How a Museum Knows? Structures, Work Roles, and Infrastructures of Information Work

Isto Huvila

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

    21 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Even if knowledge is a commodity that a museum offers as Hooper-Greenhill () has argued, the mechanisms of how a museum comes to know what it mediates are not well understood. Using a case study approach, the aim of this study is to investigate what types of sources and channels, with a special emphasis on social processes and structures of information, support collaborative information work, and the emergence of knowledge in a museum environment. The empirical study was conducted using a combination of ethnographic observation of and interviews with staff members at a medium-sized museum in a Nordic country. The study shows that much of the daily information work is routinized and infrastructuralized in social information exchange and reproduction of documented information and museum collections.
    Original languageUndefined/Unknown
    Pages (from-to)
    JournalJournal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology
    Volume64
    Issue number7
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2013
    MoE publication typeA1 Journal article-refereed

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