Digital libraries, virtual museums: same difference?

Abstract

PurposeThis paper provides an overview of activities in the field of virtual museums and considers a number of issues for which there are parallels in the field of digital libraries.Design/methodology/approachUsing a range of illustrative examples, we attempt to determine what defines a virtual museum on the one hand and a digital library disguised as a virtual museum on the other; when it makes sense for virtual museums to work in partnership with digital libraries, or draw on digital library research and development; and how the power of the digital environment might be harnessed to further the traditional values of the museum community.FindingsFinds that virtual museums and digital libraries have much in common and the boundaries between them are increasingly blurred. The provision of object‐level metadata, needed to realise the wider potential of the digital environment to enhance and extend the traditional museum experience, gives rise to a number of issues which are shared by libraries and for which shared approaches would be beneficial. In particular, collaboration between the museum and library communities is essential if solutions to the problems of cross‐domain searching are to be found and its potential to facilitate new knowledge creation fully exploited. However, any collaborative approach must take into account the differences, as well as the similarities, between the two communities, as these differences are fundamental and defining.Originality/valueThe paper will be of interest to museum, library and other information professionals, and particularly those developing distributed and/or cross‐domain digital collections.