I am from a medium sized museum in Kingston Ontario that happens to have
very good research collections eg business records of shipyards, shipping
companies and design firms. We recently transferred our collections data
and marine information to Queen's University at Kingston. There are currently
some 40,000 records with a number of these records,pointers that lead
the researcher to hard copy finding aids.
The cost benefit can be expressed more in survival tactics than in dollars.
Since our collections went on line with world access the number of researchers
has increased. It is very comforting to see, that in addition to the usual
crowd of marine historians using the material a scattering of students.
The cost, relatively little compared to the very visible increased user
base. The political benefit is high.
Our next step is to mount a terminal in the lobby of the museum to take
care of general and sometimes spurious requests thus allowing our
tiney staff more time for museological duties.
I would be happy to send more information to anyone interested.
Maurice D. Smith,
Curator,
Marine Museum of the Great Lakes at Kingston.