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From Docent to Cyberdocent: Education and Guidancein the Virtual Museum

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Archives and Museum Informatics

Abstract

The paper explores the nature of docents'work in museums. From this is derived the concept ofthe docent function to describe different aspects ofthat work, some of which may be performed by otherpeople and also by objects such as maps andguidebooks. This analysis leads to the idea of theCyberdocent – an extension of the docent function totake advantage of new possibilities afforded byadvanced technologies. The potential of theCyberdocent in both virtual and real museums isinvestigated. The authors claim that it is theprovision of docent functions that make a physicalmuseum more than merely a collection, and equally, itis by the provision of Cyberdocent functionality thata virtual collection becomes a virtual museum.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Information Systems, Technology and Management, University of New South Wales, Sydney, N.S.W., Australia

    W. Boyd Rayward

  2. Graduate School of Library and Information Science,University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA

    Michael B. Twidale

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  1. W. Boyd Rayward
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Rayward, W.B., Twidale, M.B. From Docent to Cyberdocent: Education and Guidancein the Virtual Museum. Archives and Museum Informatics 13, 23–53 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1009089906902

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