A functional and semantic analysis of artifact representation schemata in folklore museum websites.

Folklore culture is the summary and embodiment of a way of life, a normative form for people, covering local life in rural communities. A folklore museum typically displays historical objects used as part of people's everyday lives. The representation of information in the digital realm is an important aspect of cultural heritage institutions, with museums taking over a considerable proportion. Having taken into consideration requirements set by the existing literature and examining relevant research and approaches, the authors developed an analysis framework including 16 popular folklore museums around the world, in order to examine various aspects of their digital presence. More specifically, the authors followed a two-fold methodological approach conducting a functionality and semantic analysis of the chosen museums with the purpose of determining the current approaches and tendencies with respect to representation schemata for folklore museum artifacts and their digital representation.