How do museums label exhibits with NFC?
With a tag in the label rail, the plinth or the case rather than on the object, one address per exhibit, and a page carrying what the printed label has no room for. Two constraints shape the whole design: nothing touches the object, and neighbouring tags sit far enough apart to be read one at a time.
Nothing goes on the object
The first question a conservator asks is what the tag touches and what it leaves behind, and the answer that gets a project approved is nothing and nothing. An adhesive on an object, a fixing through a mount, or a material nobody has assessed sitting in a sealed case beside a textile are all decisions that belong to the conservation team rather than to whoever is fitting the tags.
So the tag goes on the interpretation: the printed label, the label rail, the plinth face, the case frame, the wall panel. Those are already replaceable, already handled, and already where a visitor is looking.
That also fixes the unit of information. One label, one tag, one address, which lines up with how a gallery is already catalogued and avoids inventing a second numbering scheme.
Glass, metal and the case
Glass is transparent to the field, which the materials page covers, so a tag behind the front pane of a case reads normally, with the thickness costing a little range. What defeats it is the case frame, since metal cancels the field where the antenna sits, as the metal page explains, and a metal framed case has metal exactly along the edges where a label sits.
An on metal construction solves the surface, at the cost of thickness. A tag on the glass, or on a card standing inside the case, avoids the problem entirely.
The thing to settle before the case is closed is the address. A tag inside a sealed case cannot be rewritten without opening it, so it carries a stable address and everything variable lives behind it. A gallery that is redisplayed every few years will be grateful.
Labels sit close together
A rail of small labels puts several tags within a hand's width. A phone that finds two tags in its field reads neither reliably, which the two tags page explains and the spacing page measures.
Two ways out. Space the tags so only one is ever under a phone, which sets a minimum label pitch and is worth knowing before the labels are designed. Or give the case one tag and let the page list what is in it, the decision the shared tag page works through.
A case of forty coins is the second answer. A wall of five paintings is the first.
The visitor at the end of it
A tap suits a gallery better than a printed code does, and the accessibility page says why: no camera, no light and no small target to aim at, in a room deliberately kept dark for conservation. Its weakness is discovery, since nothing announces a tag, so mark it the same way at the same height everywhere, which the signage page covers.
Assume no signal. Galleries are often below ground and behind thick walls, and a page that will not load is worse than a label that says nothing. Either the museum network reaches the gallery or the content is small enough to live on the tag, which the offline page sets out.
And keep the printed label complete. A share of visitors will not tap at all, which the fallback page plans for, and a label that only makes sense after a tap has stopped being a label.
Frequently asked questions
Can a tag go on the object itself?
That is a conservation decision rather than a technical one, and the usual answer is no. The tag goes on the label, the mount or the case.
Does a display case block the tag?
Glass does not. A metal frame does, and it sits exactly where labels go, so either use an on metal construction or move the tag onto the glass.
How far apart do label tags need to be?
Far enough that only one sits under a phone at a time, otherwise neither reads. A dense case is better served by one tag and a page that lists its contents.
What if the gallery has no signal?
Then the content has to live on the tag or on a network the museum provides. A page that fails to load is worse than no tag at all.