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Online Exhibition Design:

An Annotated Bibliography

Matthew Hamilton

LI804XC

Theory of the Organization of Information

Dr. Lynne Chase

April 7, 2008

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ONLINE EXHIBITION DESIGN: AN ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bearman, D. (1995). Museum strategies for success on the internet. Spectra, 22(4), 18-24. Retrieved

April 3, 2008, from

http://web.archive.org/web/20010211004518/http://www.nmsi.ac.uk/infosh/bearman.htm

David Bearman is President of Archives & Museum Informatics, and has organized the annual Museums and the Web conference since 1997. Prior to that, Bearman served as Deputy Director of the Smithsonian Institution Office of Information Resource Management from 1982-86 and as Director of the National Information Systems Task Force of the Society of American Archivists from 1980-82. This article, one of the seminal pieces on design of virtual exhibitions, expresses concerns about some of the problems of digitization—hardware and software requirements, reproductions must be tailored to specific audiences and purposes, and that the representation of objects cannot replace the experience of taking in the object, and the meanings conveyed, in its physical, contextualized environment. He describes the need for successful interactivity, discusses potential problems of access, and examines the difficulty in establishing and protecting rights to the content. While some of his warnings have been addressed in the development of the Global Information Infrastructure since 1995, many of his points still remain valid and worthy of consideration when beginning the design of an online exhibition.

Carliner, S. (2001). Modeling information for three-dimensional space: Lessons learned from museum

exhibit design. Technical Communication: Journal of the Society for Technical Communication,

48(1), 66-81.

By examining the design of several museum exhibits, Carliner describes eight communication strategies used in physical exhibition design that can be applied to online exhibitions. Such strategies include: appealing to a variety of different demographic groups through targeted communications and respect for cultural diversity, selectivity in the choice of objects used to illustrate the focus of the exhibition rather than designing the exhibit around a collection of objects, the need to create an immersive experience for the user, and the desirability of layering content to allow visitors to choose the amount of complexity appropriate to their experience and level of interest. Following the advice of the article, web exhibition designers can enhance the satisfaction of those who visit their site. The author, Saul Carliner, teaches educational technology at Concordia University and serves on the editorial boards of The Canadian Journal of Learning and Technology, Information Design and Document Design Journal, and Performance Improvement Quarterly.

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Kalfatovic, M. R. (2002). Creating a winning online exhibition: A guide for libraries, archives, and

museums. Chicago: American Library Association.

This volume is a well-written, comprehensive resource that details the process of creating an online exhibition from start to finish. Kalfatovic covers aesthetics, where to get ideas, technical issues, organization, staff needs, the design process, and case studies of successful online exhibits. The author includes numerous appendices featuring: a sample exhibition proposal, a sample exhibition script, example guidelines for reproduction, suggested database structure for online exhibitions, a timeline for contracted exhibitions, sample Dublin Core metadata for an online exhibition, and a bibliography of exhibitions—both gallery and virtual. One of the book’s strengths is its easily understood overview of some of the most technical aspects of exhibit design, including: digitization; digital file formats; markup, scripting, and programming languages, database design; and ensuring accessibility on the web. Martin Kalfatovic is a digital projects librarian and the Head of the Smithsonian Institution Libraries’ New Media Office. Previously, he was editor of the Library and Information Technology Association (LITA) Newsletter.

Lester, P. (2006). Is the virtual exhibition the natural successor to the physical? Journal of the Society of

Archivists, 27(1), 85.

The author, Peter Lester, won the Forum for Archives and Records Management Education and Research (FARMER)/Society of Archivists Dissertation Prize in 2003 for his dissertation work that led to this article. He is currently an archivist with the Nottinghamshire Archives in the U.K. In this article, Lester suggests that online exhibition designers for archives and libraries can learn much from museum exhibition design, but expresses concern that the virtual cannot replace the physical encounter because such displays reduce archival documents to their “content”, stripping away meaning-laden context. He argues that the virtual will never supersede the physical exhibition, but can effectively be a continuation of the educational, preservation, and design principles used for in-house exhibits. The article provides a framework for designers wishing to apply those principles their online exhibitions.

Library of Congress. (2008). Exhibitions. Retrieved April 2, 2008, from http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/

This web page is a list of online exhibitions produced and hosted by the Library of Congress. Some are virtual extensions of physical exhibits housed in the Library of Congress galleries, but there are also many “online only” exhibitions as well. Here the staff of the Library of Congress have highlighted some of the LOC’s unique holdings and made them accessible online using a combination of static web pages and animated interactives. One example is Exploring the Early Americas, (http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/earlyamericas/online/) which “features selections from the more than 3,000 rare maps, documents, paintings, prints, and artifacts that make up the Jay I. Kislak Collection at the Library of Congress.” This exhibition allows for multiple

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visits by providing three thematic paths and provides for multiple layers of complexity for differing information needs. The design team has applied the principles of design as suggested by Bearman (1995), Carliner (2001), Schaller (2004), Silver (1997) and others to create an engaging exhibition.

Pettersson, R. (2002). Information design: an introduction. Amsterdam; Philadelphia: John Benjamins

Pub. Co.

Interdisciplinary, yet steeped in communications theory—this volume stresses that the goal of design is “clarity of communication”. Beginning with the information disciplines and moving into design disciplines, the author differentiates persuasion design from instruction design. The book examines message, text, image, and graphic design from both a theoretical and practical perspective, serving as either textbook or handbook for those interested in learning the elements of design. The author then turns from the designer’s role as sender to the user’s role as receiver and delves into the process of cognition. Attention, perception, processing, and learning from representations are all discussed, as is the application of knowledge by those with different cognitive and learning styles. While the book is not specifically intended for exhibition design, it is nonetheless a valuable resource for designers of informational materials. Pettersson is a professor of Information Design at Mälardalen University in Sweden and is Vice President in the International Institute for Information Design (IIID).

