A hearty welcome to museum-l'ers!
 
        A quick aside before I rush head long into the quagmire that
our technology has created: the issue of originals and duplicates.
Although I was at first horrified to realize that I had 178 messages
awaiting me upon my return to Berkeley from a two week vacation, I am
glad that I forgot to unsubscribe to museum-l while gone because as
usual the discussion has been interesting and useful.  Museum-l goes
into 1994 the premier list on Internet.
 
        Now into a mess.  The issue of original and duplucate is one
that ends up an emotional rather than logical arguement. The
need for replication is real, however, and there are certainly instances
where the replica can be as useful as the original.  For example, many
amazing specimens, whether artistic, archaeological or biological in
nature, are often never seen by the public for one reason or the other.
Replicas can provide a way for these specimens to reach the light of day.
 
        This issue has now been raised on museum-l in about seven or
eight other guises... issues of copyright, issues of virtuality, issues
of interactiveness, issues of computerization.  It seems to me that it boils
down to how each person as a member of each museum wants to deal with
the increasingly fluid nature of information.  I think that within the
next couple of years, possibly this new year, the issue(s) will come to head.
How we sort this mess out will determine the direction of all museums into
the next millenia.
 
        On that cheery note, happy new year!
 
Robert Guralnick
Museum of Paleontology
University of California
Berkeley, CA 94720
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(510) 642-9696