Collaborative Work Practices in Museums
Since 1998, I have been studying the application of the theories and principles of computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW) to museum informatics. The sociotechnical implications of introducing information technologies into the museum environment are very interesting. As new information systems are developed to support current museum practices, it is particularly interesting to study the evolution of these systems, as they shape and are shaped by social structures already in place in the museum. By applying the theories and principles of CSCW to museum informatics, I have been able to study the development and evolution of information systems in museums.
My research in this area relies primarily on five years worth of data (1998 to 2002) gathered at the Spurlock Museum at the University of Illinois. During this time period, the museum professionals at the Spurlock were engaged in the tasks of inventorying, packing, and shipping their collections as part of a move from old to new facilities. To support these tasks, they developed a series of collaborative information systems, which then evolved over time as museum staff members improved their collaborative work processes. The evolution of the museum's information systems provides a valuable opportunity to study the changing nature of information architecture in the museum:
Marty, P.F. (2005). Factors influencing error recovery in collections databases: A museum case study. Library Quarterly 75 (3), 295-328. [Preprint | Final]
Marty, P.F. (2005). Factors influencing the co-evolution of computer-mediated collaborative practices and systems: A museum case study. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 10 (4), http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol10/issue4/marty.html
Marty, P.F. (2002). Museum Informatics and the Evolution of an Information Infrastructure in a University Museum. Doctoral Dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Twidale, M.B. & Marty, P.F. (2000). Coping with errors: the importance of process data in robust sociotechnical systems. In Proceedings of CSCW 2000. (pp. 269-278). Chapel Hill: ACM Press.
Marty, P.F. (2000). Online exhibit design: the socio-technological impact of building a museum over the world wide web. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 51 (1), 24-32.
Marty, P.F. (1999). Museum informatics and information infrastructures: supporting collaboration across intra-museum boundaries. Archives and Museum Informatics, 13 (2), 169-179.
While developing this research agenda, I have also been fortunate to explore such related topics as informal collaborative methods of improving data quality, the value of online educational outreach projects, and the open archives initiative:
Marty, P.F., Sheahan, K, & Lacy, A. (2003). Evaluating the Authenticity of Egyptian Cartonnage Fragments:Educational Outreach in Search of the Truth. In D. Bearman & J. Trant (Eds.), Museums and the Web 2003 (pp. 115-130). Pittsburgh, PA: Archives & Museum Informatics. Available online at http://www.archimuse.com/mw2003/papers/marty/marty.html
Cole, T., Kaczmarek, J., Marty, P.F., Prom, C., Sandore, B., & Shreeves, S. (2002). Now That We’ve Found the "Hidden Web," What Can We Do With It? The Illinois Open Archives Initiative Metadata Harvesting Experience. In D. Bearman & J. Trant (Eds.), Museums and the Web 2002. Pittsburgh: Archives & Museum Informatics. Available online at http://www.archimuse.com/mw2002/papers/cole/cole.html
Marty, P.F. & Twidale, M.B. (2000). Unexpected help with your web-based collections: encouraging data quality feedback from your online visitors. In D. Bearman & J. Trant (Eds.), Museums and the Web 2000. Pittsburgh: Archives &Museum Informatics. Available online at http://www.archimuse.com/mw2000/papers/marty/marty.html
I am currently working with colleagues at the FSU Ringling Museum of Art on a project exploring data quality issues in large scale distributed digitization projects:
Marty, P.F. (In Preparation). The changing value of quality control in distributed digitization projects: A museum case study.