By RANDY KENNEDY (New York Times)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which has been trying to rebrand itself over the last year as a visitor-friendly art behemoth, unveiled a redesigned Web site on Monday, the first time the site has been thoroughly updated in more than a decade.
It includes several new features that are beginning to become standard for large museums, like a zoomable, clickable floor plan similar to one the Art Institute of Chicago created two years ago. The Met’s version allows prospective visitors to look closely at almost 400 galleries to see what to expect, and visitors already at the museum to use smartphones on parts of the site to find their way to favorite artworks.
The site also shows off the results of a huge undertaking ordered by Thomas P. Campbell, the museum’s director: that the curatorial departments make images and information available online for all of the almost two million items in the collection. About 340,000 comprehensive entries for objects are included on the revamped site, 200,000 of which have been created over the last nine months. The site also has a new multimedia section, making videos, recorded lectures, interactive educational programs and other digital projects more easily accessible.
“This relaunch represents a complete overhaul in how we support the museum’s online presence,” said Erin Coburn, the chief officer of digital media, adding that it “positions the Met to be more responsive to the ever-changing needs of the digital environment.”
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