Having a great love for exploration of the culture of different lands, yet Nguyen Thu Thuy, a resident of Lang Son province, does not have enough time to visit the Yen Bai Museum during her trip to the northern locality. Through her friends, Thuy visited the museum virtually on its website Baotangyenbai.vn.

Thuy said that the website provides great information of artifacts exhibited at the museum. Particularly, with the virtual version of the museum, she felt like she was visiting it in person.

"From the entrance to the exhibition rooms, every artifact is scanned in 3D with 360-degrees view. I can rotate in all directions around the space, and clearly see the cracks or examine the detailed size of each artifact. This is an extremely interesting experience,” she stated.

Meanwhile, Tran Duy Thanh from Minh Tan ward of Yen Bai province said that the VR museum is helpful for him in searching for information. His favourite part of the museum is videos on biodiversity, prehistory, or blacksmithing with high quality of sound and images.

The virtual museum is an important step forwards, bringing the museum closer to the community.

Hua Xuan Thang, Vice Director of the museum, said that over the years, the traditional museum played an important role in arranging different subjects following particular timeline and space. However, currently, traditional museums are being fiercely competed by other entertainment forms such as cinemas, entertainment areas, and electronic games. Therefore, the building of the virtual museum will help the managers draw more visitors, enriching the community’s knowledge and inspiring the youth of the national pride and national spirit, he said.

To date, the 3D website has been designed with major functions of 3D artifacts, 3D illustration, contacts and other virtual museum functions. For the 3D modelling function, the museum has modelled 1,005 artifacts in 3D in five topics of natural geography, Yen Bai ethnic communities, prehistoric and primitive eras, feudal autonomous period, and modern and contemporary period.

The 3D modelled artifacts allow visitors to zoom in, zoom out, rotate, and create observation angles as requested. In addition, the virtual museum also provides an interactive tour mode with 3D images, 360-degree scans, and a scripted narrative along the itinerary.

Digital transformation in museum operations or virtual museums has played an important role in enhancing the value of displaying artifacts in a widely, quick, and efficient manner, bridging the gap between museums and the public, and contributing to the preservation, conservation, and the promotion of values of cultural heritage.