Development of a learning system for a museum collection of print‐related artifacts
| Pages | 172-187 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/02640470810864073 |
| Date | 11 April 2008 |
| Published date | 11 April 2008 |
| Author | Cheng‐Wei Fan,Jun‐Fu Huang,Rong‐Jyue Fang |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
Development of a learning system
for a museum collection of
print-related artifacts
Cheng-Wei Fan and Jun-Fu Huang
National Science and Technology Museum, Kaoshiung, Taiwan,
Republic of China, and
Rong-Jyue Fang
Southern Taiwan University of Technology, Tainan, Taiwan, Republic of China
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present the concepts of the digital collection of Taiwanese
technological artifacts and reliable industrial technology, to proceed with the digitalization of the
collected objects and their related literature, and to classify the pictorial, written, audio, and visual
information of the database of the relief printing technology into groups with the principle focus on the
National Science and Technology Museum collection.
Design/methodology/approach – The paper describes the application of the Metalogy software to
develop a system that would satisfy the museum’s managerial staff, researchers, and general viewers’
demands on the same management and learning module.
Findings – The paper shows that a competitive digital collection web site has been implemented for
the museum learning system.
Originality/value – The paper describes a very practical and useful learning system for the
museum digital collection. This database can be developed as a system for the museum’s technological
artifacts resource, and thus become a precious digital asset of technological artifacts in Taiwan.
Keywords Digital libraries,Printing industry, Learning methods,Museums, Taiwan
Paper type Case study
Introduction
Printing technology originated before the seventh century A.D. After its rudimentary
stage of development in ancient China, it has spread and flourished all over the world.
The development of printing technology in Taiwan has always been closely related to
the needs in politics, religions, culture, and education. Because the development of
Taiwanese printing technology faces a major transformation due to the prevalence of
computer technology and the drastic advancement in other technologies, the National
Science and Technology Museum (NSTM) has had a plan to collect artifacts with the
theme of printing technology since its establishment in 1997. It exhibits the
contributions of printing technology in education, culture, and human life. It also
displays the diligent work done by technology users. Many items covering the periods
between 1930 and 1990, including typecasting machines, photo-engraving machines,
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/0264-0473.htm
This research project has been supported with a grant from the National Science Council,
numbered NSC91-2422-H-359-1804.
EL
26,2
172
Received 23 February 2007
Revised 21 April 2007
Accepted 27 April 2007
The Electronic Library
Vol. 26 No. 2, 2008
pp. 172-187
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
0264-0473
DOI 10.1108/02640470810864073
photo-typesetting machines, stereotyping plates, Chinese typewriters, paper matrices,
and printing presses, have been donated to NSTM.
As early as 1841, the cataloging rules established by Panizzi (1841) were geared
towards locating individual published items. Panizzi based his rules on the ideal that
any person looking for any special book should be able to find it through the catalog.
This tradition has continued over time through current standards such as the
Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules and reaffirmed in MARC, the standard for the
representation and exchange of bibliographic information that has been widely used
by libraries and museums for over 30 years (Chicago:ALA, 2002). Archival description,
on the other hand, is generally based on the fonts, that is, the entire collection of
materials in any medium that were created, accumulated, and used by a particular
person, family, and organization in the course of that creator’s activities and fun ction
(SAA, 2004). Thus, the basic unit of archival description is a much more complicated
entity than the basic unit of bibliographic description, and usual inv olving multiple
hierarchical levels of description that may or may not extend down to the level of
individual items.
A museum not only preserves culture, technology, and artifacts but also has the
function of displaying them and offering education to society. At the very beginning, a
museum served as a personal depository; nevertheless, its role has changed to include
the function of offering researches, exhibitions, and education. To keep up with the
constant advancement of the information technology through the web, the
establishment of a digitalized collection environment seems to be a good solution.
However, before archival description begins, the archivist must identify related groups
of materials and determine their proper arrangement. Once the arrangement is
determined, then the description of the materials reflects both their provenance and
their original order. The first explicit statement of the levels of arrangement in an
archival collection was by Holmes (1964) and has since been elevated to the level of
dogma in the archival community. A more recent statement in Describing Archives:
A Content Standard indicates that the actual levels of arrangement may differ for each
collection.
This research project aims at providing access for the general users, researchers,
teachers, and the museum staff about the museum’s digitalization and information
content through the established database. The center of the database, which revolves
around people, creates an environment that produces and displays information, and
offers education and value-added application of its information. The NSTM will also
promote the project appropriately to enable users to retrieve, search, and browse its
homepage, so that the digitalized information of its collections can be shared and
applied with added values.
Purpose of the project
This project, which is based on the collected information of the relief printing artifacts,
collaborates with the Museum’s overall related digital development. The authors are
trying to set up the structures of the metadata for the digital collection of the
Taiwanese technological artifacts and industrial technology. The technique of
metadata will be applied to transfer the Museums’ print-related artifacts (i.e.
typecasting machines, typewriters, printing presses and the like) into a dig ital
Development of a
learning system
173
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