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By Dmitriy Luchkin - January 2001
The last issue of Cultivate Interactive featured an article on the creation of the Russian Cultural Heritage Network (RCHN) [1]. Dmitriy Luchkin continues the story by reporting on Russian Museums Online [2], the Russian Cultural Heritage Network’s main resource centre.
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Russian Museums Online was launched in May 1996 and the site now has about 30,000-45,000 visitors per month. Its comprehensive on line database contains 2,034 museums with detailed descriptions and images (in total about 9Gb) served by a powerful and easy to use search engine. Russian Museums Online is also a powerful guide to cultural Web sites. It currently holds approximately 550 detailed descriptions and ratings with most material presented in both English and Russian.
Thinking back on my memories of starting up Russian Museums Online the first thing that comes to mind is the enthusiasm that we all felt for it. We were pioneers in a new area and were in awe of the exciting elements we faced. We also had a strong awareness that the further we were challenged and got involved, the better we strengthened our positions. Whilst resolving different emerging issues we were constantly gaining experience. It was in this way that a considerable amount of the expertise that has been of value to us was accumulated by our team.
The key result of the initial activities carried out was the emergence of a development process. There were signs of a convergence between our social incentives and the needs of individuals; the development process successfully enabled a combination of the demands of the organisational environment and patterns of personal motivation shown by most of the staff. We luckily managed to organise the Russian Museums Online for release at a period when it was needed. At the time the process was not evaluated because the potential users had little idea about cultural Internet resources. A need for the product we were creating was never measured although it was easy to anticipate that the interest in Russian museums and galleries would gradually grow.
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| Figure 1: The Museum Maps section on Russian Museums Online |
It was lucky that from the start we had evaluated a number of different models of information dissemination through the Internet. We decided to include as many different museum resources as possible in Russian Museums Online's content. This was a decision that gives our visitors numerous benefits. It is much easier to use the site to find well-known museums than a group of distributed resources. In light of this an overall registration of Russian Museums was later conducted and this helped to gain information about the museums for which there was currently no Web site available. Through the accumulation of a tremendous amount of data the Russian Museums Online brand began to move up the ladder of popularity and success.
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| Figure 2: Surround video of the State Darwin Museum on Russian Museums Online |
The presentation of the information on the site was also helped by 'state-of-art' design. The site combines a placid colour palette with an appropriate and easy to use navigation system. Although most visitors now give us a very complimentary evaluation of the site we continue to renew and change the site. We believe that there are no limits to perfection; so both the database of museums and search engine are constantly under development. Additionally in order to expand our development we've been opening different services in response to the changing needs and interests of our visitors: cultural heritage professionals and the general public alike. The following significant sections of interactive communication have been recently added to Russian Museums Online:
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| Figure 3: Russian Museums Online's Navigation Buttons |
As a result of implementation of these initiatives we can say that our Web site gives visitors a real opportunity for artistic debate and intellectual, cultural and scientific exchange. The site brings together a lot of people, educates them and creates a virtual community.
So who exactly are the visitors to Russian Museums Online? They are students, teachers and professors who search for relevant information about Russian culture and art; artists, gallery and museum professionals who want to be informed what it’s going on in the culture and art fields. There are also many visitors who want to receive announcements and news about upcoming events while some people are just curious about Russian culture and art. Our target audience could be defined as professionals from the culture, art and museum communities and laypersons. Currently we don't manage to translate all the information being presented from Russian to English but we are working on it.
In conclusion Russian Museums Online is the most developed part of the Russian Cultural Heritage Network. The project aims to facilitate access to culture and use of the cultural heritage using new information and communication technologies. It also aims to put the Internet at the disposal of heritage professionals.
The RCHN hope to be an active partner in the newly formed Cultivate Russia.
1996 – The Russian Museums Online Web site was successfully launched as an interactive node for representation the Russian museums’ content and Russian Cultural Heritage’s promotion in general. By the end of 1996 the technological base of the project was prepared and the preliminary database of the Russian Museums created.
1997 - The structure of databases on the server was completed and transferred to MS SQL Server.
1998 - The Forum (Board for discussions and information exchange), where different users communicate with each other and conferences on the culture subject take place, was presented.
1999 - Detailed information about the Russian museums held on the database was considerably increased.
February 2000 - The Internet Learning Center was created. Each user can introduce a lecture on the culture and museums content subject as well as attend and look through it. All lectures after the selection have a free online access.
April 2000 - We receive the Intel Russian Internet Award on the Art nomination.
May 2000 - The number of the site visitors reached the 1,000,000 level
August 2000 - The Russian Museums Online resource celebrates its 4th birthday after reaching 1,111,111 visitors
1. Russian Museums
Online
URL: <http://www.museum.ru/>
2. Cultural Heritage
Networking in Russia: Permanently Upcoming Perspectives,
Dmitriy Luchkin, Cultivate Interactive, issue 2, 16 October
2000
URL: <http://www.cultivate-int.org/issue2/russian/>
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Dmitriy Luchkin
Development and International Cooperation Manager
Russian Cultural Heritage Network
Dept. 110, State Darwin Museum Building
Vavilova Street 57, 117292 Moscow, Russia
Phone: 7 095 135 33 85
Dmitriy Luchkin is the Development and International Cooperation Manager for the Russian Cultural Heritage Network (RCHN).
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For citation purposes:
Luchkin, D. "Developing Russian Museums Online", Cultivate Interactive, issue
3, 29 January 2001
URL: <http://www.cultivate-int.org/issue3/russian/>
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