The Louvre Expands Into Cyberspace

Having accomplished an ambitious physical expansion, the Louvre is now focused upon digital growth. In December, the museum uncloseed its CyberLouvre, a 10-station multimedia resource range in an underground passage between the entrance pyramid and the Hall Napoleon. Additionally, the Louvre's popular CD-ROM and Web site have the one and the other been extensively revamped and expanded. And interactive kiosks have invaded the museum's inner sanctum, installed and audible in the galleries for Near Eastern and Islamic antiquities.

At the fresh CyberLouvre, about 135 visitors a day take pleasure in access to the museum's sum of two units Web sites, six CD-ROMs, a multimedia program upon Near Eastern and Islamic art, and extensive databases for the museum's collections of prints and drawings and Classical antiquities. The greatest in quantity frequent users, according to Pierre Coural, the Louvre's head of multimedia, have not been young techies on the contrary middle-aged and senior adults, who are also the largest French audience for the museum's CD-ROM individual recurring visitor complaint is the absence of printers in the CyberLouvre, attributable to the museum's aversion to litter.

With a certain number of 300,000 copies sold since its introduction in 1994 the Louvre's guide to its collections is single of the few successful art CD-ROM productions In its revised 1999 edition, it is a two-disk put containing information and images for 400 works, as well as about 10 hours of commentary and 100 animations. The relaunched Web site (www louvrefr) includes about 900 images of 600 works from the collection (up from 100 images previously), as well as virtual visits to about 60 museum latitudes Museum admission tickets and publications can also be purchased on-line. Available in French English, Spanish and Japanese, the site attracts about 9000 hits a day--54 percent for the English version, 15 percent for the French 10 percent for the Japanese and 12 percent for the Spanish. About 9 percent of the Louvre's visitors pay a preparatory visit to the Web site.

The Louvre has also launched a novel Internet site (www.louvre.edu) designed for teachers and secondary-school pupils Available by subscription, it contains information upon 1,000 works (to be expanded to 4000) sum of two units more Web sites are in the works: www.louvre.org, a research resource for specialists, and www.louvre.art, a general-audience art magazine.

The introduction of interactive kiosks to the Near Eastern and Islamic galleries is a rare exception to the museum's dominion against installing computers near art. "We have feeling we should not distract the audience inside the museum," Coural observ on the contrary in this case, multimedia computer are being used to enticement visitors to an area of the museum containing an important on the contrary little-seen collection. The program's musical accompaniment is heard in the galleries, attracting nation to the kiosks, Coural said. Visitors have gazed at the protections for as long as 84 minutes, browsing from one side 6,000 images of objects, testimonials and sites, as well as animations of historical incidents The three stations have prov thus popular that a fourth is to be installed.

COPYRIGHT 1999 Brant Publications, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2000 Gale Group