.museum, an indication of reliability and the domain of choice to boost your international reach

Afnic has been operating the .museum world registry since 2018 with the aim of increasing its usage and supporting museums in their digital transformation.

First introduced in 2001, .museum is an unrivalled Top Level Domain for museums and related institutions, making it easier to highlight the skills and expertise of the professionals and individuals concerned and providing a prime opportunity both to share their work, their passion and their sponsorship activities and to set themselves apart visually. The .museum domain represents a valuable opportunity in a sector where visibility is vital in reaching the target market, and an opportunity that both the Greisinger Museum and the MIM have taken.

Delving into the world of J.R.R. Tolkien and The Lord of the Rings thanks to the dynamism of one man with a passion

Bernd Greisinger is the founder of the eponymous museum in Jenins, Eastern Switzerland, dedicated to Middle-earth. The museum welcomes visitors to a 300m² exhibition area which includes a reconstructed hobbit house and in total 10 exhibition rooms. Since 2013 it hosts Greisinger’s private collection – the largest in the world available to date – of art and books based on or inspired by The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion, all written by J.R.R. Tolkien.

The website is now the museum’s showcase and the first point of contact with future visitors. What makes the Greisinger Museum different is that it has no set opening hours, so visitors must visit the website, greisinger.museum, to book a day and time to visit.

 Copyright Greisinger Museum – Maison Hobbit

“The .museum domain seemed like the obvious choice for our website address since it highlights the positioning of our Foundation as a museum where the public is concerned and is also a short and easy to remember domain name. Greisinger.museum is undoubtedly more modern and memorable than greisinger-museum followed by another Top Level Domain”, explains Bernd Greisinger, President of the non-profit foundation that manages the museum. “It goes without saying, of course, that the .museum promises future visitors museum-specific content available in multiple languages! And since we also use this address for our emails, this modern and conscientious image is reflected in our interaction with both the public and our partners”, he concludes.

As well as the online booking system, the website also offers a brief insight into the collection and gives the museum’s contact details so that visitors can find it or get in touch easily. It also links to the museum’s Facebook account, which has a community of nearly 7,000 fans.

• Read the full Greisinger Museum testimonial on welcome.museum
• Visit the museum’s website at www.greisinger.museum

Magnificent minerals at the MIM museum

Inaugurated in 2013, the MIM (Mineral Museum) in Beirut, Lebanon, is home to one of the largest private mineral collections in the world. The museum takes its name from the 24th letter of the Arabic alphabet (the equivalent of the letter “M” in the Latin alphabet). It is also the first letter of the Arabic (and French and English) words for “museum”, “minerals “and “mines”.

 Copyright MIM Museum – Aigue-marine

At the MIM, visitors can admire some 2,000 incredible mineral specimens in the Salim Eddé collection, one of the world’s most varied (450 different species from 70 countries worldwide). The MIM relies heavily on digital communication tools, including visual animations and touch-screens, in order to offer its visitors ever-increasing levels of interactivity and educational information.

The museum’s website, mim.museum, is currently available in three languages (Arabic, French and English) and allows visitors to download additional information and photos directly from a smartphone or tablet either before or after their visit. This is a key means of conveying practical information but most importantly of raising the museum’s profile. It is also the main focus of the strategy for coordinating and growing the museum’s community of fans and followers on social networks.

The MIM museum immediately chose the .museum domain; after all, as MIM curator Suzy Hakimian explains, “A .museum domain is a sign of a museum that is an integral part of the world of museums as reflected in the ICOM (International Council of Museums) slogan: “Museums have no borders, they have a network”.

• Read the full MIM Museum testimonial on welcome.museum
• Find out more about the museum at www.mim.museum