Lynne, A colleague directed me to the following artlice as I began looking into the questions of museum websites and the impact on visitor numbers. The article suggests that websites and virtual collections actually enhance numbers...hope this helps! Kravchyna, V. & Hastings, S. (2002). Informational Value of Museum Web Sites. First Monday, 7 (2), http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue7_2/kravchyna/index.html Best, Jennifer Jennifer Lemmer Tibbals Collection Manager Ringling Museum of the Circus Sarasota, Florida [log in to unmask] >>> [log in to unmask] 3/12/2004 6:29:49 PM >>> Our small local-history museum is fortunate to have a local-library director who is as passionate about local history as we are -- and he is better funded. He introduced me to a gentleman whose business digitizes newspapers, books, etc. for libraries and collectors and who the director would like to have digitize some of our papers. The library has had a business relationship with him for many years. I saw examples of his work and was very impressed. He also works with some significant institutions that have used him for other projects and have contracted with him for additional work. The digital files will be searchable and will be available on the library's Web site. The library did something similar with a weighty tome that covers the entire history of our town and it has been a great boon to researchers and to us/me (fewer demands on my time). We have one large volume of a years' worth of a rare 1886 newspaper that apparently exists nowhere else, including at the state archives. The first few pages are extremely fragile, but the rest is not too bad. That is the first collection that will be digitized and I was very relieved when the digitizer said he doesn't need to unbind the newspapers in order to convert them. However, he is apparently accustomed to dealing with more recent newspapers and I gasped when he flipped open the cover of the volume and started turning pages as though it was yesterday's daily paper. As a confetti of old paper rained down at his feet, it became apparent to him -- and to me -- that he needed instruction in dealing with very old paper. We agreed, then, that I would bring the bound volume to him and will offer some guidance to the photographers, who are also unaccustomed to such old newspapers. I would like, then, to ask the members of this list for additional advice before I bring the papers to them next week. I will bring cotton gloves for all of us and I will recite my litany of the things that damage old paper. I thought of creating some sort of page support (of a couple of sheets of Mylar taped together with something slim but rigid sandwiched in the middle?) to slip under each page, to facilitate lifting and turning it. Can anyone else offer suggestions for what I should ask of them? The other broader question arose when I told our historian of what we are doing and he scowled and replied "No one is going to come into the museum if you have all this online." I realize that this is an ongoing debate today, but I am curious as to whether other list members have a sense of whether extensive Internet resources have a depressing effect on the number of visitors to their museum -- or whether they encourage attendance. Lynne ========================================================= Important Subscriber Information: The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes). If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes). ========================================================= Important Subscriber Information: The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes). If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).