COVID-19 and the museum environment

Formaldehyde has been used for specimen preservation for decades, though in recent years museums have been reducing use of the chemical due to the health and safety hazards it causes to both collections and staff members. Despite the chemical's physical absence from a facility, traces of the chemical may remain in the museum's indoor environment, creating a severe health and preservation issue for the well-being of the institution. Using the Natural Science Research Laboratory at the Museum of Texas Tech as a test case, the various tools and methods used to detect formaldehyde were evaluated within the museum environment. Additionally, guidelines for detecting and disposing of formaldehyde were reported.

Ethnographic textile artifacts are highly susceptible to fungal biodeterioration due to their organic composition and continuous exposure to microfungi in museum environments. This study aimed to assess the extent of microfungal contamination in the exhibition and storage areas of the Ege University Ethnography Museum and to evaluate the enzymatic activities (cellulase and protease) of the isolated fungal species to determine their biodeterioration potential. Air and surface samples were collected from display halls, storage rooms, and outdoor reference points during two seasons (spring and autumn) using a portable air sampler on DG-18, PCA, and MEA media. Fungal isolates were identified through macroscopic and microscopic examination supported by standard mycological keys, and their enzymatic activity was assessed using CMC agar for cellulase and skim milk agar for protease production. Microclimatic influences and seasonal differences were statistically evaluated using a two-sample independent t-test. Fungal load ranged from 120–450 CFU/m³ on DG-18 and 300–1000 CFU/m³ on PCA, with the highest values recorded inside display cases and storage zones. A total of 58 fungal isolates were obtained, predominantly belonging to Aspergillus, Penicillium, Cladosporium, Alternaria, and Rhizopus. Enzymatic assays showed that several isolates exhibited strong cellulase and protease activities, particularly A. sydowii, P. citrinum, A. flavus, and P. chrysogenum, indicating a high biodeterioration risk for cellulose- and protein-based textiles. Seasonal differences were statistically insignificant, highlighting the greater importance of microclimatic conditions and ventilation patterns. These findings underscore the need for integrated biological risk management and continuous microbial monitoring to protect ethnographic textile heritage from fungal deterioration.

The beginning of the 21st century is an exciting time for museums in terms of new, engaging and interactive exhibits. Current technological developments offer museums ideal opportunities to meet the increasing expectations of their visitors, many of whom are the younger generation growing up in the digital age. With a multitude of devices and objects as well as people incorporated into an ever-growing network of interconnected systems, new patterns, forms of interactions and social relations will emerge. In order to engage visitors, museums are adopting new technologies which come with many possibilities, but also have their individual challenges and limitations. Museums should start looking at the unification of many such technologies in order to capture visitor attention, engage visitor interaction and facilitate social activities, since the large quantity of digital input and output capabilities of these technologies are hidden potentials. However, unless specifically designed for, many of these capabilities remain hidden and technologies remain oblivious of each other's features. Making them aware of each other's capabilities opens the channels for new synergy and engaging experiences for museum visitors. This paper proposes a framework which uniquely identifies a community of people, artefacts and devices within the museum environment and provides the means to discover, and make use of the technological properties of each element, treating them as an interacting ecosystem of complex adaptive systems and networks in physical spaces.

The museum offers a starting point from which to examine the fundamental nature of collaborative work and interdisciplinary scholarship. This article examines the socio-technological impact of introducing advanced information technology into the Spurlock Museum, a museum of world history and culture at the University of Illinois. It addresses the implementation of such methodologies as computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW) and computer-mediated communication (CMC) in the museum environment. Discussions are illustrated with examples and scenarios drawn from the Spurlock Museum and emphasize the intimate relationship between the museum's social structure and information systems. Viewed in a holistic fashion, such studies of collaborative activities within the museum will help shape the future of museum informatics, an emerging sub-discipline of the field of social informatics.

Soiling measurements are needed to address strategies to control dust and determine its sources. There is no widely recognized method for dust monitoring in museums, but we used sticky samplers to collect deposited coarse particulate matter, and both manual microscopic observations and image analysis for determining soiling potential in the museum environment. We adopt fractional area covered by deposited particles as a surrogate for soiling and the covering rate (unit: s-1) as a measure of the rate of soiling. It was clear that visitor flow was a major contributor to soiling, such that soiling mechanisms in different museums could be compared after measurements were normalised on a per capita basis. The proximity of visitors to objects was another important factor with the soiling declining with distance from visitor pathways (a half-distance of about 0.5 m), which suggests soiling of objects on open display could be reduced by increasing the distance from visitors.

