In the last few decades, modern technology has changed the way people communicate. Owing to being an integral part of society, museums have also been influenced by this phenomenon. This paper aims to provide a general overview of the main communication tools, such as social media and the website. This work's purpose is to highlight how museums can reach a bi-directional communication that allows society to maintain a certain interaction with visitors, even in periods when physical access to the collections is not possible. In order to achieve this goal, the essay deals with the adoption of the main tools of modern communication by the Louvre Museum in Paris. It sets out the usage of Instagram, Facebook and the louvre.fr website and highlights the feedback before and after the lockdown occurred due to the Covid-19 virus.

Purpose: This study aims to provide an overview of the usage of stored collections in museums located worldwide. To achieve this purpose, some results gathered across five continents through a survey conducted between December 2020 and January 2021 are set out. Design/methodology/approach: Museums hold collections so that people can benefit from them. Items need to be preserved as well. To achieve this purpose, a considerable portion of museum collections is kept in storage. Consequently, museums that can show a significant part of their whole collections are few and far between. This scenario implies collections, the “very heart” of museums, are not accessible to the general public. In addition, the lack of space and the poor documentation exacerbate the scenario in terms of accessibility. This study aims to provide an overview of the usage of stored collections in museums located worldwide. In order to achieve this purpose, some results gathered across five continents through a survey conducted between December 2020 and January 2021 are set out. The research figures show that only 5% of museum stored collections are accessible to the general public. To enhance the accessibility of stored collections, museums have been adopting some strategies. Amongst them, some museums have opened up visible storage, lent or exchanged their items. Despite their contribution to overcoming the burning issue related to the accessibility of stored collections, these strategies imply a physical presence of visitors so as to enjoy collections. Digitization of collections is one alternative strategy adopted by a plethora of museums to increase the accessibility of collections. This solution boasts many advantages inasmuch as it overcomes many of the typical disadvantages of the other strategies, such as geographical constraints. Moreover, people can enjoy collections, and museums can ensure the adequate preservation of them. Thus, the digitization of items is the epitome of accessibility since, potentially, all collections can be made accessible, and museums can take care of them simultaneously. The study highlights the benefits of digital access and compares it with physical access. In addition, the research sheds light on how documentation supports collection management and increases accessibility. Findings: The research figures show that only 5% of museum stored collections are accessible to the general public. To enhance the accessibility of stored collections, museums have been adopting some strategies. Amongst them, some museums have opened up visible storage, lent or exchanged their items. Despite their contribution to overcoming the burning issue related to the accessibility of stored collections, these strategies imply a physical presence of visitors so to enjoy collections. Research limitations/implications: The findings of this study are based on quantitative analysis. Therefore, this study might be integrated with interviews' with visitors. It would be interesting to shed light on people's opinions concerning what museums are doing in the digital realm, such as the digital content in terms of the number of items, quality of images and ease of searching. Practical implications: This study might provide practical implications for museums and people. One important contribution is the awareness of how the appropriateness of collections management plays a crucial role in preserving collections and making them accessible to the public. Another possible implication is that museums can enlarge their visibility through digital content, both because they have not digitized and due to the dimension of their digital content. This goal might be achieved by sharing the staff with specific expertise with other institutions or recruiting volunteers and involving local communities in common tasks (so that professionals could dedicate themselves to more skilled undertakings). An alternative might be to network with local universities so as to benefit from practitioners in the digital field. Last but not least, these findings could raise the awareness that museums are facing the problem of making stored collections accessible, thereby increasing the trust in museums from the general public. Social implications: Digitization of collections is one alternative strategy adopted by a plethora of museums so to increase the accessibility of collections. This solution boasts many advantages inasmuch as it overcomes many of the typical disadvantages of the other strategies, such as geographical constraints. Moreover, people can enjoy collections and museums can ensure the adequate preservation of them. Thus, the digitization of items is the epitome of accessibility since, potentially, all collections can be made accessible, and museums can take care of them simultaneously. Originality/value: The study highlights the benefits of digital access and compares it with physical access. In addition, the research sheds light on how documentation supports collection management and increases accessibility.

Purpose: This study aims to provide an overview of the dimension of stored collections displayed in visible storage and to indicate the main factors which hinder their accessibility. Design/methodology/approach: This study is based on quantitative analysis: a survey was conducted through the offices of International Council of Museums and direct invitations to 2,558 museums located worldwide. Findings: The study estimated 32% on average the share of stored collections displayed in visible storage. The analysis provides a picture of how many stored items are made accessible in visible storage across the continents, according to the collection’s type and size and the museums’ legal status. In addition, several aspects of visible storage are investigated to highlight whether or not it truly enables museums to achieve accessibility of their stored collections and which factors might hinder the accessibility. Amid them, the foremost factors involve the inadequacy of resources, such as the lack of staff (71%) and poor budget (68%). Because of it, museums are prone to setting up offsite storage (37%), often 16 km far from the city centre, thereby questioning the concept of accessibility itself. Research limitations/implications: One major limitation of this study is that it does not consider people’s standpoints. Therefore, the author recommends that future studies focus on what people opine on visible storage, such as their appreciation of the display format, the behind-the-scenes, their need for interpretation and the degree of satisfaction with their information needs, as well as their perception of the size of stored collections. Practical implications: These findings suggest that museums could take action in areas whereby the data demonstrated weaknesses in terms of accessibility. For instance, museums could set up a shuttle service or arrange public transportation service to allow people to visit offsite storage. Additionally, financial accessibility might be achieved by not charging some groups (elderly, students, etc.). Social implications: The topic of stored collections and their accessibility has crucial social implications because not displaying collections triggers inequality amid social groups of excluded people and a small elite. Originality/value: This study focuses on visible storage as a possible solution to enhance the accessibility of collections and indicates to what extent visible storage provides this accessibility. On the contrary, previous research did not estimate how much visible storage impacts the accessibility of stored collections.

Collections are the heart of museums, born for anyone’s benefit. In order to ensure people enjoy collections, museums operate as the stewards of items to preserve them for today and future generations. Due to the growing technological improvements and the advent of the Internet, collections have been made available for the audience’s benefit, both offline and online. This paper aims to provide the reader with a general picture of the matter. For this purpose, it illustrates the development of digitization since its first steps, when cultural institutions started approaching the usage of computers in the 1960s. Then, this study focuses on the main advantages and disadvantages of digitization. For instance, this practice contributes to preserving items through digital surrogates. Additionally, collections are made widely accessible-albeit virtually- thereby democratizing them. Nevertheless, it is argued that digital content might trigger the loss of the “aura” typically associated with seeing original items due to their uniqueness. Furthermore, digitization is a resource and time-consuming process whose outcome is prone to incurring the phenomenon of rapid “technological quicksand.” Finally, this study deals with revenue streams from digital content, such as merchandise and image licensing sale.

Anyone thinks to know what a museum is. However, despite the common thoughts, a museum is an institution which is constantly evolving nowadays. The present work aims to highlight the link between the "museum" entity as an institution and changes in society. This adjustment affects the museum communication. Today, communication is said to be a particular current topic due to social evolution. Indeed, it leads to new challenges arising from globalisation, and new opportunities offered in terms of technological innovation. We live in a historical moment characterised by great social and economic changes that see technology as the main protagonist. So what is the role of this technology in the institution and the "museum" institution? In this paper, we consider the results of the changes in society in terms of technology and how they affect museums and their manners of communication.

With the birth of museums, came the Enlightenment idea that the contemplation of the works was an educational resource that was supposed to be available to the entire population. As a result, collections ostensibly became accessible to everyone (Bazin 1967; Cataldo and Paraventi 2007; Stermscheg 2014). Everybody could enjoy collections, whether they were curators and scholars, or not. Nevertheless, since curators and museums collected items rather carelessly, regardless of the available space, resulting in over-crowded premises, the idea of accessibility has begun to falter (Ames 1985; Crenn 2021; Ferriot 1995; Gilson 1914). Museums adopted several esthetic methods to lighten displays in order to address the unappealing presentation (Avery-Quash and Crookham 2018; Bazin 1967; Griesser-Stermscheg 2014; Murray 1904; Reinach 1909). Because many stored collections have not been displayed at all, the initial intent of their democratization has been compromised. As a result, a sizable portion of collections is accessible for study purposes for professionals only and not the general public. Therefore, the topic of stored collections and their uses has become contested since it endangers the museum's reputation as a place where anybody can access and appreciate its collections.