The Bata Shoe Museum

The Bata Shoe Museum, part of the Cultural Affairs Sector of the Department of Canadian Heritage, began an online exhibition program in June 2006 to present their collection to a larger audience. The online exhibition program, entitled "About Shoes" presents five different "stories" that, "offer digital cultural content aimed at enhancing knowledge of Canadian cultural diversity." About Shoes contains 500 images of which 200 are in 3D, using AVT technology designed specifically for the Museum. All of the images contain a zoom feature. As the museum website states, "With animation and sound introducing each exhibit, artifacts come to life and can be manipulated and examined so that stitching, beadwork and even the most intricate embroidery can be appreciated."

At first I thought, "This sounds really boring. Who cares about the shoes that Canadian people have worn throughout time?" But, they have done a good job organizing and designing the information so that it is actually not awful. Of the five different stories that are available (stories signifying different exhibitions) I chose "Japansese Footgear: Walking the Path of Innovation."

The site contains a fair amount of information and does have a very high-quality zoom feature. The images have fair bibliographic data, but very limited metadata.

In regards to intellectual control of the material, they made it nearly impossible for me to copy any images from the site. This image of their physical exhibition was the only picture I could retrieve from their site:



For all the fancy features I think they could have gone a lot further if they had presented more images from their collection and focused less on viewing technology. Overall the site lacks the depth needed for valuable research but is informative and fun to use for the non-academic user.