Well, these issues have been thrashed out pretty thoroughly
          in the four or five months that I've been participating in
          this list.
 
          I would suggest that you get a look at the index of museum-l
          and refer to some of these discussion.
 
          My take on the issues you raised: 1) Images of artwork look
          terrible on computer, and are not a "threat" to the
          visitorship at museums. Also a better educated population is
          good for all of us. 2) Other types of collections having
          images on the net are largely useful to scholars. We at the
          New York Botanical Garden want to make our herbarium
          specimens available that way, to allow botanists to browse
          through the collection. I can tell you that for us, a
          comprehensive visual database is at least a decade off.
          3) Collections information on the net is not a threat, and
          security measures are readily integrated into net access.
          Libraries have been on line through OCLC and RLIN for years,
          and noone suggests that this poses a threat.
 
 
          Eric Siegel
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