Wednesday, April 27, 2011

QR codes in museums?


I've been noticing more and more publishers making the use of "QR code". QR code stands for "quick response", and may be read by any bar code scanner or - more importantly - by the camera of any smartphone. Adressavisen in Trondheim, Norway has started integrating QR code in their articles to allow readers to link to online media tied to their printed media.

QR codes are also making their way into museums. The above video shows how Derbyshire Museum has added multilingual wikipedia links to their regular labels. I have heard that Trondheim museum of Art plans to include QR codes for information about museum exhibits, but hasn't yet done it.

Digitalt Museum will soon also include QR code generators in their database of objects in Norwegian museums.


I would be pleased to hear from people who are involved with QR codes in museums. How does the public respond to the codes? What percentage of visitors use them? What types of information do visitors inquire about, which might be included as links in QR codes?

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