum professionals for the digital world

The New York Art Resources Consortium (NYARC) involves the research libraries of the Brooklyn Museum, Frick, and MoMA. Together with the Pratt Institute, the Brooklyn Museum and then NYARC have undertaken partnership projects to implement digitization of collections in a museum-education setting. This paper explores challenges including integrating digital information within the physical museum and on the Web, recognizing the crucial role this plays in user engagement. Education is a key aspect, and information on a new master program to support professionals in the interdisciplinary skills needed is also presented. Leading museums realize the importance of an integrated digital approach. The Cooper Hewitt Museum’s newly redeveloped display is presented as a model example. Educational underpinning and inventive use of digital technology, with regard for social and cultural issues, are key aspects for success.

Bibliography:
Bowen, J.P. & T. Giannini (2014). “Digitalism: The new realism”. In S. Dunn, J.P. Bowen, & K. Ng (Eds.), EVA London 2014 Conference Proceedings, Electronic Workshops in Computing (eWiC), British Computer Society, pages 324-331. http://dx.doi.org/10.14236/ewic/eva2014.38

Giannini, T. (2013). “Visualizing Brooklyn: The Brooklyn Visual Heritage website”. In K. Ng, J.P. Bowen, & S. McDaid (Eds.), EVA London 2013 Conference Proceedings. Electronic Workshops in Computing (eWiC), British Computer Society. pages 9-16. http://ewic.bcs.org/content/ConWebDoc/50974
Giannini, T. & Bowen, J.P. (2014). “The Brooklyn Visual Heritage Website: Brooklyn’s Museums and Libraries Collaborate for Project CHART”. In N. Proctor & R. Cherry (Eds.), Museums and the Web 2014, Silver Spring, MD: Museums and the Web. http://mw2014.museumsandtheweb.com/paper/the-brooklyn-visual-heritage-website/