Friday 1 June 2012

Essay 40 (Museums and the Internet)




Museums for many years have been the places of knowledge and cultural exchange.  Nowadays there are more and more resources on the Internet and museums will not be needed in the future. To what extent do you agree with this statement?

Both the internet and museums have great resources for education, research and cultural exchange.  However, the information on the internet has certain serious limitations and can never match or replace museums.

To start with, the materials available on the internet are in digital form and cannot be touched.  Whereas, museums have real objects, that are more useful for students and researchers for education and cultural exchange.  For example, in a historical museum a visitor is able to see the real pieces of ancient materials like coins, artefacts and manuscripts, which are much more useful and interesting than mere digital images.  Similarly, visitors can have a direct experience of real objects of culture, whereas digitally available images are not reliable or tangible.

Furthermore, it is difficult to find out where information is available on the internet because it is poorly organised.  Moreover, it is extremely difficult to choose the right information from the vast ocean of resources.  In contrast, a museum is systematically arranged and reliable.  For instance, in a science museum inventions are chronologically arranged, therefore, visitors can have a clear idea about them.

On the other hand, resources available on the internet are also very useful, in terms of their availability from different parts of the world.  However, it can only act as an addition to museums and can never match them.

In conclusion, museums will definitely continue to have a unique role in preserving information for future generations.  They cannot be replaced by the information available on the internet.

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1 comment:

Unknown said...

Helpful information