How has New Technology Changed the Concept of Museum (Essay Sample)

HOW HAS NEW TECHNOLOGY CHANGED THE CONCEPT OF MUSEUM?
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Abstract
In the wake of new and sophisticated technology in the modern age, the museum fraternity has not been left behind as a benefactor. New technology has propagated more effectiveness and efficiency of operation in the modern day museums. Among the array of new technologies available today, Information Communication technology is arguably the most pervasive in revolutionizing the concept of museum. ICT has changed the concept of museum in many aspects; Introduction of information systems in museums has gone far in reinstating the modern day museums, to bring more efficiency and effectiveness; museums today use social media, museum blogs and the museum you tube, for example, to create more awareness to the public on what they have to offer. This paper looks at how new technology has changed the concept of the museum by specifically analyzing the place of, and use of information technology in the modern day museum.
Introduction
Information technology has been a paramount dynamic in bringing revolution to the concept of museum in the modern day age. The role of information technology in modern day museum is outrageous, for example, IS used in museums today are of outstanding significance on efficiency in the operations of museum (Mason 2002). The cyber space too has been pervasive in bringing many museums into the limelight. In the absence of social media such as face book and twitter, many museums never got to be known. There are innumerable blogs today in the cyber space in which insights are provided by professionals on improving museums. The benefits of the information end to the museum concept are quite many. In this paper I will show how new technology has impacted on museum concept by focusing on ICT.
To begin with, information technology has brought about the concept of information systems to museum. Information systems comprise of components connected together, which communicate through interfaces and work in unity towards achieving of certain goals (Sander & Perkins 1999). Information systems have transformed manual systems into electronic systems. Through the IS, data is transmitted electronically rather than manually, hence there is faster communication. IT experts transform the manual systems into electronic systems through coding; the manual systems initially used before advent of IS, therefore, remain only as a back up to the IS.
This makes the work much easier and efficient. Manual records such as books can be easily misplaced; this is not true for information systems where the records are converted into electronic form. Information systems have therefore improved the museum by ensuring all the data is available for retrieval whenever needed, an information system prevents loss of key files from the museum, and it increases safety of the information (Bates 2010).
Electronic data is easy to access, use and manipulate. The data is a press of a button away, whenever an employee of the museum wants to access important information urgently, he or she will not go about searching piles of books or other manuscripts in the museum, he or she needs just to press a button on the keyboard or click a mouse button to access the data; this apparently increases the speed of operation which adds up to more efficiency and effectiveness in the context of the museum (Kavakli & Loucopoulos 1999).
In addition to the ease of accessibility of the data, it is also easy to use the information. One is able to get a gist of the information just by a glance of it on a screen through scheming; it is not so for data published in volumes of manuscripts, the data can also be used easily to predict the future using the computer simulation technique. Data stored in information systems is also easy to manipulate because authorized individuals in the museums only need to erase and update where necessary as opposed to manual scripts where they have to write up the script again. This makes it easy users of the systems to easy manage operations in the museums (Blackaby & Sandore 1997).
Museums have a lot to benefit from information systems, through integrated information systems; communication is made relatively easy in comparison to communication before the dawn of information systems (Yu & Mylopoulos, 1996). This is because communication is through interlinked computers in the museum which form an intranet for the employees, before the advent of these systems, communication was hectic because it was through use of manual methods. For example, sending a messenger from one office to another, this took a lot of time and message could be easily distorted before conveyance to the receiver, IS eliminated this, not to mention that it cuts down cost operation in museum because the third party in communication (the messenger). IS eliminated to remain with only the sender and the receiver, so there is no other cost incurred except that of transmission of the message if any. Fast and easy communication is important to the museum because it hastens the decision making process (Bubenko 1979).
Information technology has also brought improvement in the museum context because the IS makes it easy to allocate duties and track the employees. Through the information systems, individual accounts are created for employees where they sign in on arrival at the office. This makes it easy to trace and curb absenteeism because the manager needs not to be present at the working premises to realize who is absent or present. Surveillance cameras can also be fitted in line with the information system to monitor the activities of employees as they proceed with their operations (Kavakli & Loucopoulos 1999).
This increases the efficiency of operations and also cuts down management costs because one manager can manage several offices at the same time through use of the information system. Communication through the Information systems is enhanced by bringing the management team closer to the employees, they can ask for clarification on issues (Chin 2000).
Information systems installed in museums also makes the process of decision making fast. Decision making in modern day museums run through information systems is much faster in relation to decision making in museums of the antiquity which were ran through manual systems. The digital age in museums makes the process of decision making faster because there is faster consultation with stakeholders involved in the process, through fast communication fostered by the information system (Loucopoulos 2000). Faster decision making is crucial in the museum place because the faster the decision is made, the faster an action. This creates an incentive for modern day museum to grow at a faster pace in comparison to olden days’ museums when the decision making was too slack owing to the slow rate of consultation among stakeholders because distance was a barrier to communication. The distance barrier in communication is today a history in museums due to the use of ICT. An example of a museum that has realized rapid growth owing to use of functional information system is the Indiana arts museum (HYPERLINK "/biblio/author/2019"Eklund, Lawson, Goodall, Hijazi & Wray 2010). 
Information systems have, therefore, substantially improved efficiency in today’s museum in many ways, to top it all; information systems make it easier for operation managers to monitor activities of the museums. This leaves the top management level managers with the only mandate of strategic planning which is for the benefit of museums because the blueprints for the organizations are well thought of before they are laid down. Through integrated information systems, museums can also exchange information which is tentative to progress of the museums with network counterparts (Kavakli & Loucopoulos 1999).
The other aspect how information technology has helped improve quality in today’s museums is through the use of the World Wide Web. The internet which is the connection of myriads of intranets has made the world a global village where there is fast exchange of ideas across the globe. Today a person in Spain can easily obtain information of Museum in the United States, the antics they have, for example, and direction up to the museum (Loucopoulos, 1993).
The internet has made communication so fast and easy such that no one would want to imagine how the situation was before its advent. Communication through the internet today is at the speed of lightning provided that the necessary infrastructures are available. The internet has benefited the concept of museums in innumerable ways, for example, museum and the web is a portal paramount in improvement of today’s museum because there are discussions on how the modern museums can be improved. The internet has benefited the museums of this century in many aspects (Mason 2002).
One area of the cyber space that has benefited today’s museums substantially is the social networks in the internet. Social networks have linked almost all the people of the world. Through these networks there are many opportunities to users and today’s museums have not been left out of this trend of the information age. Many museums such as the Indianapolis arts museums have opened accounts in social networks such as Facebook. On the social network program, there are myriads of prospective clients who may get interest in visiting museums (HYPERLINK "/biblio/author/1669"Breure, Spruit, Voorbij & van den Heuvel, 2010).
Social networks have today created a virtual world where communication is substantially easy. Opening accounts with social networks is a very cheap yet successful method of introducing a museu...