Design and Implementation of a Digital Museum
Chapter One
OBJECTIVES OF STUDY
The project is not done without an objective. The reason for embarking on the project is to remove the limitations found in the existing system. Majorly this is to overcome the distance barrier and then create a solution to documentation and retrieval of information. Having specified the problems inherent to the present museum, the objectives of the project are:
- To build a system that will provide a 3D digital museum that will present the museum to people live on their computer systems.
- To produce a system that will help the user to retrieve information when needed and timely.
- To create a system that will help the museum manager to conveniently add items and their information to the large database so that online visitors can walk through the museum and also view the item information.
- To develop a system that will balance the load of overwhelming visitors having to be at the physical museum daily. This in turn will allow the manager of the museum to keep the physical museum in order.
- To provide a system that will keep record of the item in a well formatted manner. E.g. according to the year, origin, item title etc.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
INTRODUCTION
To gain insight into the subject matter, it is always advisable to review the work done in the field. This is helpful because it makes the developer know what has already been done and how to carry on.
MEANING OF DIGITAL MUSEUM
According to (Jonathan P. Bowen, 2010), a digital museum is a digital entity that draws on the characteristics of a museum, in order to complement, enhance, or augment the museum experience through personalization, interactivity and richness of content. Digital museums can perform as the digital footprint of a physical museum, or can act independently, while maintaining the authoritative status as bestowed by ICOM in its definition of a museum. In tandem with the ICOM mission of a physical museum, the digital museum is also committed to public access; to both the knowledge systems imbedded in the collections and the systematic, and coherent organization of their display, as well as to their long-term preservation.
As with a traditional museum, a digital museum can be designed around specific objects (akin to an art museum, natural history museum), or can consist of new exhibitions created from scratch (akin to the exhibitions at science museums). Moreover, a digital museum can refer to the mobile or World Wide Web offerings of traditional museums (e.g., displaying digital representations of its collections or exhibits); or can be born digital content such as net art, digital reality and digital art. Often, discussed in conjunction with other cultural institutions, a museum by definition, is essentially separate from its sister institutions such as a library or an archive. digital museums are usually, but not exclusively delivered electronically when they are denoted as online museums, hyper museum, virtual museum, cyber museums or web museums.
PURPOSE OF DIGITAL MUSEUMS
The purpose of modern museums is to collect, preserve, interpret, and display items of cultural, artistic, or scientific significance for the education of the public (tucsoncitizen.com, 2012). The purpose can also depend on one’s point of view. To a family looking for entertainment on a Sunday afternoon, a trip to a local history museum or large city art museum could be a fun, and enlightening way to spend the day. To city leaders, a healthy museum community can be seen as a gauge of the economic health of a city, and a way to increase the sophistication of its inhabitants. To a museum professional, a museum might be seen as a way to educate the public about the museum’s mission, such as civil rights or environmentalism. Museums are, above all, storehouses of knowledge. In 1829, James Smithson’s bequest, that would fund the world famous Smithsonian Institution, stated he wanted to establish an institution “for the increase and diffusion of knowledge. ” Museums of natural history in the late 19th century exemplified the Victorian desire for consumption and for order. Gathering all examples of each classification of a field of knowledge for research and for display was the purpose. As American colleges grew in the 19th century, they developed their own natural history collections for the use of their visitors. By the last quarter of the 19th century, the scientific research in the universities was shifting toward biological research on a cellular level, and cutting edge research moved from museums to university laboratories. While many large museums, such as the Smithsonian Institute, are still respected as research centers, research is no longer a main purpose of museums. While there is an ongoing debate about the purposes of interpretation of a museum’s collection, there has been a consistent mission to protect and preserve artifacts for future generations. Much care, expertise, and expense is invested in preservation efforts to retard decomposition in aging documents, artifacts, artworks, and buildings. All museums display objects that are important to a culture. As historian Steven Conn writes, “To see the thing itself, with one’s own eyes and in a public place, surrounded by other people having some version of the same experience can be enchanting.” (Jim Bennett et al, 2005)
Kennicott and Philip (2011) said that museum purposes vary from institution to institution. Some favor education over conservation, or vice versa. For example, in the 1970s, the Canada Science and Technology Museum favored education over preservation of their objects. They displayed objects as well as their functions. One exhibit featured a historic printing press that a staff member used for visitors to create museum memorabilia. Some seek to reach a wide audience, such as a national or state museum, while some museums have specific audiences, like the LDS Church History Museum or local history organizations. Generally speaking, museums collect objects of significance that comply with their mission statement for conservation and display. Although most museums do not allow physical contact with the associated artifacts, there are some that are interactive and encourage a more hands-on approach. In 2009, Hampton Court Palace, palace of Henry VIII, opened the council room to the general public to create an interactive environment for visitors. Rather than allowing visitors to handle 500 year old objects, the museum created replicas, as well as replica costumes. The daily activities, historic clothing, and even temperature changes immerse the visitor in a slice of what Tudor life may have been.
