The Role of Digital Components in The Museum.
One of the aspects that Letting Go? focuses on is how museums are relying more and more on digital content from blogs, podcasts, visitor contributions from feedback booths, and tweets. This is a response to a larger societal trend and museums are trying to stay relevant in a user created world. On the part of the museum, it seems like that is the only option to modernize, but I have reservations about the headlong dive into creating so many digital platforms.
What I really appreciated from Letting Go? is the acknowledgment of the downfalls that museums face with the pressure of creating digital content. While many visitors do have sentimental feelings towards the old museum paradigm, the new blended museum is here to stay. While reading, I realized that even though the book details many great digital museum sites, such as 21st Century Abe, I had never heard of them before reading the book. So, problem number 1: How do museums get the word out about their digital resources? If no one knows about it, does it even matter that it is good? Also, once visitors leave the museum, is there a role for the digital component of the exhibit?
The book is honest with its discussion of what has worked with digitally and what has not. While other museum books have extolled the virtues of the feedback booth, this book acknowledges that most contributions are unusable and silly. And, unfortunately, the good contributions have nowhere to go but to an archive where they probably won’t be seen again. This goes back to the earlier question – what is the point of digital components if they are bad? Is there such a pressure to bring digital aspects to a museum that quality is compromised? I realize that digital aspects within museums are a fairly new phenomenon, and of course, still in the process of trial and error. While the profession is growing and improving, it is refreshing to have a book where students of museum studies can see and learn from other museums’ efforts.