I have done a very quick and dirty survey to determine how many times a few
particular natural history museums' websites are referenced on the web.
The data is very poor quality because I was not able to entirely eliminate
references which appear at the museums own site.  Take the numbers as ball
park figures.

They do show some interesting things though...

Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County            ~500
Academy of Natural Sciences                             ~300
Bishop museum                                           ~900
Carnegie Museum of Natural History                      ~50
Chicago Academy of Sciences                             ~200
Field Museum                                            ~3000
UC Berkeley Museum of Paleontology                      ~10000
Smithsonian Museum of NH                                ~2000

Clearly, the UC Berkeley Museum of Paleontology website is exceptionally
well known on the web.  I think that it is unlikely that the museum itself
is nearly so poplular.  What's going on here?  How can we learn to do this?

My own opinion is that the Museum of Paleontology has one of the best
presentations on the web.  A whole lot of content and some interesting
gimicks to get people to return.

The Field Museum on the other hand is probably referenced often for another
reason.  The actual museum is very well known.

Nearly half of the references to our own site are due directly to the
"Guide to Museums and Cultural Resources" that I maintain.

I would love to hear some feedback from Berkeley.  How have you
accomplished this?

Jim Angus

Jim Angus
Information Technology and Hypermedia Programs
Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County
900 Exposition Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA  90007

voice:  213/744-3317
fax:    213/746-2999
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