Danielle Dugas wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> I have two questions that you might be able to help me answer.  I am
> presently working on a study of museum web sites.
>
> My questions are:
>
> 1-  what do you consider web sites to be within the museum?  do you consider
> them to be programs of the museum? or otherwise...

I doubt that any but the most basic website falls neatly into one
category. Our websites are partly progammatic, providing
informational services of use to the web visitor or researchers, but
also partly aimed at providing potential visitors with information
about the museum (hours, exhibits, programs, etc.).
>
> 2-  and how do you evaluate/review a museum web site?

Good question, but no easy answer. Partly, it depends on what you're
trying to do. For example, we're working to get data on several
research collections available online in a searchable
database--evaluating by the number of users undoubtedly would be
disheartening considering the limited number of researchers in a
given field; queries, visitations to the research collections as a
result of the material, loan requests, etc., will tell us if this is
valuable in the context of our intent.

On the other hand, programs hoping to be of service to the general
public might well depend to a degree on the number of hits.

Probably most satisfactory are unsolicited comments from visitors.
>
> I would really appreciate any insight on these questions.
> Thank You,
>
> Danielle Dugas
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Automatic digest processor <[log in to unmask]>
> To: Recipients of MUSEUM-L digests <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: November 29, 1998 12:20 AM
> Subject: MUSEUM-L Digest - 27 Nov 1998 to 28 Nov 1998 (#1998-332)

Art Harris
--
Laboratory for Environmental Biology
Centennial Museum (Natural and Cultural History)
phone (915)747-6985; fax (915)747-5808; [log in to unmask]
http://www.utep.edu/leb     http://www.utep.edu/museum