The MacBride Museum in Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada focuses on the history of the Yukon. The website features digitized images of materials from the physical museum’s holdings. On the website’s homepage, one can gain access to the virtual collections by clicking on “MacBride Museum’s online collection”. At this point, one has the option of viewing the exhibits in HTML or Flash.
Selection Decisions
Digital images consist of scanned photographs, artifacts (such as decks of playing cards), manuscripts (such as receipts, an invitation to attend a session of the Canadian Parliament, and diaries) and digital photographs of three-dimensional objects (including clothing, jewelry, miscellany such as shopping bags, and other assorted items). The images, taken from the holdings of the museum, cover a wide range of topics relating to different facets of life in the Yukon.
Metadata
The metadata consists of a number of fields, varying from object to object. It always includes an object name, description, and accession number. Other fields that occur for some items may include a “comments” field (used for providing contextual description of the item, which differs from the “description” field in that it is more in-depth, as well as having a somewhat different focus; “description” focuses just on the specific image, while “comments” provides background information) and “biography” (used for biographical sketches of individuals pictured in photographs). There is no information available on the actual digital object.
Object Characteristics
In Flash mode, there are nine general topics that one can click on, or the viewer can use the search engine. Topics include Transportation, Early Yukon Commerce, Everyday Life, Yukon People, First Nations (in the U.S. this would be referred to as Native Americans), The Natural World, Alaska Highway, Mounties, and the Gold Rush. When one clicks on a topic, the viewer first sees a screen with a brief, one-paragraph description of that theme. The viewer can then close the introduction and proceed into the exhibit, where one sees a series of small images. When the viewer clicks on an image, she will see metadata of the item. One is able to view a larger version by clicking on a tab within the metadata.
In HTML, one simply sees a series of thumbnail images that appear 24 at a time; there are a total of 1002 images, with more being added continually. By clicking on one of the images, one is able to view a larger version, as well as some basic metadata of that image. Both the thumbnail images and larger versions are JPEGs.
One can perform a search in either mode. The search engine apparently looks for keywords throughout the metadata. For example, I typed in “insignias”, and was presented with an image of a Mountie’s uniform. The word “insignias” was found in the description field of the metadata.
Clearly, the Flash version is superior, as the website freely admits. The HTML version is intended for low-bandwidth internet connections.
Intended Audience
The intended audience is anyone who has an interest in the Yukon, the Canadian northwest, or any of the various themes within the exhibit. General students will find it useful, though academic researchers probably will not use the site much. Overall, I found it to be well-designed and simple to use.
Selection Decisions
Digital images consist of scanned photographs, artifacts (such as decks of playing cards), manuscripts (such as receipts, an invitation to attend a session of the Canadian Parliament, and diaries) and digital photographs of three-dimensional objects (including clothing, jewelry, miscellany such as shopping bags, and other assorted items). The images, taken from the holdings of the museum, cover a wide range of topics relating to different facets of life in the Yukon.
Metadata
The metadata consists of a number of fields, varying from object to object. It always includes an object name, description, and accession number. Other fields that occur for some items may include a “comments” field (used for providing contextual description of the item, which differs from the “description” field in that it is more in-depth, as well as having a somewhat different focus; “description” focuses just on the specific image, while “comments” provides background information) and “biography” (used for biographical sketches of individuals pictured in photographs). There is no information available on the actual digital object.
Object Characteristics
In Flash mode, there are nine general topics that one can click on, or the viewer can use the search engine. Topics include Transportation, Early Yukon Commerce, Everyday Life, Yukon People, First Nations (in the U.S. this would be referred to as Native Americans), The Natural World, Alaska Highway, Mounties, and the Gold Rush. When one clicks on a topic, the viewer first sees a screen with a brief, one-paragraph description of that theme. The viewer can then close the introduction and proceed into the exhibit, where one sees a series of small images. When the viewer clicks on an image, she will see metadata of the item. One is able to view a larger version by clicking on a tab within the metadata.
In HTML, one simply sees a series of thumbnail images that appear 24 at a time; there are a total of 1002 images, with more being added continually. By clicking on one of the images, one is able to view a larger version, as well as some basic metadata of that image. Both the thumbnail images and larger versions are JPEGs.
One can perform a search in either mode. The search engine apparently looks for keywords throughout the metadata. For example, I typed in “insignias”, and was presented with an image of a Mountie’s uniform. The word “insignias” was found in the description field of the metadata.
Clearly, the Flash version is superior, as the website freely admits. The HTML version is intended for low-bandwidth internet connections.
Intended Audience
The intended audience is anyone who has an interest in the Yukon, the Canadian northwest, or any of the various themes within the exhibit. General students will find it useful, though academic researchers probably will not use the site much. Overall, I found it to be well-designed and simple to use.
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