Best of the Web awards was an annual contest for museum-related website content, organized each year at the Museums and the Web conference. A committee of peers recognizes the best museum work on the web. Sites are nominated by museum professionals from around the world. In 2016, the Museums and the Web conference renamed the award to the GLAMi Awards, honoring innovative contributions--not just on the web--from practitioners in the so-called "GLAM" sector--galleries, libraries, archives, and museums.
Categories
Sites have been nominated in the following categories. To recognize the enormous evolution in the online space these categories have been updated for MW2013:
Audio / Visual / Podcast - Rich Media (audio/film/interactive) Education Exhibition - Digital Exhibition Innovative / Experimental Long-lived Mobile Museum Professional Research / Online Collection - Research / Collections Online Social Media
An overall winner is chosen among all nominated sites. In addition, there is a People's Choice Award (based on voting by the Museums and the Web community), and an award for a Small organization (based on staff number, annual budget, and/or project budget).
All nominations are made through the Museums and the Web site http://www.museumsandtheweb.com/mw2012/best and are also available online for others to review. Sites can be nominated in any one of the categories.
Note that the award categories may change from year-to-year, evolving along with the current trends of online presence.
Previous winners
2015
Rich Media: Stinks, Bangs & Booms
Education: Fondation Louis Vuitton: Become An Apprentice Architect http://archimoi.fondationlouisvuitton.fr/en/ Education Honorable Mention: Cleveland Museum of Art: Studio Play http://mw2014.museumsandtheweb.com/bow/studio-play/ Digital Exhibition: Van Go Yourself http://vangoyourself.com/ Innovative / Experimental: Tate After Dark http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/special-event/after-dark Innovative / Experimental Honorable Mention: The Digital Pen http://www.cooperhewitt.org/new-experience/designing-pen/ Long-lived: The non-museum museum - redesigning the Royal Academy online http://www.royalacademy.org.uk Long-lived Honorable Mention: British Council Visual Arts http://visualarts.britishcouncil.org/ Mobile: Field Guides to Australian Fauna - a suite of eight apps http://museumsvictoria.com.au/discoverycentre/museum-victoria-apps/national-field-guide-apps/ Museum Professional: Art Detective https://web.archive.org/web/20160216200302/http://www.thepcf.org.uk/artdetective/ Research / Collections Online: Living Collections Catalogue http://www.walkerart.org/collections/publications Social Media: 1840s GIF Party at Tate Britain http://mw2015.museumsandtheweb.com/bow/1840s-gif-party-at-tate-britain/ Social Media Honorable Mention: #PlayArtfully http://mw2015.museumsandtheweb.com/bow/playartfully/ People’s Choice: Van Go Yourself http://vangoyourself.com/ Best of the Web: Art Detective https://web.archive.org/web/20160216200302/http://www.thepcf.org.uk/artdetective/