WELCOME TO KAZAKHSTAN

There are things that cannot be transported to the viewer. Gold artifacts, archaeological finds, rare manuscripts, and household items require special storage, security, and restoration conditions. But in the 21st century, museums have a second way of talking to society: not only through a display case and an excursion group, but also through a screen. And the wider the geography of the country, the more noticeable the value of this "second entry" into culture becomes.Kazakhstan is just such a case where distance plays a role. The museum network is large and diverse: there are 285 museums in the country. Interest in museum spaces is consistently high. In 2024, museums in Kazakhstan were visited 6.6 million times. For many people, the museum is not a one-time event, but a part of the educational and cultural environment.However, this growth has a downside: the collections are huge, the demands on museums are diverse, and the resources – especially in the regions – are not always commensurate with the scale of the tasks. Therefore, the idea of a unified digital platform for museum collections looks not like a fashionable trend, but like an infrastructure solution. It helps to streamline information, expand access, and make heritage visible not only in a specific hall, but also in a broader cultural context.In Kazakhstan, there are large republican institutions and small regional museums existing in parallel. Each has its own specifics, collection profile, scientific directions, and audience. But there is a common need: systematic cataloging of collections, correct attribution, working with images, preparing materials for exhibitions and research, and convenient search through collections.It was for these tasks that E-museum was created – a unified digital portal that unites museum collections on one platform and develops online formats for accessing exhibits: from a digital catalog to interactive tools, 3D models, and virtual tours. The logic is simple: if the museum network is measured in hundreds of institutions, and attendance in millions, the digital infrastructure must be comparable in scale.The significance of the project is best assessed by its dynamics. The portal developed in stages, and the statistics show the transition from a pilot model to national coverage. In 2023, 33 museums were connected to the system, more than 15 thousand museum items were digitized, and 50 three-dimensional models were created. This was an important start: the first connections usually reveal the main practical issues – description standards, the quality of photographic materials, staff training, and digitization methodology.The next step turned out to be significantly larger. According to the results of 2024-2025, the connection of state museums of the country was ensured: 252 museums from all 20 regions are integrated into the system, more than 66 thousand units were entered into the digital catalog, 750 3D models were developed, and 15 virtual tours are available. In fact, we are no longer talking about a project for individual sites, but about a digital map of Kazakhstan, where regional museums receive a common channel of presence and unified tools for presenting collections.In museum practice, digital visualization is valuable because it works for several audiences at once. For a visitor, a 3D model is an opportunity to examine the item more closely, to see the shape and details that may be inaccessible in the hall due to showcases, lighting, or security requirements. For schoolchildren and students, this is educational material that can be used in history, art, archeology, and local history lessons. For researchers, this is an additional layer of data that helps to discuss attribution and compare items from different collections without moving the originals.Therefore, the indicator of 750 3D models and the availability of 15 virtual tours are important not as a beautiful digital package, but as the creation of an independent educational and cultural product based on museums.Particular attention in the development of E-museum is attracted by the introduction of elements of artificial intelligence. AI solutions and virtual guides have appeared on the portal, and the development of functionality has been instructed to continue. From a practical point of view, AI in museum digitization is important, first of all, as a tool for working with data arrays: it helps to speed up the processing of descriptions, improve the presentation of content in several languages, and improve the quality of exhibit cards by analyzing images. At the same time, it is fundamental that AI does not replace a museum specialist and is not a source of final scientific attribution – it removes part of the routine and helps to increase the speed and quality of work with data.The issue of digitization of museums is always a question of equal access. If large museums are traditionally in sight, then regional collections often remain known only to a local audience, although it is there that a significant part of the objects of everyday culture, local history materials, and unique evidence of the history of a particular territory are stored. A unified platform changes this situation: collections become comparable in terms of the level of presentation, common principles of description and convenient search appear, and the visitor forms a more holistic view of the cultural map of the country.In addition, the project is directly linked to the development of international cooperation: publications about E-museum emphasize the potential for interaction with foreign museums, scientific centers, and cultural organizations. For such communication, a digital catalog is really important: it makes collections translatable into the language of international standards – through data, descriptions, visualization, and accessibility.Statistics show that museums remain relevant even in the era of short videos and short attention spans. Millions of museum visits annually confirm that public demand for meaning, history, and cultural identity remains strong. But for this demand to be transformed into sustainable practice, museums need a modern infrastructure—digital as well.In this sense, the e-museum appears to be an attempt to gather disparate elements into a system: to create a space where heritage can not only be seen but also described, compared, studied, incorporated into education, and presented to the world. And the faster the digital layer of museum work grows—from thousands of objects to tens of thousands, from single models to hundreds of 3D representations—the more tangible the main change becomes: the museum gradually extends beyond its building walls and begins to function as a public cultural space for the country.