Here we will present the museum sphere of application of the ICTs and will try to explain why they are so important.

Today there is almost no successful museum activity without ICTs, used in it. Following the path of the cultural values from the uncovering to their appearance in the museum show cases – we should start with the museum research work.

After being excavated or bought, the certain valuable/exhibit should be deeply analyzed from the scientific point of view. The archeologists/curators, restorers start researching the origin date, the material, the producing center/school, the author /if it is painting, inscription etc. Except explored in advance books and historical documents, the next step of the researchers is to find analogues. Nowadays, for quick finding and comparing with similar valuable are used computer data bases and software/applications for virtual reconstructions. They make researcher’s work easier and give direction of thinking, or proof the authenticity and real scientific content of the excavated/bought/ donated object.

After the scientific exploration is finished – the valuables have to be described as museum exhibits - again with the help of software. They include data bases with number of categories/tables that should be filled in – with the exigible information about every exponent. This information is necessary for correct identification of every exhibit. It is also used in possible cases of theft or losing the valuables by certain insuperable circumstances. In the tables/digital passports of the valuables are put also their digital images. They describe the exhibit from different views and angles. The digitalized visual information of identification can be used for deep scientific analyze too.

The digitalized information, describing the identity of the valuables is not the only option of ICT use in the museum storage work. Most of the museums have thousand and even million exponents. They should be kept in certain order. That’s’ why PC’s applications are often used for arranging the order in the storages. The storage keepers fill in this data base every day and register all changes in the movement and localization of each exhibit. Otherwise the order and the orientation in the storages will disappear. All the museum work will be mixed up or stopped. The admission to work with these databases and to use this software has only the storage officer of the museum, but they are obligatory for the contemporary museums.

The design work in the museum spaces uses ICTs as well. Though the design is mostly a creative activity, it is connected with the space arrangement and needs certain software that help designers in offering/checking different variants of design decisions before electing the best/optimal one for the new exhibition - for instance. The same is with the museum lighting, acoustic equipments etc. The equipment of the permanent and the temporary exhibitions should be discussed by the whole staff of the museum – from different points of view, in advance. So, this is possible only by commenting on digital/virtual models. So, the museum designers and experts in space arranging should be well qualified in using such software. Without them – there is a risk of wrong practical results. 

The next sphere of the museum activity that needs ICT is the exhibition/show cases arrangement.  Every exhibition has its own exhibition plan that includes exhibits, texts, pictures and other different elements, that should sound harmonically. ICTs can help in arranging the visual, textual and contextual elements by computer based unification of the colors, the graphic design, the fonts in the texts etc. The PC graphic design applications can unify the styles of the texts and the pictures – closer to the original exhibits. So the contextual elements will be almost as the typical ones for the certain époque, if possible, or at least aesthetically combinable. The curators, responsible for the exhibition/show cases design, use variety of computer programs to reach the authentic vision of every theme and show case. Otherwise they look nonprofessional. 

The most active implementation and usage of ICTs in the museums is in the sphere of the communication/mediation with the public. There are different types of devices, applications, used for museum mediation. The main aspects of their enclosure in the museum communicational activity are presentations and education. We will explain the use of ICTs in the both aspects in the last two units.

The effective museum communication needs popularization and advertisement. If the museum wants to attract people and to materialize the communication between them and the cultural heritage – first should inform the public and popularize its activities. That is what museum PR experts do. Every initiative, new exhibition, educational program, etc. has to be presented professionally. The museum needs certain publications in web sites and in social networks, in Medias, needs some promoting materials/leaflets, posters, catalogues etc. These promoting materials can be done in the museum only with the help of ICTs. There are some easy to use computer softwares and ready to use web-templates that can be used for preparing info materials inside of the museum. These materials are not expensive and do not take too much time.

Almost every small exhibition, program, celebration, seminar, conference etc. can be affiliated with such “self museum made” promoting materials in advance. If the events are too important and official, the museum may use specialists from outside, but the preliminary work can be done in the museum. The same is with the materials for digital Medias. Most of the radio interviews today are taken in advance and they include audio files from different events, prepared from the museum staff. In the web-sites and some TV presentations is the same. The museums give video clips and audio-video materials to the journalists – to save up time and money. The digital cameras collect a lot of information from the museum public and nonpublic/professional activities. This information can be gathered and arranged as museum archive, as well. And it is very easy and important, because keeping the history of the society - the museums often forget to keep its own institutional history.

The museum marketing and ticket sales activities use ICTs mandatory. The contemporary exhibition planning passes through marketing of the future product. Not all museums are able to make computer models of the forthcoming exhibitions – with the idea to check the public interest, but quite all of them can afford making small inquiry into their new planned projects, or even into the effect of the realized one. Here the role of the ICTs is too big. The computer models of the planned exhibition can be put on the website or in the Facebook/Twitter profile of the museum, accompanied with small information about the intentions and purposes of the new project. The preliminary enquiry should be put there as well and the results can be analyzed before starting the initiative. Even though the visitors of the profiles and the participants in the inquiry will not be so many, usually they are the constant public and their opinion is representative. Their opinions can be taken into account to define the scale/measure of the planned project, or even to take the right decision – to start the project, or not.  

As for the ticket sales – the situation is the same. In some big museums the ticket desks work with special software, that reports: the day of the visit, the hour of the visit, the type of the visit/ reason for the visit, type of the guided tour or other museum services used. Sometimes the program gather information about the visitors sex/gender, their age, interests etc. The collecting of this information and its analyzing gives the real picture of the visitors profile in every time/period in the year. Consequently – the museum marketing experts know where the weak and active days for visiting the museum are, how many tickets are sold and who are the most frequently visiting museum target groups. Knowing this – the museum staff is ready to plan their new initiatives – directed to the public that visit the museum seldom. The computer software, that implements this marketing research on the base of the ticket sales in the museum is not difficult to be create and used. It is very useful and not expensive, even produced separately for the needs of the every single museum. 

Coming to the museum – the most of the visitors want to see and understand as much as it is possible. The museum halls are not able to present all the valuables, kept in the storages. The halls are not large enough to give all the important information, to explain everything, shown in the cases. More over it is not necessary for every visitor, only for some of them. How to solve this problem - from one hand – the museum not becomes bored and from another hand - to give the extra information to those visitors, who need it? The answer is – to use ICTs. They can commit a lot of additional textual, contextual and visual information. On the screens, with Internet connection, with special devices – the visitors can receive more explanations, more information about other museum, where they can find additional information for the same theme/exhibit, to interact with the exhibition content, etc.

ICTs have a huge potential in the restoration and conservation work in the museums and laboratories. The dating of the exhibits, the origin proving, the checking of the material of the valuables etc. are only the one part of the ICTs usage from the restorers. The other sphere of ICTs usage is computer based programs and Internet exchange of information about the potential vision of the found pieces/elements of the valuables. These programs, like some similar ones, used in the Police can reconstruct the whole object, or at least can give possible options. These programs help in recognizing the objects and in finding potential options/techniques for reconstruction/rebuilding, if it is necessary.    

The given here information describes the spheres of positive applying of different ICTs in the museums. Though the description is short and incomplete, the conclusion is that there is almost no sphere of the museum activity where ICTs cannot participate or it could be not useful. Just the opposite – their role increases.