RESEARCH AND SCHOLARSHIP
The digitalization of museums is a task that has combined efforts, budgets and research from many museums, cultural associations and governments around the world. For the last few years, there have been projects related to Information Society Technologies dealing with: preservation of cultural heritage, restoration and learning resources. Some examples of contributions in the field of digital and virtual museography: Euromuse.net (EU), DigiCULT (EU), Musings, Digital Museums Projects. European Community has founded various projects to support this filed, like V-Must, the Virtual Museum Transnational Network that aims to provide the heritage sector with the tools and support to develop Virtual Museums that are educational, enjoyable, long-lasting and easy to maintain (Michael Douma, 2000).
In 2004, Roy Hawkey of King’s College London reported that “Virtual visitors to museum websites already out-number physical (on-site) visitors, and many of these are engaged in dedicated learning”.
In establishing virtuality and promoting cultural development, the goal is not merely to reproduce existing objects, but to actualize new ones. Information and communication technologies are not merely tools for processing data and making it available, but can be a force and stimulus for cultural development.
CHAPTER THREE
INVESTIGATION (METHODOLOGY) AND ANALYSIS OF THE PRESENT SYSTEM
INTRODUCTION
Research methodology is a collective term for the structured process of conducting research. There are many different methodologies used in various types of research and the term is usually considered to include research design, data gathering and data analysis.
Research methodologies can be quantitative (for example, measuring the number of times someone does something under certain conditions) or qualitative (for example, asking people how they feel about a certain situation). Ideally, comprehensive research should try to incorporate both qualitative and quantitative methodologies but this is not always possible, usually due to time and financial constraints.
Research methodologies are generally used in academic research to test hypotheses or theories. A good design should ensure the research is valid, i.e. it clearly tests the hypothesis and not extraneous variables, and that the research is reliable, i.e. it yields consistent results every time. The approach used here is SSADM. Structured Systems Analysis and Design Method (SSADM) is a systems approach to the analysis and design of information systems.
SYSTEM INVESTIGATION (THE ORGANIZATION AND HER ENVIRONMENT)
The museums is located at Ikot Ekpene road, Aba, Abia state. That region is predominantly known as Bata. This museum forms the background of our study. The program under development adopts the procedure in that museum, virtually all the modules of the development will be tailored to the national museum of colonial history Aba.
The purpose of the museums is to collect, preserve, interpret, and display items of cultural, artistic, or scientific significance for the education of the public. The purpose can also depend on one’s point of view. To a family looking for entertainment on a Sunday afternoon, a trip to the local history museum could be a fun, and enlightening way to spend the day. To city leaders, a healthy museum community can be seen as a gauge of the economic health of a city, and a way to increase the sophistication of its inhabitants. To a museum professional, a museum might be seen as a way to educate the public about the museum’s mission, such as civil rights or environmentalism.
CHAPTER FOUR
DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION
INTRODUCTION
Having studied the current system deeply, the researcher therefore deemed it fit for a new system to be designed and implemented. The system will hopefully address the problems of the existing system by providing help and solution to the problem of its users.
At this point, it is pertinent to note the meaning of system design with regard to museum management system. The system design is the task of transforming the transforming the specified solution into program through coding. The system automates most of the things that were done manually before allowing the management to do task quickly and easily.
