The Latin American Museums and the Internet: The Experience of ILAM

Christina Tsagaraki, Instituto Latinoamericano de Museos, Costa Rica
http://www.ilam.org

Demonstration: Demonstrations - Session 1

ILAM (Instituto Latinoamericano de Museos) is a non profit organization that promotes communication and training to Latin American Museums and Parks.

One of the main activities of ILAM is updating and maintaining our website (awarded the MW2000 as the Best Museum Professional's Site). Our purpose is to offer to the representatives of the Latin American Cultural and Natural Patrimony, visibility and connectivity. Our interest is to both invite the general public to learn about Latin America but also for Latin Americans to learn and communicate among themselves through an easy and concentrated in information portal.

ILAM has detected approximately 6000 museums in Latin America and all are listed in our website. More than 20% of them are registered with ILAM and are receiving regular communication through our electronic newsletter. Through our website except from the Directory of Museums and Parks and Thematic Presentations of on line Exhibitions, one can find a Documentation Center, Forum, our offers for Online Museological Workshops and possibilities for Virtual Internships.

Since the year 2000 the technology and quality of internet communications have improved tremendously in Latin America. Nevertheless the Digital Divide is very much present in this vast territory. Connectivity is often limited into metropolitan areas or cities. And even then internet/ emailing are only now presenting themselves as a communication option. Through this demonstration we would like to show not only the features of our website but some basic observations and statistics we have made regarding Museums and the Web in Latin America.

An article (in Spanish) on this subject is available at:

http://www.ilam.org/docs/ILAM/Edit2_Museos_Internet.pdf