Transforming Brick-and-Mortar Institutions: An Analysis of Digital Engagement in Small-City Museums and the Impact of Digital Transformation

Xinyao Wang; Shyhnan Liou; Chia-Han Yang

doi:10.71113/JMSS.v2i2.198

Authors

Xinyao Wang Institute of Creative Industries Design, National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan
Shyhnan Liou Institute of Creative Industries Design, National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan
Chia-Han Yang Institute of Creative Industries Design, National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.71113/JMSS.v2i2.198

Keywords:

Digital Transformation, Sustainable Development, Small-City Museums, COVID-19 Pandemic.

Abstract

This paper explores the digital transformation journey of Liaoyang Museum, a national-level museum located in a small city with limited resources and audiences. An analysis of the museum's WeChat public account and official website reveals a dynamic interplay between digital strategies, cultural heritage preservation, audience engagement, and sustainable development. The study highlights the museum’s proactive response to the COVID-19 pandemic by embracing online platforms and investing in physical infrastructure and technology. Challenges identified include resource optimization, talent gaps, and the need for a more holistic approach to digitalization. The paper concludes by emphasizing the importance of integrating digital technologies with traditional practices to foster community engagement, promote cultural awareness, and achieve sustainable museum development.

References

[1]Agostino, D., & Costantini, C. (2022). A measurement framework for assessing the digital transformation of cultural institutions: the Italian case. Meditari Accountancy Research, 30(4), 1141-1168.

[2]Al-Hashim, A., & Bankari, N. (2024, February). Application of Digital Documentation in Vernacular Architecture Studies: Case of the Omani French Museum in Mutrah. In 2024 2nd International Conference on Unmanned Vehicle Systems-Oman (UVS) (pp. 1-7). IEEE.

[3]Arrigoni, G., Schofield, T., & Trujillo Pisanty, D. (2020). Framing collaborative processes of digital transformation in cultural organisations: from literary archives to augmented reality. Museum Management and Curatorship, 35(4), 424-445.

[4]Cassidy, K. A., Fabora, A. A., Miller, A., Will, K., Ulveena, S., Anta, M., Comings, A., Wang, Y. J., & Deng, J. Y. (2020). Digital approaches for community museums. International Museum (Chinese Version), (Z1). (pp.110-122).

[5]Cosmin, I., & George, S. (2021). Exploring the Antecedents of Fast Digital Transformation of Museums in the Context of Covid-19 Pandemic. Risk in Contemporary Economy, 147-160.

[6]De Bernardi, P., Bertello, A., & Shams, S. M. (2019). Logics hindering digital transformation in cultural heritage strategic management: An exploratory case study. Tourism Analysis, 24(3), 315-327.

[7]Dibitonto, M., Leszczynska, K., Cruciani, E., & Medaglia, C. M. (2020). Bringing digital transformation into museums: the Mu. SA MOOC case study. In Human-Computer Interaction. Human Values and Quality of Life: Thematic Area, HCI 2020, Held as Part of the 22nd International Conference, HCII 2020, Copenhagen, Denmark, July 19–24, 2020, Proceedings, Part III 22 (pp. 231-242). Springer International Publishing.

[8]Dou, W. L. (2023, September). Problems, innovative cases, and suggestions faced by museums in digital construction. Science Education and Museums (pp. 46-53). DOI: 10.16703/j.cnki.31-2111/n.2023.02.008.

[9]Federal Government. (2020, March). Federal government invests $50M in museums, libraries to address digital divide during COVID-19: CARES Act designates funds to expand local internet and technology access. [Institute of Museum and Library Services]. https://www.imls.gov/news/federal-government-invests-50m-museums-libraries-address-digital-divide-during-covid-19

[10]Feng, H., Wang, F., Song, G., & Liu, L. (2022). Digital transformation on enterprise green innovation: Effect and transmission mechanism. International journal of environmental research and public health, 19(17), 10614.

