Navigating Your Way

Dear Bloggers,

Today’s entry serves as a sort of tool to the reader. I will be discussing various websites that will assist you in best finding your ideal museum (location, genre, current collection, etc.). Seeing as the focus of this Blog is to analyze the role that technology plays in the modern day museum, online databases regarding museums seem quite poignant.

If you’re seriously trying to plan a day at the museum, I’d advise doing your research before hand. This can range from calling the museum itself (which requires you to actually speak to someone, not to mention to already know where you’re going) to looking it up online. The latter option allows you to see what exhibits are being shown and when, view the location and travel time that it may take to get there, and peruse anything else that the site may have to offer. A great place to begin your search is USA Museums Database. Here, you can choose the state of your residence, the area you’re interested in visiting, and find a link that sends you directly to a selected museums direct website. It’s a huge time saver and is very easy to navigate.

Why is this necessary? Why cant you just go? Well, you can. Odds are, you’re always going to find something you like. In fact, we’ve all walked into our favorite museums at the right time and seen an outstanding exhibit that we hadn’t anticipated to see. However, this type of “off the street” luck is rare. In fact, in my experience it usually seems to work in the opposite direction. Tell me if this sounds familiar. You plan a day at the museum. You wake up early, in hopes of viewing the great exhibit you’ve heard so much about. Then you get there, and find out that the exhibit you’ve been so anticipating is tomorrow, or next week, or next month, or maybe just plain canceled.

Anyway, I found this to be of great help in my adventures to various museums. Take it or leave it.

See you again tomorrow,

Sonja