The old web pages shouldn’t disappear without a trace!
Internet presence after restructuring the museums’ network
MúzeumCafé 40.
In recent years we have been used to finding information on the websites of the county museum directorates, which functioned up to the end of 2012, about their member institutes. They varied from one county to another in terms of extent and quality, but overall the most important information sooner or later appeared on the websites. Valuable internet archives were created in which retrospectively you could search for museums’ exhibitions, events, scholarly information, publications and tenders, and you could take a look into the work of restoration workshops. Thus beyond the web pages of museums providing current information, they inadvertently became organised archives, reflecting the work of museums, their thoughts about tasks and aims, and their changes. However, with the cessation of the county museum directorates these often patchy web pages became obsolete. The change of institutional structure and names provided a good reason for museums which had become independent to develop up-to-date, trendy websites. Yet in addition to the results of this fortunate process, a problem should be noted. Which new institute ensures the storage, maintenance and functioning of the old website? Is there the possibility, intention and experience for the newer institutes to include in their own home pages as a linked archive the old county web pages, thus also reflecting legal continuity? Last year the Nation Cultural Fund announced a tender for supporting the new institutional image of public collections affected by the structural changes. Unsurprisingly, among the tender winners many requested help for setting up a new website. Today a website is a major element of an institute’s public face.