By starting with the official website of the Louvre, I was able to get a good idea of how conscious the Louvre is of its need to address the interests of the public. It is quite clear from this site that the Louvre embraces its stature and is fully aware of the effects of its programming, development, and structure. The site provides some extensive information in order to give the impression of a transparent administration in regards to public awareness.
Moving to outside sources, I was able to find plenty of news website that provide a very clear chronological progression of the undertakings in the Louvre. These new sources included the New York Times, International Herald Tribune, L.A. Times, The Telegraph (UK), etc. Most of these new sources have easily searchable databases, which will pull up all existing articles from up to a decade ago. I would call the information found in these news websites more in the category of hard information, meaning statistics, overviews, and general statements. Other sources, such as Art Forum, provide more of an insiders approach to the Louvre. Therefore, these articles found in art publications tend to delve more deeply into the overall affect and ultimate repercussions involved with the Louvre’s development.
I believe what I didn’t find on the web and what would have been extremely essential to this case study is the actual research the Louvre itself has done on its place in the public’s eye. The institutions is fully aware of it’s reliance on the public, therefore there must be more information out there about how they then make their decisions and what research has gone into their actions. I would be interested to see statistics and some hard data that shows the trends in the public’s perception of the Louvre.