Digital Information Access in Cultural Institutions
The Team
Who We Are
Jesse Ludington
(she/her)
Case Study Researcher/Site Author
Jesse wrote Case Study 1, "Eliminating Elitism on Museum Websites." As a first-generation college student, she is highly familiar with the ways museums and related cultural institutions are often perceived as elitist by many people. She believes that this perception of museums as ‘ivory tower’ institutions is in part due to the lack of socioeconomically accessible language and design in many museums’ public-facing digital materials, namely their websites. Jesse is currently in the MS Museums and Digital Culture program at Pratt Institute School of Information, and plans to pursue a career as a museum registrar or collections manager.
Ellysha Leonard
(she/her)
Case Study Researcher/Site Author
Elly L. wrote Case Study 2 on “Shareable Databases.” This is relevant to her work in Archaeology and Cultural Material Archives in the field's lack to cross-share information, and how that affects the value of the work. She focuses her work on accessing digital data on share-ability, search-ability, and open portals. In some hopes for standardization, she works to inspire the education for creation of shareable databases within all fields and their workers.
Sean H. Gao
(he/him)
Case Study Researcher/Site Author
Sean G. wrote Case Study 3 on "Language and Translation" for materials and restricted access. When sharing the same art content with different cultural backgrounds, translation issues and quoting contents can vary tremendously. As the overall museum environment changes, it is acceptable for American museums to illustrate and introduce foreign art pieces in a domestic interpretation. The context may not tell the true ideas behind the presenting cultural art pieces.
This case study will focus on how Chinese art is displayed and presented, comparing and contrasting visual adaptations of digital technologies during the curatorial design, and reflecting on how language and cultural deviation may occur at different perspectives and various cutting points when interpreting similar exhibits.
Tess Porter
(she/her)
Case Study Researcher/Site Author
Tess authored Case Study 4, "Accessibility." As the digital content producer for a public-facing museum platform designed for teachers and students to discover, create, and share digital museum resources, she is passionate about creating opportunities for everyone to remotely access the knowledge and resources that museums hold, and for educators to feel empowered in using museum resources with their learners. Tess is a student in the MS Museums and Digital Culture Program at Pratt Institute School of Information.
Authors: Sean H. Gao, Elly Leonard, Jesse Ludington, and Tess Porter; Editor: Sean H. Gao, 2021