How Much Technology We Show and Use in Romanian Museums Raluca Neamu,Collaborator, Culturadata (RO) Presented at We Are Museums on Monday 6 June 2016 (Bucharest, RO)

1. HOW MUCH TECHNOLOGY
WE SHOW AND USE
ROMANIAN MUSEUMS
RALUCA BEM NEAMU

2. TEAM PERIOD
• Raluca Bem Neamu
• Anda Becuț
• Bogdan Pălici
• Carmen Croitoru
• February – May 2016

3. Research study
NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR CULTURAL
RESEARCH AND TRAINING
•NOW
• the online image presence of the most important
museums in Romania reflected in their own websites
and social media pages
•FUTURE:
• The level of using technology by the most important
museums in Bucharest in situ

4. Objectives of the research
• Analize the most important museums’s internet sites in
Romania from:
othe use of technology viewpoint
othe interactivity point of view.
• Identify the user friendly features of Romanian museums
internet sites.
• Identify the differences in using technology according to the
type of museums and the geographical area.

5. Cultural Consumption Barometer
Bucharest – 2014
Museum visiting

6. Museum visiting

7. Museum visitor - Bucharest

8. Domestic network of interactive
electronic goods - 2014

9. Reasearch
How much technolog we show and use
• The sample was built using the National Institute for Research
and Cultural Training database on museums.
• We have selected the institutions based on two criteria:
• the type of the museum (Art Museums, History Museums, Ethnography
Museums and County Museums);
• the geographical distribution (at national level, selecting at least one
museum in each county).
• The sample was designed according to the research objectives
and to the timeline of the research.

10. The sample
Museum
type
Art
museums
History
museums
Ethnograp
hical
museums
County
museums
Total
12 12 12 15 51

11. Foreign language sites
Museum
type
Art
museums
History
museums
Ethnogra
phical
museums
County
museums
Total
English 5 5 5 4 19
French 0 2 2 1 5
Hungarian 0 2 1 1 4
German 1 0 1 2 4
Spanish 0 0 1 0 1

12. Menu numberon home page
Museum
type
Art
museums
History
museums
Ethnograp
hical
museums
County
museums
Total
Average 2.1 2.08 2.5 1.83 2

13. Museum
type
Art
museums
History
museums
Ethnograp
hical
museums
County
museums
Total
2 0 1 1 4
Site map

15. Museum
type
Art
museums
History
museums
Ethnogra
phical
museums
County
museums
Total
7 6 8 9 30
Buttons to Social Media Pages

16. Museum
type
Art
museums
History
museums
Ethnogra
phical
museums
County
museums
Total
3 6 7 3 19

17. Mobile site
Museum
type
Art
museums
History
museums
Ethnogra
phical
museums
County
museums
Total
2 4 4 1 11

19. Digital items – photos
Permanent exhibitions
Museum
type
Art
museums
History
museums
Ethnogra
phical
museums
County
museums
Total
5 8 10 8 31

21. Digital items – photos
Temporary exhibitions
Museum
type
Art
museums
History
museums
Ethnogra
phical
museums
County
museums
Total
1 0 3 2 6

22. Publications
Museum
type
Art
museums
History
museums
Ethnogra
phical
museums
County
museums
Total
8 6 9 10 33

24. Research Art
museums
History
museums
Ethnogra
phical
museums
County
museums
Total
0 4 2 3 9
Education/
Learning
Art
museums
History
museums
Ethnograp
hical
museums
County
museums
Total
5 2 6 4 17
Conservati
on
Art
museum
s
History
museums
Ethnogra
phical
museums
County
museum
s
Total
2 0 5 3 10

25. Research in museum
•“Instead of promoting a contemporary idea of
research – multi-faceted, complex, open to the
participation of many different interested
parties, such as different professionals and
communities of knowledge – they seem to
understand research as a rather single-faceted
phenomenon, object-oriented and collections-
based.”
(“Codes of Ethics and Museum Research” by Alexandra Bounia)

26. Categories of Research in Museum
1. based on the museum’s collections and relies heavily on the
disciplines connected to the content of the museum
2. involves sciences and disciplines (such as physics, chemistry,
communication, and media studies) pursued in order to develop
tools for museum practice
3. aims to stimulate thought about the museum as an institution and
takes place at a more theoretical and philosophical, or
museological level
4. also museological, in the sense that it addresses the analysis of
the institution through communication and heritage studies; in
this sense, visitor studies and evaluation are included in this
category
(Davallon, in 1995)

28. Museum
type
Art
museums
History
museums
Ethnogra
phical
museums
County
museums
Total
6.9 6.4 6.9 7.2 6.8
User friendly sites
notes 1 to 10

30. Museum
type
Art
museum
History
museum
Ethnogra
phical
museum
County
museum
Total
100 – 500 0 2 0 0 2
501 - 1000 0 0 2 3 5
1001- 4000 4 3 7 4 18
4001-
10 000
4 3 0 6 13
More than
10 000
2 1 2 0 4

31. Museum
type
Art
museums
History
museums
Ethnogra
phical
museums
County
museums
Total
6.9 6.4 6.9 7.2 6.8

32. Exceptions
• Not even one online ticket system
• One of 51 museums has an app.
• 2 guiding tours have also audio-guide
• 3 guiding tours have also short written information
about the objects

33. Conclusions
• Most of the sites are old fashioned or just old
• The most ilogical sites have no site map or search options
• The research function of the museum is prevalent on the
education and conservation ones (publications + research)
• The texts presented on the museum sites are rather for
specialists in specific domains rather than for general public
• Some important museums almost renounced to their website
and they just post information on social media pages
• Some museums give you the feeling of the real museum, some
other don’t

34. Analize your own site
• Languages
• No. of menus
• Site map
• Search button
• Mobile version sites
• Virtual tour
• “Permanent” exhibitions –
digitised items
• Temporary exhibitions -
digitised items
• Publications/ Shop
• Education-Research-
Conservation
• News section
• Social media

35. Thank you!