The aims of the Museum of the Year Awards are to highlight and celebrate the achievements of museums and collections as they strive to care and protect our heritage, and make it as accessible to as many people as possible.

The Awards are open to all museums, galleries and collections in Ireland that house permanent collections of artefacts. All such institutions are encouraged to enter the Awards scheme: large and small, officially funded or voluntary run, new and established, and covering all interests — arts, natural history, science, archives, military and social history, design, etc.

Following on from Dungarvan Museum's website being short-listed among the top five research museum web sites in the world at the sixth annual Museums and the Web conference (held in Boston), the society was awarded Best Publication for Visitors at the Irish Museum Of The Year Awards 2002, for the innovative approach and excellent design of its web site www.dungarvanmuseum.org . The judges noted the formative partnership between the museum and a local web design company Déise Design. The Best Publication Award went to the museum or gallery, which, in the eyes of the judges, has issued the most appropriate book, catalogue, web site, guide or other publication within the last year. Other museums short listed for the award included, The National Museum Of Ireland, The National Gallery Of Ireland & The Ulster Museum.

Publication has traditionally meant bound books printed on paper and distributed via bookshops and other retail outlets. Dungarvan Museum Society has been part of this tradition for as long as it has been in existence. Aware of the costs that can be incurred in producing and distributing speciality publications, the society sought to utilise the new medium of the Internet to create and distribute its 'publications' worldwide. Over time the web site evolved into an electronic archive of local history articles. Dungarvan Museum became their own publishing house at a cost of €150 per annum. The website is effectively unlimited in size and is automatically distributed worldwide to the readers. Despite its voluntary museum status Dungarvan Museum has placed itself at the forefront of online history publication in Ireland.

The contents of the web site are broken up into 7 broad categories, General Information, Exhibitions, Artifacts, Photographs, Downloads, Virtual Tours and Desperate Haven – The Famine In Dungarvan.

Interesting material on the site includes a 400-page history of the Famine in Dungarvan Poor Law Union, Lewis's Topographical Dictionary describing the condition of every Parish in County Waterford in 1837 and the memoirs of George Lennon Officer Commanding West Waterford Flying Column during the War Of Independence. Prior to Christmas it is hoped to publish Siobhan Lincolns book 'Ardmore Memory And Story' on the site.

At the moment the site has over 1700 pages on local history. The site uses text, video, photographs, virtual tours and downloads to explore many topics of local historical interest (the Famine, the Moresby Disaster, King John's Castle, Co. Waterford Men in the Great War, War Of Independence etc.).  Publishing online is a cost free method for local historians to distribute articles they have written to a larger audience than would normally be available to them. New articles are added on a monthly basis. In the coming months a module will be added to the web site that will make site easier to read for the visually impaired and the colour blind.

1,500 different people visit the Dungarvan Museum web site per week. Putting information online has prompted many people to volunteer donations of artifacts and information. Various diaries, documents and photos that went abroad when their owners emigrated many generations ago are now being donated to the museum. The site allows the Irish Diaspora to 'connect' with the area their forefathers originated from in West Waterford. The Society now counts among its membership many people who live abroad and our free online mailing list has over 600 members.

The success of Dungarvan Museum's site revolves around the Content Management System installed by Déise Design, an Internet consultancy based in Dungarvan. The Directors of Déise Design Martin and William Whelan are both committee members of the museum society. As their contribution to preserving the history of Waterford County they donated their software and web design expertise free of charge to the society. A Content Management System is a means of adding and altering content on a web site. Déise Design's CMS took 3 years to develop. By going to a web site address and entering the correct password museum staff can gain access to the editorial package that allows them to change content on the Museum web site. Adding information to the site requires very little training; typically a staff member with experience of Microsoft Word can place text, images, downloads & hyperlinks on the site after 3 hours training. Many authors can simultaneously contribute content to the web site from different geographic locations, while the museum retains editorial control. Museum staff can directly change web pages and highlight and prioritise the newest and most important content, quickly and easily.