I am hoping subscribers to this list are not annoyed by requests from students for help from the real world (because, I, too, could benefit from someone else's practical experience). I am an MLS student at Syracuse University. The goal of one of my projects is to understand the issues involved in the decision to make digitized images of objects from a museum's collection available to the public. I have found wonderful sights on the World Wide Web, Gopher sights, CD-ROMs, and, of course, kiosks. I have also found many articles which discuss the databases, but very few that detail the process of making the decision to compile such a database. My specific questions are about cost analysis/resource allocation, funding, and stakeholders. Also, what the immediate and ultimate goals of public availability of a database would be. Could anyone direct me to literature on the subject, or offer some of his/her own experiences? I would be *very* interested in working with someone who is currently considering such a project. Please feel free to respond to me directly. I will compile the results and forward them to anyone who expresses an interest, or to the whole list if appropriate. Thank you, Janet Hlozik Taylor [log in to unmask]