OBJECTIVES OF DESIGN
This project has the following objectives.
- To make artifacts of cultural and colonial history available to all through the internet and world wide web as a medium
- To increase historical and cultural awareness in the general populace.
- To make remote and distant museum contents accessible to all.
- To reduce the cost of preservation of historical heritage by adopting online archiving and story of historical detail.
- To design system that will be cost effective
- Development of a system that meet users’ requirement
- To design system that provides flexibility.
CHAPTER FIVE
SYSTEM DOCUMENTATION AND IMPLEMENTATION
INTRODUCTION
This process involved documentation of the program in case, if there is need to make their structure and operation understandable and to serve as a basis for further program maintenance, which chiefly include program specification and design.
HARDWARE AND OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIREMENT
The system requirements are the software and hardware requirements. The software requires a set of instructions that control a computer’s action. It is a computer program that accomplishes some specific applications or tasks. This software can be purchased or a user can develop the software from software developers.
The hardware requirements unlike the software refer to the physical components of the computer i.e. the peripherals in this design. The hardware and software requirements for this system are listed below.
Software Requirements
- Dream weaver CSS4
- Mozilla Fire Fox browser
- A graphic application (Adobe Photoshop 7.0, CorelDraw etc.)
CHAPTER SIX
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
SUMMARY
This project work dealt intensively on the design of computer application software for enhancing the physical museum. It clearly stated the design, aims, and objective and also the basis for which this project work was interestingly, taken up.
Included the very vital part of the research activities undertaking by the researcher in this project work are: critical review of various literatures by various authors and researchers in the field of computer applications and web design, analysis of the existing system in which involves interviewing museum managers to know the difficulties they experience and designing of the new system expected to solve the problems of the existing system, following specifications and using requirements. Also worth nothing at the activities of this project work is the very important aspect of designing which is testing and debugging.
Finally the research includes the manner in which the program was developed and also contains a user guide on how the system can be used.
CONCLUSION
Our project is only a humble venture to satisfy the needs in a museum. Several user friendly coding have also adopted. This package shall prove to be a powerful package in satisfying all the requirements of the museum.
The objective of software planning is to provide a frame work that enables the manger to make reasonable estimates made within a limited time frame at the beginning of the software project and should be updated regularly as the project progresses. Last but not least it is no the work that played the ways to success but
After we have completed the project we are sure the problems in the existing system were overcome. The “tourist system with 3D museum” was made computerized to reduce human errors and to increase the efficiency. The main focus of this project is to lessen human efforts and make the content of the museum available to user anytime. The maintenance of the records is made efficient, as all the records are stored in the access database, through which data can be retrieved easily. The navigation control is provided in all the pages to navigate through the large amount of records. The editing is also made simpler. The admin has to just select required item and press the update button to update the desired item.
The problems, which existed in the physical museum, have been removed to a large extent. And it is expected that this project will go a long way in satisfying users’ requirements. The computerization of the Museum will not only improves the efficiency but will also reduce human stress thereby indirectly improving human recourses.
RECOMMENDATION
This system is meant for all kinds of computers and devices since it runs on a browser. The new system contributed to the existing one, has a lot of significant advantages if employed. Therefore it is recommended:
- For proper management of the activities in the museum
- For reference sake.
- For the sake of knowledge expansion or further research.
REFERENCES
- http://tucsoncitizen.com/locally-vocally/2012/06/28/featuring-tucson-virtual-rainbow-connection/
- http://www.6pr.com.au/blogs/6pr-perth-blog/perths-online-memory-lane/20140225-33fey.html
- http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2013/04/08/3732116.htm
- Jonathan P. Bowen, A Brief History of Early Museums Online, The Rutherford Journal, Volume 3, 2010.
- Jonathan P. Bowen, Jim Angus, Jim Bennett, Ann Borda, Alpay Beler , Andrew Hodges, and Silvia Filippini-Fantoni, The Development of Science Museum Websites: Case Studies. In Leo Tan Wee Hin and Ramanathan Subramaniam (eds.), E-learning and Virtual Science Centers, Section 3: Case Studies, Chapter XVIII, pages 366–392. Idea Group Publishing, Hershey, USA, 2005.
