2nd International Workshop on Personalized Access to Cultural Heritage

Technologies for Cultural Heritage appreciation gained lately a lot of attention. On the one hand, the scientific field explores the possibilities to provide appropriate technologies for digital and integrated access to cultural heritage collections. On the other hand, the cultural heritage institutions are more and more eager to collaborate among each other and to provide personalized views, navigation and access to their virtual and physical collections.

Personalization capitalizes on a user-centered interactive information exchange between museum websites or museum guide systems and the visitors. The museum monologue turns into a dialogue and personalization is a new communication strategy based on a continuous process of collaboration, learning and adaptation between the museum and its visitors. Currently, there are already various initiatives by museums attempting to meet the needs of the individual user.

Personalization could improve the museum websites and guide systems usability by supporting users' navigation and assisting them in quickly finding an appropriate starting point and to discover new relevant information. In this process, the museum systems consider users' personal characteristics, such as age, education, previous knowledge together with visitor's behavior, in order to support a better visiting experience. Studies show that understanding is stimulated when the systems use concepts familiar to the users (considering their interests and knowledge level). Thus, museums can automatically adapt the content presentation using user data stored in a user profile. Users can explicitly fill in online forms to provide such data. Additionally, the system can monitor their activities to infer and record their preferences.

The workshop will focus on the specific challenges of personalization in cultural setting and exploring novel ideas for coping with these challenges.