Анотація. Стаття присвячена дослідженню формування природничо-наукової компетентності в умовах музейного середовища в чеському м. Блудов, де знаходиться дитячий інтерактивний музей Прадєдово. Розглянуто суть природничо-наукової компетентності як такої, що дозволяє учням у майбутньому вміти аналізувати та створювати наукові тексти. На основі аналізу теоретичних положень і розгляду їх науковцями уточнено суть базових понять. Актуальність теми публікації підтверджується опитуваннями учнів та вчителів щодо ефективності відвідування музею. Дані дослідження переконують, що формування природничо-наукової компетентності ефективно відбувається в умовах музейного середовища, що активно застосовується в Чеській Республіці. Результати дослідження дають підстави для припущення, що компетентнісний підхід до навчання, формування різних компетентностей, у т.ч. природничо-наукової, можливий і ефективний у стінах дитячого музею. З цією метою наведено рекомендації для покращення освітньої політики та освітньої стратегії в Україні, активного застосування музейної освіти в загальноосвітніх навчальних закладах України для здійснення компетентнісного навчання, зокрема формування природничо-наукової компетентності як основи для здобування нових знань у подальшому житті. Результати дослідження можуть сприяти кращому розумінню вчителями та музейними працівниками необхідності формування й розвитку природничо-наукової компетентності у природних умовах музею, здійснення роботи в цьому напрямку. Це допоможе розробляти й оцінювати наукове дослідження та критично інтерпретувати наукові дані та докази; досліджувати, оцінювати та використовувати природничо-наукову інформацію для прийняття рішень і подальших дій.

Occurrence of organic pollutants in museum environments and their association with iron corrosion.

(1984). The treatment of polychrome mediaeval English stone sculpture in the museum environment. Studies in Conservation: Vol. 29, Preprints of the Contributions to the Paris Congress, 2-8 September 1984. Adhesives and Consolidants, pp. 167-170.

In today's society, the social or environmental problems that need to be solved and iteratively changed by people are becoming more and more complex. Along with the rising level of people's social life needs, people's demand for cultural life becomes more urgent, and museums become a brief habitat for people after work and study. The problems faced by people with disabilities in museums are not only about accessibility, but also about communication and interaction with other people and exhibits in the museum environment - the problem of barrier-free interaction. This study aims to explore the accessibility design of the Macao Museum, analyze the current situation of the hard and soft accessibility design of the Macao Museum, elaborate on the problems of the accessibility design of the Macao Museum, uphold the concept of humanized design, propose improvement strategies, and strive to help the disabled groups integrate into the public in their daily lives as much as possible through the humanized design of accessibility in all aspects.

This paper presents an agent-based education system featuring context-awareness. It detects the locations of visitors and deploys agents at computers near their current locations. When visitors move between exhibits at a museum, their agents follow them to annotate the exhibits in personalized form and navigate them to the next exhibits along their routes. The system enables visitors to interact with agents by their movements rather than by using portable devices, as visitor movement is one of the most basic and natural behaviors in museums. This paper also describes insights gained from our past experiments on agent-based education services.

Occurrence of organic biocides in the air and dust at the Natural History Museum of Rouen, France

Within a route of Education Naturalistic Museum (MAUS), we configured various types of intervention and study related to new technologies and new scientific languages, depending on the objective of learning and involvement. The idea of this work was to increase and to enhance the usability of MAUS Museum through App of Augmented Reality and through Virtual Reality projections, related to natural stimuli (Plankton 3D and Tarbosaurus 3D), to a site storage of exhibits and geo-referencing of the same and all analysis and stimuli validation on the basis of new technologies and on the basis of the of the elements of interaction’s characteristics. Easy Perception Lab is a project based on Information Technology in which we validated/evaluated the activation produced by stimuli presented in 2D and 3D in MAUS museum, developed on evolutionary and neuroaesthetic hypotheses.

This paper explores how the concepts of the slow movements can be applied to conservation. It examines the roots of preventive conservation, the relationship between the museum environment and the global environment and ways in which museums can reduce their environmental footprint. Links are made between sustainability and traditional conservation practices from different countries and periods. It is proposed that the long-term sustainability of museums depends on the value that the public place on them, and this can be built through the engagement of trainees, volunteers and the public through conservation. The impact of international loan exhibitions in driving common environmental specifications which reflect international standards rather than the local climate and the energy consumption that is involved in achieving these conditions is discussed. Finally, a manifesto for slow conservation is proposed.

Chinese traditional mortise and tenon is one important part of Chinese traditional furniture. Traditional display methods of Chinese traditional mortise and tenon is just physical models and photos. Using the technology of VR and AR, we can not only display the 3D models on the screen, but also interact with 3D models, which adds to interaction and interest. VR and AR display demanding of Chinese Traditional Mortise and Tenon is real three-dimensional display, interaction and interest. VR display can show inside of Chinese traditional mortise and tenon, which can also control the movement and change of mortise and tenon with certain operation and gesture. AR display can set up virtual Chinese traditional mortise and tenon in the real environment, for example, the education environment and the museum environment. VR display can provide more chances to show the secrets of Chinese traditional mortise and tenon, using interaction and game settings.

Abstract—‎This research investigates the impact of spatial configuration on visitor engagement within museum environments. Employing the space syntax tool Depthmap, the study quantitatively analyzes spatial metrics such as visibility and connectivity across various museums, including the Guggenheim Museum in New York. To evaluate the influence of these spatial indicators on visitor engagement, the study incorporates qualitative data from online reviews and social media comments. The findings reveal that visibility exerts a more significant influence on visitor engagement compared to connectivity, indicating that unobstructed sightlines to exhibitions enhance visitor satisfaction. The study concludes that to optimize the visitor experience, museum design should integrate aesthetically pleasing elements while strategically balancing spatial layouts to promote visibility and ease of navigation.‎ KEYWORDS: Museum Building, Exhibition, Spatial Configuration, Visibility, ‎connectivity, Visitor Engagements. ‎