Bishop Museum
Honolulu, HI
 
 
 
MEMORANDUM
TO:             List Recipients
 
FROM:           Anita Manning, Asst. Director, Collections Management
                Vice President and  Secretary
                BISHOP MUSEUM
 
SUBJECT:        effect of on-line databases on collection access
 
 
Bishop Museum is planning future on-line database access to collections.
We currently have library and archival materials cataloged on-line and
available to anyone with internet or OCLC access.  We are looking at
various levels of catalog access to cultural and biological collections
with a representative number of examples imaged.  Our experience to date
is with on-line library and archival catalogs (try us via any CARL-system
library catalog or via University of Hawaii, UHCARL - telnet
uhcarl.lib.hawaii.edu - type "75" at main UH menu ).
 
Some planners _believe_ on-line access to biology and cultural collections
will DECREASE requests for access to the collection, that on-line data
combined with many images of collection items will satisfy most public and
many scientific users.
 
Some planners _believe_ on-line access will INCREASE requests for access
to the collection, that data on-line will create new questions and new
ideas that will NOT be satisfied by data in the catalog, questions that
will be answered only by examination of the specimen.
 
Some planners _believe_ on-line access will satisfy many questions of the
biological collections, but will INCREASE requests for access to cultural
collections.
 
Have those with _publicly_ available catalogs experienced a decrease or
increase in requests for access to the actual collection?  I am not
referring to in-house, stand-alone catalogs, but those available to the
public without museum assistance (by internet on gopher or mosaic or OCLC
or  ...).
 
I am soliciting responses from anyone with REAL experiences, and HARD
data.  Although opinions and thoughts and beliefs are important, I need to
hear from people with experience as a collections user or as a provider of
collection access.  We need to plan for what our 'customers' need, rather
than what we wish they needed.
 
Many thanks for any responses.  You may respond to
<[log in to unmask]> or to this list.   I will be at AAM in
Seattle and would welcome conversations with anyone at that time as well.