[11]Hadi, S., & Baskaran, S. (2021). Examining sustainable business performance determinants in Malaysia upstream petroleum industry. Journal of Cleaner Production, 294, 126231.

[12]ho Park, J. (2012, August). Digital restoration of Seokguram Grotto: the digital archiving and the exhibition of South Korea's representative UNESCO world heritage. In 2012 International Symposium on Ubiquitous Virtual Reality (pp. 26-29). IEEE.

[13]Jung, Y. (2016). Micro examination of museum workplace culture: how institutional changes influence the culture of a real-world art museum. Museum Management and Curatorship, 31(2), 159-177.

[14]Kamariotou, V., Kamariotou, M., & Kitsios, F. (2021). Digital transformation strategy initiative in cultural heritage: The case of Tate Museum. In Digital Heritage. Progress in Cultural Heritage: Documentation, Preservation, and Protection: 8th International Conference, EuroMed 2020, Virtual Event, November 2–5, 2020, Revised Selected Papers 8 (pp. 300-310). Springer International Publishing.

[15]Kornelaki, A. C., & Plakitsi, K. (2018). Thunderbolt Hunt. Educational Program for Students from 5 to 9 Years Old in the Archaeological Museum of Ioannina. World Journal of Education, 8(4), 87-101.

[16]Krämer-Weidenhaupt, L. (2022). Management Practice Supporting Sustained Development in the German Art Collection. Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG.

[17]Leite, S., Borges, I., Costa, E., Machado, A., Braga, J. L., & Mota, S. (2022). The Role of Museums in Times of Pandemic—Museu da Misericórdia do Porto Case Study. In Advances in Tourism, Technology and Systems: Selected Papers from ICOTTS 2021, Volume 2 (pp. 515-524). Singapore: Springer Nature Singapore.

[18]Li, P. P., & Chang, P. L. (2017, May). A study of virtual reality experience value and learning efficiency of museum-using shihsanhang museum as an example. In 2017 International Conference on Applied System Innovation (ICASI) (pp. 1158-1161). IEEE.

[19]Li, X., & Zhang, J. (2020, December). A visual system for exploring digital cultural relics and generating narrations. In 2020 2nd International Conference on Information Technology and Computer Application (ITCA) (pp. 614-619). IEEE.

[20]Liaoyang Museum, https://www.lnlymuseum.com/news/index/cid/1/p/5.html, accessed on 15th/09/2024

[21]Liu, B. B. (2024, June). The digital perspective of cultural heritage: Transformation strategies and challenges of museums in Fujian Province. China Ethnic Museum (pp. 238-240). doi: CNKI:SUN:MZBL.0.2024-06-078.

[22]Lutman, S., Smith, K. J., & Rudolph, G. (2021). Digital transformation: An assessment of grants supporting digital staff in museums. 8 Bridges Workshop. https://knightfoundation.org/reports/digital-transformation-an-assessment-of-grants-supporting-digital-staff-in-museums/

[23]Muşkara, Ü., Tunçelli, O., & Hülagü, K. T. (2022). Cultural Heritage Management in Post-industrial Sites: The Case Study of Seka Paper Museum and Kocaeli Science Center. In Cultural Sustainable Tourism (pp. 3-14). Cham: Springer International Publishing.

[24]Pan, X., Schiffer, T., Schröttner, M., Havemann, S., Hecher, M., Berndt, R., & Fellner, D. W. (2012, September). A scalable repository infrastructure for CH digital object management. In 2012 18th International Conference on Virtual Systems and Multimedia (pp. 219-226). IEEE.

[25]Podzharaya, N., & Sochenkova, A. (2020, June). The Concept of Smart Tourism Based on Museum Digitalization in Montenegro. In 2020 9th Mediterranean Conference on Embedded Computing (MECO) (pp. 1-4). IEEE.

[26]Qin, T., Wang, L., Zhou, Y., Guo, L., Jiang, G., & Zhang, L. (2022). Digital technology-and-services-driven sustainable transformation of agriculture: Cases of China and the EU. Agriculture, 12(2), 297.

