Digital Technologies and the Museum Experience: Handheld Guides and Other Media

Digital Technologies and the Museum Experience is a recent book that examines new technologies that can be used in museums to give visitors an innovative experience and transfer knowledge in ways that extend beyond the textual. The widespread use of digital cameras and MP3 players in the community has ensured many museum visitors will be familiar and readily accept new digital technologies.

The history of handheld devices in museums, is briefly outlined, by Loic Tallon, in the introductory chapter. The origins of “visitor technology” in museums started in 1952 with “short‐wave ambulatory lectures” at the Stedelijk Museum using a radio broadcasting system. Handheld technologies have since been incorporated into a range of institutions, including the American Natural History Museum, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the London Zoo.

Handheld digital devices, including mobile phones, cameras and PCs can be used by museums to enhance exhibitions by transmitting information to specific visitor groups. Museums have to appeal to visitors from a variety of cultural and educational backgrounds, including those with difficult learning styles and different expectations of the museum experiences. Digital devices have been very successful in some museums, as they ensure access to the museum's content. While sometimes these devices have suffered from technical problems, handheld digital devices were the only technology adapted by nearly every museum, until the advent of the internet.

The book is designed as a useful guide to new display technologies and visitor experiences and examines new research and practical applications of handheld digital technologies in many countries. Case studies include George Square in Glasgow, the CAGE project in the University of Birmingham and My ArtSpace in three universities in the United Kingdom (Chapter 9). In Chapter 7 editor Kevin Waller discusses ways that digital technologies assist collaboration and sharing by the use of methods such as “personalized learning trails”. Each chapter is written by a different expert and contributors include Peter Smais, Mike Sharples, Ross Perry and Lynn D. Dierkins.

The book highlights a number of problems with handheld devices. Do handheld devices personalise the museum experience to the extent of creating socially isolating experiences? Will the devices mix up the message and interfere with the narrative and “ultimately dilute or disrupt the engaging states the museum is so well placed to tell”? Can the use of these devices create negative feedback from museum visitors? Are digital technologies a valuable, reliable addition to museums or a passing trend? These dilemmas are examined in this book along with the theory and practical implementation of the new technologies and possible applications in the future.

Digital technologies have affected every industry, including museums and galleries, and they have the ability to engage the visitor in new ways to create a memorable and unique museum experience. Digital technologies can deliver large volumes and personalised information to target different learning styles and requirements, and this is what makes the technology so versatile and may lead to exciting new possibilities for museums in the future. This practical volume is recommended as a guide for museum staff from both large and small institutions to help understand the history and discuss the future applications of portable museum technologies.