Perspectives of Emerging Museum Professionals on the Role of Big Data in Museums

The Big Data movement is sweeping across all sectors in society including museums. These organizations are being encouraged to explore new ways to generate, track, link, and analyze data to better understand their visitors and refine their business practices. While tapping into Big Data´s potential seems promising for museums, little is known about how museum professionals -- that is, those who are responsible for building the museum-to-Big-Data bridge -- speak of this trend in the context of their work. To begin to address this problem, we conducted an exploratory study consisting of a focus group with museum professionals having ten years or fewer of museum work experience. Preliminary findings point to enthusiasm for a number of perceived opportunities and benefits associated with Big Data. While limited resources such as money, skills, and infrastructure were identified as barriers, participants expressed very few concerns with the convergence of Big Data and museums.