Computer databases and the Jewish Museum of Australia : investigating the future to access the past

This thesis aims to analyse the needs of museums in terms of computer databases, examine the ways in which these databases can assist with cataloguing and museum operations in general, and survey current database programs available. The Jewish Museum of Australia is used as a pilot study to practically apply the issues discussed.

Picturing the nation : The Celtic periphery as discursive other in the archaeological displays of the museum of Scotland

Using the archaeological displays at the Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, this paper examines the exhibition as a site of identity creation through the negotiations between categories of same and Other. Through an analysis of the poetics of display, the paper argues that the exhibition constructs a particular relationship between the Celtic Fringe and Scottish National identity that draws upon the historical discourses of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland as a place and a time 'apart'. This will be shown to have implications for the display of archaeological material in museums but also for contemporary understandings of Scottish National identity.

Constructing the identity of a nation : the tourist gaze at the Museum of Scotland

In an era of global instability and crises of national identity, the role of heritage tourism in creating images of national identity has become an important area for research. This article considers the role of heritage tourism in constructing national identity in the nation of Scotland through the lens of the Museum of Scotland. It describes the findings of qualitative research undertaken with potential and actual target consumers to the Museum of Scotland. Three research questions were addressed: Does the Museum of Scotland construct (1) a vision of a `new' Scotland? (2) a symbol of a `real' Scotland? (3) a collective identity of Scotland? The findings suggest that heritage visitors actively identify through their gaze, constructing multifarious meanings of national identity that are dynamic rather than static.

Defining national identity? Visiting the architectural spaces of the Museum of Scotland

National Cultures construct identities by producing meanings about the nation with which we can identify, meanings which are contained in the stories which are told about it, memories which connect its present within its past, and images which are constructed of it. A museum, the repository of a nation’s culture, which connects the past to the present through recounting stories about the artefacts of past cultures is clearly significant in representing the culture of a nation.

This paper explores the architectural spaces of the new Museum of Scotland, which opened in Edinburgh in November 1998. The museum has opened at a crucial time in Scottish history. The Scottish cultural renaissance is manifested in the increase in cultural production and call for Scottish cultural institutions. Parallel to this renaissance are political developments with the re-creation of a Scottish Parliament in 1999. When the idea of ‘Scotland’ is itself in a state of flux, the stories of the nation told in the museum, which attempt to give a sense of location, a connection between the individual and the nation are especially important.

Thus, issues of identity and ‘self’ are crucially important in understanding the contemporary museum. Within this, the relations between the production of these narratives and their consumption by the public are little understood. The majority of studies have concentrated, although not exclusively, on the production of museum displays, primarily with the "politics and poetics" of display. This paper analyses the relationship between producer and consumer within the Museum of Scotland, attempting to reconnect the forces of production and consumption. In doing so, it focuses primarily on the differing conceptions of the ability of the Museum to be able to narrate the nation.

Based on interviews both with museum staff and with visitors to the museum, it argues that an understanding of the relationship between the museum and Scottish national identity can only be considered through an understanding of the tension between the producers’ intentions and the way in which consumers conceptualise the museum as a space for "telling the nation".

The National Museum of Scotland : a symbol for a new Scotland?

The National Museum of Scotland (forthwith 'Museum') opened to critical acclaim on St Andrew's Day 1998 (see McKean 2000). The timing of the opening was culturally and politically symbolic, taking place on the patron saint of Scotland's day, whilst falling between the devolution referendum for, and the opening of, the reinstated Scottish Parliament. The museum offers a representation of Scotland, one which is negotiated by its creators and visitors alike. Given that national identity is a slippery concept subject to fluidity and change (Hall 1992), the image of stability and authority of a museum, which has been compared to the reification of a church (Horne 1984), offers us an interesting site for developing our understanding of how national identity is constructed.

Narrating heritage's living stories : a comparative study of China's Suojia ecomuseum and Australia's Melbourne living museum of the West

The Ecomusée, as emerged in France in the 1970s, is a form of open-air museum that aims to maintain collections in their original environments with local communities serving as curators and managing their own heritage. This approach and philosophy implies and is dependent upon democratic principles in the conservation and interpretation processes. Since the 1990s, China has adopted the ecomusée concept for the conservation of selected ethnic villages to relieve tensions between poverty and heritage conservation. However, does this concept really work in China? To answer this question, the Suojia Ecomuseum, the first such initiative - has been selected as a case study and assessed using the mixed methodologies of on-site observation, documentation and semistructured interviews. This process has identified several issues and problems associated with this ecomuseum. It demonstrates that Suojia Ecomuseum has not achieved international benchmarks, neither philosophical nor practical expectations have been met. This conclusion challenges the internationally acknowledged notion that all ecomuseums develop and are operated using a bottom-up approach, that they were all community-based and democratic. These discrepancies lead to other questions about the differences between ecomuseums in China and elsewhere. In order to map and compare the differences between ecomuseums in China and in Western democracies, a detailed survey was undertaken using Melbourne’s Living Museum of the West, Australia. Applying the same methodologies as in China, a comparable examination was undertaken as to its background, objectives, management structures, programs and activities, and project outcomes as well as problems. The differences between Suojia Ecomuseum and Melbourne’s Living Museum are then explained and shown. They demonstrate quite diverse organisations with different objectives and management structures relating to different cultural and natural resources. However, the unexpected finding was that the futures of both ecomuseums relied on the financial support and passion of younger generations and hence were vulnerable.

Revision of Nathan Banks type specimens of Bdellidae Dugès (Acari: Trombidiformes) of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Cambridge

In this article, seven Bdellidae Dugès (Acari: Trombidiformes) of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, originally described by Nathan Banks are studied: Cyta americana (Banks, 1902), Bdella tenella Banks, 1896, Bdella utilis Banks, 1914, Bdella californica Banks, 1904, Bdella cardinalis Banks, 1894, Bdella peregrina Banks, 1894 and Bdella brevitarsis Banks. Bdella tenella and Bdella californica are transferred to the genera Spinibdella and Bdellodes, respectively. Bdella brevitarsis, previously a nomen nudum, is herein described for the first time under the genus Hexabdella. http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid: zoobank.org:pub:A18C8C10-8C8A-4873-AF0B-D1A9164CD7E8 © 2013 Copyright 2013 Taylor & Francis.