Relaxing on the Trail

This year’s Best of the Web awards were announced from the Museums and the Web annual conference. What I find surprising is that the winner of both Best Overall Museum Web Site and Best Museum Education Site was the National Theater of England’s Stagework. It’s not that I think this is a poorly designed site, but I question whether or not this working theater’s web site qualifies as a museum site.

Best research site went to DiscoverNikkei which is a clearinghouse site for all thing Nikkei from around the world, hoping to connect people and to share information about the Japanese diaspora. The National Japanese American Historical Society organized this together with many different academic and cultural partners. I like their Nikkei Album where they collect images, stories, et al to save in an online archive. I’m glad that they are using new media to collect and save the past from their users.

Best exhibition was Caught and Coloured Zoological Illustrations from Colonial Victoria, by Museum Victoria in Australia. It draws upon their archival collection of 19th-century zoological drawings of Frederick McCoy, once the director of the National Museum and professor at Melbourne University. This is a great, because it is rich in visual sources, as well as audio files with an actor reading from McCoy’s diary about specific species, such as the Bearded Rock Cod.

Best Innovative Site was SFMOMA’s Artcasts, which archives their podcasts. I have not listened to all of these, but I do wonder what makes them more innovative than say the Walker’s? And are podcasts the most innovative thing museums are doing? Perhaps. Could it merely be a matter of who threw their hats in the ring for consideration? Perhaps.