Does anyone know of any virtual museums that are
honest to goodness, independent, non-profit, collecting institutions that have
no physical collections or infrastructure other than the servers they’re
housed on? I’m working with a group that wants to organize such an
entity to collect and digitize photographs, film and video that documents the
history of a local community, and then create web sites, virtual exhibits and
video productions as well as an on-line archive to make the material
accessible. The actual film/photos would either be returned to the donors or
passed along to another institution that curates these types of
items.
The questions are:
1) Is there any organization operating on this model
already?
2) How might the legal complexities of obtaining
unrestricted rights to a copy of someone’s film but not the actual film be
handled in the language of the deed of gift (we’re talking about people’s home
movies, old corporate film and video, old TV news video, etc so we may be
dealing with both individuals and corporations as
donors)?
3) What other complications regarding access, use and
licensing can you think of?
4) Are we crazy?
Thanks,
Dan
Dan Bartlett
Curator of Exhibits and
Education
Logan Museum of
Anthropology
Beloit College
(608)
363-2678
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