Schaller, D.T., Allison-Bunnell, S., Borun, M., & Chambers, M. (2007). One Size Does Not Fit All: Learning

Style, Play, and On-line Interactives. In J. Trant and D. Bearman (eds). Museums and the Web

2007: Proceedings. Toronto: Archives & Museum Informatics, Retrieved April 2, 2008, from

http://www.archimuse.com/mw2007/papers/schaller/schaller.html

The authors use David Kolb's Experiential Learning Theory as a model to examine the activities of those using online learning sites. They find that learning style can be a good indicator of an individual’s preference for certain types of learning activities. Age was also found to have a significant impact on user preferences, with children preferring structured activities such as role-play and design, while adults prefer more interactive, user-driven problem solving activities. With this knowledge, designers of online exhibitions can offer features that will appeal to different types of learners—thus increasing the educational impact on a wider selection of site visitors. The study, funded by a National Science Foundation grant, was authored by David Schaller and Steven Allison-Bunnell, two educational web developers for “eduweb” (http://www.eduweb.com/); with two museum researchers, Minda Borun, of The Franklin Institute; and Margaret Chambers, a consultant in educational research who works with museums.

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Schaller, D.T., Allison-Bunnell, S., Chow, A., Marty, P., & Heo, M. (2004). To Flash or Not To Flash?

Usability and User Engagement of HTML vs. Flash. In J. Trant and D. Bearman (eds). Museums

and the Web 2004: Proceedings. Toronto: Archives & Museum Informatics, 2004.

http://www.archimuse.com/mw2004/papers/schaller/schaller.html

For this paper, Schaller and Allison-Bunnell, both highly regarded in the educational design community, worked with three professors from Florida State University on a comparative evaluation of HTML and Flash versions of an educational web exhibition. Their focus was on “user information-seeking goals, behavior, and responses to each version of the site”. They found significant differences in user satisfaction and time spent on the site between the two versions. The article goes on to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the use of Flash and HTML for educational designers. For those considering or starting an online exhibition project, this article provides a useful summary of the pros and cons of the choice of format and offers concrete suggestions for improving their sites’ usability.

Silver, D. (1997). Interfacing American culture: the perils and potentials of virtual exhibitions. American

Quarterly, 49(4), 825-850. Retrieved April 5, 2008, from

http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/american_quarterly/v049/49.4er_folklore.html

The author is assistant professor of Media Studies at the University of San Francisco, as well as founder and director of the Resource Center for Cyberculture Studies. This article provides a definition of an online exhibition, separating the concept from both digital library and virtual museum: “virtual exhibitions are online, World Wide Web-based, hypertextual, dynamic collections devoted to a specific theme, topic, concept, or idea”. The article then goes on to acknowledge the benefits of online exhibits—they are easy to change, update, redesign; can be accessed by many users simultaneously from multiple locations; and are easily hyperlinked to other networked resources. Silver then goes on to examine three online exhibitions for their strengths and weaknesses, suggesting that a well-designed exhibit will enhance its visitors experience of the material in ways that a physical museum cannot. Designers of online exhibitions can implement these observations to maximize the value of their sites. He concludes by insisting that virtual exhibits should only enhance, not seek to replace, traditional exhibitions.

Smithsonian Institution Libraries. (2008). Library and Archival Exhibitions on the Web. Retrieved April 5,

2008, from http://www.sil.si.edu/SILPublications/Online-Exhibitions/index.htm

Taken over by the Smithsonian when the University of Houston stopped updating the list in 1998, this site now points to over 3000 online exhibitions. It is maintained by

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Diane Shaw, former chair of the Exhibition Awards Committee of the Rare Books and Manuscripts Section of the ACRL. The site is keyword-searchable by title, subject, and the name of the sponsoring institution. The criteria for listing provide a good definition of online exhibitions—to qualify, a collection must be organized to illustrate a particular theme or follow a narrative strategy. For those doing research into the design of online exhibitions or for designers seeking inspiration, this portal provides a comprehensive list of library and archive-related examples.

Yang, R., Ramaiah, C. K., & Foo, S. (2007). Virtual archival exhibition system: An authoring tool for

developing web-based virtual exhibitions. DCMI '07: Proceedings of the 2007 International

Conference on Dublin Core and Metadata Applications, Singapore. 96-105. Retrieved

April 1, 2008, from http://www.dcmipubs.org/ojs/index.php/pubs/article/view/11/9

Written by two professors and a librarian from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, this article describes the design and development of a Virtual Archival Exhibition System intended to enable users with minimal technological skill levels to create and update online exhibitions. Dublin Core elements are used to describe each artifact and thus provide layered information customized to different users’ information needs. Using the VAES software, virtual exhibits are created using pre-defined exhibition and artifact metadata. A specialized authoring tool provides a work space where users can browse, manipulate, and layout exhibition pages. XSL and CSS style sheets, produced separately by the web design team, are then used to create the final, consistent look and feel for the web site. This separation of form from content allows for multiple access points to singular objects. By starting with the metadata, the system allows for less technically inclined users to create exhibitions based on the desired topic or theme, selectively using only those objects applicable. Institutions seeking to adopt or create such a system are offered extensive advice on the structure of the infrastructure, application, and end-user layers required.