Hermitage Palace

The Hermitage thrives in its Russian elegance. There are large, detailed and searchable sections on the collection and the building itself, plus an ambitious picture and object search facility. There is also information about the shop (with an online store), ticketing and facilities (such as cafes, loos and the like). Most importantly, though, the coverage of the collections and the objects is superb.

The digital picture bank is large and the quality of the images impressive. Individual links from Scythian jewellery chains (not the internet type this time) can be seen easily. Of course, the collection is first rate, so the objects deserve this level of quality and the online collection repays close study. In the Collection Highlights section, the choices are between traditional departments, such as Classical Antiquity, and discourses on the palaces or individuals rooms within them. All these pages have wonderfully full descriptions and commentaries on the collections or the building. They are accompanied by thumbnail images that are expandable and link to more detailed descriptions of the individual objects. Given the range of the collection - from Palaeolithic sculpture to 19th-century rifles - there should be something here to interest most.

Each of the current exhibitions, though not those past or forthcoming, has a link to pages describing its content, its itinerary (if it's a travelling exhibition) and its dates.

Online Search The Hermitage has one of the most successful search features of this kind for any of the major museums. The search engine pulls up images and text quickly and easily. There are quite detailed notes to help any user narrow a search, but the basic search feature pulled up information using some fairly obscure terms of reference. The QBIC search facility is a special project of IBM, and it works by finding colours or shapes in pictures. Using a simple colour chart or drawing programme, you can search the Hermitage's collection for paintings with similar use of colour or construction. Results are shown in order of relevance. The initial results are impressive, but some of the later suggestions seem to bear little relation to the colour or shape being searched for. It is worth trying but more for fun than for research.