Time for Renovations: A Survey of Museum web Sites

A significant number of museums have now had Web sites for several years. However, a Web site that is not maintained and developed regularly starts to look tired and outdated much more quickly than the matching physical organization because of the fast-changing nature of the technology, and hence also the expectations of many on-line users. This paper explores what museums have achieved so far and discusses what second-generation museum Web sites might consider adding to their on-line facilities, through consideration of the results from two on-line museum surveys. The first surveyed virtual museum visitors, which may be a useful consideration for museums thinking about updating their Web site. The second more recent survey covers virtual museum sites themselves, and illustrates the current situation with respect to a significant cross-section of museum Web sites. Both surveys were undertaken in cooperation with the Virtual Library museums pages (VLmp), an on-line directory of museums.