The 24 Hour Museum is the UK's National Virtual Museum. Reaching over one million visitors per month, it provides a comprehensive guide to all the public museums, galleries, libraries, archives, heritage sites and science centres in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

It aims to inspire people to explore the UK's museums and galleries, both online and in the real world. The site offers a unique mix of dynamic content: daily arts, museum, history and heritage news; exhibition reviews and in-depth online features or trails; as well as a growing database of over 3,800 cultural institutions and collections. In addition the daily news stories, events, educational resources, venue info and trails are available as an RSS newsfeed.

There is also a dedicated children's site - www.show.me.uk *Show me: Games and fun for kids. The kid's site showcases the best interactive games, online activities, puzzles, competitions and quizzes from the UK's museums and galleries. It covers a huge range of subjects from dinosaurs to dolls.

City Heritage Guides, a regional sub-section of the site, showcases the museums, galleries and heritage of ten English cities.

The staff running the site are based in Brighton. The site is a registered charity and is funded by the UK government Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) through the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA).