The concept of virtual museum has been introduced in the legislation. According to the Ministry of Culture, this move is necessary in the context of the digitalization of cultural heritage and the growing number of entities with museum-specific activities emerging in the online space, IPN reports.
According to a draft law that was given a first reading by Parliament, a virtual museum is a digital institution that performs the functions of exhibiting and promoting digitized collections, with the goal of educating and facilitating knowledge exchange. It is accessed by the public via the internet, using new technologies.
The legislative initiative introduces new provisions on the running of museums to ensure a higher level of protection and valorization of the field. A key innovation is that the prices and fees for services provided by public museums will be set by the institutions and approved by their founders.
Guided tours in national museums can be conducted by museum staff or external guides. These tours will only be available from accredited guides, in accordance with accreditation standards for guides, which will be worked out by the Ministry of Culture.
Officially, there are 132 registered museums in the Republic of Moldova.
