６、Encouraging and Expanding Knowledge of Humanities and Science Museums through Communication between the Public and Curators

 

Mika MATSUO

National Museum of Nature and Science, Tokyo.

collaborator:Yoshikazu　OGAWA　, Motoko　SHONAKA（National Museum of Nature and Science, Tokyo.）

 

This presentation introduces an online database system which can help encourage communication between the public and the curators of both humanities and science museums. It is called “Science Literacy Passport β” and is part of our ongoing research project which started in 2012 at the National Museum of Nature and Science, Tokyo (NMNS). Online dialogues between the public and curators are expected to propose new utilization models of both humanities and science museums. This will result in an interactive lifelong learning system as a new museum function.

Briefly speaking, museum curators input data of their educational programs into their respective databases using a common framework which was proposed at the PCST 2010 Conference (Ogawa et al., 2010). The data is shared between not only museum curators but also museum users. The system was launched in July 2013 with 17 national and international partner institutions including NMNS (as of August 2013). The partner institutions are spread over five areas in Japan and they include museums for both humanities and sciences (e.g. zoos, aquariums, peace museums, art galleries, integrated museums, science museums and science centers).