Use of computer interactives in museums

  • Author(s)
    Lynda Kelly
  • Category
    At the Museum
  • Published
    30 September 2009
  • Read time
    2 minutes

Results from the 2009 survey on computer-based exhibits now available on Open Exhibits website.

Jim Spadaccini says: "The results of our 2009 survey on computer-based exhibits are now available on the Open Exhibits Website. We received 150 responses from individuals from museums and educational organizations around the world.On the Open Exhibits website you can filter the results by "small" and "large" museums and by informal science education specific organizations."

Key findings (from their website):

  • 26% of all respondents and 35.6% of respondents from small institutions produce no interactive computer-based exhibits per year, on average.
  • 77% of respondents rate their organizations interest in improving its overall capacity to develop computer-based interactives in house as "interested" to "very interested."
  • 87.8% of respondents rate the popularity of computer-based exhibits with their visitors as "popular" to "very popular."

Very interesting. I'm wondering, however, whether computer interactives in exhibitions as we know them have had their day? Visitors I speak to want us to go back more to our collections and objects, and with the tightened financial circumstances do we have the resource to develop these? For example, the games I play with my 14 year old on Xbox far exceed anything we could ever offer in the museum.

Thoughts?