Regarding recent discussions about museums and their WWW sites and whether or not one can be a substitute for the other, I say no MUSEUM should, will, or CAN EVER be a substitute for a good Web site! In fact, I don't see why all museums don't pack up their musty, dusty, old collections and concentrate all their resources on developing Web pages. It's niftier, neater, cleaner, more fun, better in every way-- ---NOT!!! Folks, let's try to get a grip on reality. I'm surprised (to put it mildly) that there is any sort of discussion among museum professionals about whether or not a Web site can substitute for a real-life museum. Pardon my curmudgeonliness, but this is a real no-brainer. A museum Web site is no more an alternative for the museum than a Paris map (even an interactive map) is for a visit to Paris itself. Everything I have seen on the Web or any computer program has simply been an alternative to some other form of verbal or pictorial experience. Even if we achieve true "virtual reality" on the Web so that volumetric, high-resolution, holographic imagery with surround-sound and motion can fool us into thinking we're encountering real museum "objects," this isn't a "real" issue. We can simulate a museum exhibition tour on a CD-ROM or the Web, but there is INFORMATION imbedded in an original museum artifact which no representation can ever replace. That's why museums exist--to preserve access to unique historic information. WWW sites for museums and other organizations simply provide access to a PART of this historic information in a nifty format. Thus far, the way the Web is being used by museums is as a substitute for brochures, catalogs, phone books, and phone calls. Period. Museums will continue as sites for tourists to visit and places for serious scholars, students, and true "amateurs" who appreciate and understand original objects--be they art works or cultural, geological, biological, etc., artifacts. A limited amount of information about a limited number of these artifacts will be found conveniently on the Web--with links to other objects and other sites--by those who need it for specific purposes and for casual encounters through surfing, but I think whether or not museum Web sites increase or decrease visitorship to the actual museums remains to be seen. It may have no discernible impact at all. I don't see that the inability or unwillingness of some people to travel to museums is a reason to develop a Web site. This reminds me of the "armchair travel" sales pitch of companies that sold stereograph sets at the turn of the century--buy this set of 100 3-D pictures of Egypt and you won't have to go there! Guess what happened? People stopped buying stereograph "tours" and are doing more traveling than ever! When people do travel, what's on their itineraries? Theme parks, famous natural wonders, famous buildings, and cultural institutions such as museums! Will they skip museums just because they've already "visited" them on their computers? I doubt it. What seems more plausible to me is that they may stop buying exhibition and collection catalogs in the museums' gift shops if they know they can see the same things free on the Web. My advice to museums is to consider what impact Internet freebies will have on educational and souvenir products that they're trying to sell to support collections and programs. In my own museum, the Web site development team is under no illusion that our pictures and text on the Web will substitute for a museum exhibit. We're viewing it largely as a supplement to the museum-going experience, and in fact want it to help the visitor navigate while IN the museum. Certainly it will do a lot of other things as well. But consider this: probably the most popular artifacts currently on display are "Dorothy's" ruby slippers from "The Wizard of Oz": do you think people would rather see a picture of them on the Web than to view the real objects? (I think it's kind of sad that they're more popular than, say, George Washington's tent, but that's another story.) I sincerely hope that some of the hype and hysteria about the WWW will subside before museum people get their perspectives too warped out of shape. The Web is nothing more than a fancy tool for providing and accessing information; for a museum, it helps disseminate information about collection objects and museum-type activities (which are driven by collections and associated scholarship). It won't surprise me if Web sites become a permanent and universal adjunct to museums--nor would it surprise me if they end up as this year's hula hoop (or this year's equivalent of the stereoscopic armchair tour). The Web may be the greatest thing since sliced bread--but it will never BECOME sliced bread...or a museum. Just my opinion, of course, but possibly a damned good one (modest blush). --David Haberstich, National Museum of American History