Wayne Clough, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, poses a fundamental question to museums: "How can we prepare ourselves to reach the generation of digital natives who bring a huge appetite—and aptitude—for the digital world?" His new e-book, Best of Both Worlds: Museums, Libraries and Archives in a Digital Age, presents the ways in which the Smithsonian is tackling this issue and the results by others in museums and libraries around the world. The E-book is available free online since August 27 of this year.
The e-book begins with a summary of that which has already occurred in libraries and archives with documents once only found piled up in back rooms are now available, often for free, online.
For museums, the digital world poses a bigger challenge since producing images of three-dimensional objects is more complicated than simply taking pictures of pages from a book and adding some information. Most museums, including the Smithsonian, have not had before now the optimal experience and technology to achieve such end. The fact that museum collections are acquired with the purpose of showing them live—instead of offering them for free on the internet— complicates things.
The Smithsonian began the process of digitizing its vast collections in 2009 to make them accessible to the millions of people who could not physically visit the museums in person, as it gave priority to the 14 million objects that would be digitized during that initial phase. According to Clough, "The physical museum offers visitors the opportunity to experience the real object and share their impressions with family and friends," and he adds that "Digital access can then provide limitless opportunities for engagement and lifelong learning."
Museums provide informal education through their research and exhibitions, both real and virtual. Clough is of the opinion that museums will gradually move beyond merely exhibiting their collections toward the interaction with the public online, where "visitors" will be able to classify and have access to the objects that are most interesting to them and interact directly with the museums. According to Clough, Museums have evolved slowly—often one project at a time—toward the new digital world. There are good reasons to be cautious, but "the time for toe-dipping is ending for museums, since they cannot stand aloof from the rising tide of information convergence." Clough concludes his 75-page e-book with this thought: "While digital technology poses great challenges, it also offers great possibilities […] We can help all the people, not just a few of the people, to understand our culture, the cultures of other countries and life in all its dimensions."
To read the book in English and see a video, visit http://www.si.edu/BestofBothWorlds. The book is also available for free at iTunes U.