[27]Raimo, N., De Turi, I., Ricciardelli, A., & Vitolla, F. (2022). Digitalization in the cultural industry: evidence from Italian museums. International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, 28(8), 1962-1974.

[28]Repetto Málaga, L., & Brown, K. (2019). Museums as tools for sustainable community development: four archaeological museums in Northern Peru. Museum International, 71(3-4), 60-75.

[29]Reynolds, A. (2017). From Crowdsourcing to the Commons: Towards critical and meaningful digital collaboration in museums. The International Journal of the Inclusive Museum, 10(2), 49.

[30]Richardson, J. (2021, January). Digital ideas for museums in a post-pandemic world. MuseumNext. https://www.museumnext.com/article/digital-ideas-for-museums-in-a-post-pandemic-world/

[31]Roque, M. I., Campos, A. C., Almeida, S., & Pasandideh, S. (2024). Transforming museum management through ICT adoption: an analysis of the Portuguese context during the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Heritage Tourism, 19(5), 730-747.

[32]Sebastián Lozano, J., Alba Pagán, E., Martínez Roig, E., Gaitán Salvatella, M., León Muñoz, A., Sevilla Peris, J., ... & Mladenič, D. (2023). Open Access to Data about Silk Heritage: A Case Study in Digital Information Sustainability. Sustainability, 15(19), 14340.

[33]Shi, P., & Feng, Y. (2020, September). Thoughts on Some Problems in the Digitalization Construction of Museums. In The 3rd International Conference on Economy, Management and Entrepreneurship (ICOEME 2020) (pp. 559-562). Atlantis Press.

[34]Šobáňová, P. (2016). Mobilní aplikace muzeí a galerií--smysl a typologie nového projevu muzejní kultury. Museum: Museum & Regional Studies, 54(2).

[35]Stroumpoulis, A., & Kopanaki, E. (2022). Theoretical perspectives on sustainable supply chain management and digital transformation: A literature review and a conceptual framework. Sustainability, 14(8), 4862.

[36]Wang, M., & Wang, J. L. (2024). Empowering the Metaverse: Digitalization of the Urban Memory Archives of Zhang Jian Museum. Cultural Industry (pp.154-156). doi: CNKI:SUN:WHCC.0.2024-16-051.

[37]Wang, W., & Ma, M. (2024, July) Interactive design of museum exhibitions in the digital age: A study based on the case of the British Museum. Art Observation (pp. 123-126). doi: CNKI:SUN:MSGC.0.2024-07-023.

[38]Wang, Y. (2014). The role of large enterprises in museum digitization. Conservation Science in Cultural Heritage, 14(2), 67-72.

[39]Wu, S. W. P., & Din, H. W. H. (Eds.). (2014). Digital heritage and culture: strategy and implementation. World Scientific.

[40]Yi, Y. (2018). Research on the Internet-based Cultural Tourism Transformation Strategy.

[41]You, X. Y., Yang, L. Y., Yin, Y. X., & Zhang, Y. J. (2024, July). Research on the dissemination strategies of digital museums in the context of cultural digitization: A case analysis based on ten national first-class museums. Journal of Beijing Institute of Graphic Communication, 32, (pp. 20-24). DOI: 10.19461/j.cnki.1004-8626.2024.07.003.

[42]Zhang, B. (2014). A Study of Construction and Function of Digitalized Platform of Museum. Advanced Materials Research, 971, 1974-1977.

[43]Zou, D. H. (2022). Research on spatial exhibition design of archaeological site museums under "Immersion and Narrative" digital technology [D]. Lu Xun Academy of Fine Arts. DOI: 10.27217/d.cnki.glxmc.2022.000180.

[44]Zhang, Y. Q. (2023). Case study of virtual restoration technology and digital technology attracting visitors to museums [D]. Nanjing University of the Arts. DOI: 10.27250/d.cnki.gnjyc.2023.000376.