| The emphasis in the definition of a museum is changing, as exemplified by the differences in the museological approaches between two editions of Alberta's Standard Practices Handbook for Museums and recent articles in museological periodicals. The new focus on serving society, combined with modern computer design, developments in humanities computing, and international examples of smart museums create the potential for smart innovations in Alberta's arts museums regarding gallery exhibitions, collections conservation, publication, and the relationship between museums and society. Fort George and Buckingham House Provincial Historic Site, the Royal Alberta Museum, and the Art Gallery of Alberta represent a spectrum of arts museums. They share common concerns related to offering more interpretive information, digitization of inventory and metadata files, website publication, resource rooms, monitor faces and interfaces in gallery displays, and investing resources in digital materials development. The resource room and the website offer unprecedented opportunities for information dissemination, but the gallery offers the immediacy of proximity to actual art and artifacts. Their juxtaposition and synthesis make each more powerful and more valuable. |
