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När börjar ditt museibesök? : Kommunikation och tillgänglighet på museer

Willesen Daorana, Amaunalik Lisbeth LU and Hussey, Lauren LU (2015) ABMM74 20151
Division of ALM and Digital Cultures
Department of Arts and Cultural Sciences
Abstract
Accessibility and communication are important concepts applied in museology and museum sciences, but are they implemented optimally in museums today? We have chosen to explore the application of these concepts in two cultural institutions for this thesis: Lund University Historical Museum and Malmö Konsthall, and have studied their implementation of physical and digital communication, and accessibility. This combination has been chosen because we claim that both of these aspects are critical in making museums and other cultural institutions accessible to all. We have studied both the intentions of the cultural institutions and the visitor’s perspective in our analysis.

Museums today use long-established communication methods but are... (More)
Accessibility and communication are important concepts applied in museology and museum sciences, but are they implemented optimally in museums today? We have chosen to explore the application of these concepts in two cultural institutions for this thesis: Lund University Historical Museum and Malmö Konsthall, and have studied their implementation of physical and digital communication, and accessibility. This combination has been chosen because we claim that both of these aspects are critical in making museums and other cultural institutions accessible to all. We have studied both the intentions of the cultural institutions and the visitor’s perspective in our analysis.

Museums today use long-established communication methods but are also expected to adopt more current approaches, specifically those that include new technology. The result of this study shows that accessibility is a broadly defined term that covers many aspects. It is difficult for museums and other cultural institutions to incorporate all of them at once. The survey shows that visitors on average thought it was easy to find their way around the institutions despite the lack of signage or visual aids. The results from the observations, however, show that the visitors were confused and needed help from personnel to navigate. The use of museum receptionists and docents was invaluable to visitors and orientation.

A museum visit is not confined to the physical location of the museum. The digital platforms these cultural heritage institutions use are also a part of the museum experience before and after the visit. Social media are instrumental in identity creation in this digital information age. Digital platforms are invaluable for visitors to plan visits, gather information about the museum and get details about ongoing exhibits. However, our results show that visitors are not using the social media platforms to the extent that was hypothesised. We propose that museums and other cultural heritage institutions use social media activity as a system of measurement in the same way as they count visitors today. The term “optimal accessibility” is used to denote an institution that has both accessible signage at the physical location as well as a website and social media accounts for outside the location. (Less)
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author
Willesen Daorana, Amaunalik Lisbeth LU and Hussey, Lauren LU
supervisor
organization
alternative title
When does your museum visit begin? : Communication and accessibility in museums
course
ABMM74 20151
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
accessibility, communication, social media, visitor studies, orientation, new museology, experience economy, identity, high modern society, museum, tillgänglighet, kommunikation, sociala medier, orientering, ny museologi, upplevelseekonomi, identitet, senmoderna samhället
language
Swedish
id
5463200
date added to LUP
2015-06-16 09:43:10
date last changed
2015-06-18 14:04:25
@misc{5463200,
  abstract     = {{Accessibility and communication are important concepts applied in museology and museum sciences, but are they implemented optimally in museums today? We have chosen to explore the application of these concepts in two cultural institutions for this thesis: Lund University Historical Museum and Malmö Konsthall, and have studied their implementation of physical and digital communication, and accessibility. This combination has been chosen because we claim that both of these aspects are critical in making museums and other cultural institutions accessible to all. We have studied both the intentions of the cultural institutions and the visitor’s perspective in our analysis.

Museums today use long-established communication methods but are also expected to adopt more current approaches, specifically those that include new technology. The result of this study shows that accessibility is a broadly defined term that covers many aspects. It is difficult for museums and other cultural institutions to incorporate all of them at once. The survey shows that visitors on average thought it was easy to find their way around the institutions despite the lack of signage or visual aids. The results from the observations, however, show that the visitors were confused and needed help from personnel to navigate. The use of museum receptionists and docents was invaluable to visitors and orientation. 

A museum visit is not confined to the physical location of the museum. The digital platforms these cultural heritage institutions use are also a part of the museum experience before and after the visit. Social media are instrumental in identity creation in this digital information age. Digital platforms are invaluable for visitors to plan visits, gather information about the museum and get details about ongoing exhibits. However, our results show that visitors are not using the social media platforms to the extent that was hypothesised. We propose that museums and other cultural heritage institutions use social media activity as a system of measurement in the same way as they count visitors today. The term “optimal accessibility” is used to denote an institution that has both accessible signage at the physical location as well as a website and social media accounts for outside the location.}},
  author       = {{Willesen Daorana, Amaunalik Lisbeth and Hussey, Lauren}},
  language     = {{swe}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{När börjar ditt museibesök? : Kommunikation och tillgänglighet på museer}},
  year         = {{2015}},
}