A word of caution here when reading statistics.  I think the survey
showed some amazing things.

1.  The population surveyed were predominately seniors and 27% of this
group has internet services at home or office.  This is encouraging to
show the popularity of the media.  Research shows that older people are
more likely to be computer phobic, but 27% of these people were on line.
That is impressive.

2.  The response of persons looking up the web page before an exhibit can
mean many things.  Did they know they could have looked up the museum?
Were they predominately out-of-towners or people bringing kids, grandkids
to a museum they were already familar with?

3.  Were they on AOL or another private carrier or did they have
unlimited services?  This would make a difference as to how much time
they would be willing to spend on the net.

It would be interesting to contact the people who were on line and
determine their usage habits, for example, if on AOL do they get beyond
the first page and go beyond AOL conncections, and what are
thier limitations to access, for example do they have it in the house and
Junior(ette) is always on.

Also, for people who are not on line, many libraries have internet
services.  Did these people know about resources other than computers at
home?

I think the surveys are raising more questions then giving us patterns of
behavior.  Harry is right in saying that the longitudinal aspect of this
survey will be more interesting.


Betsy

 On Wed, 29 Nov 1995, HNEEDHAM wrote:

> The responses posted recently add yet more support for timely research on the
> use of WWW sites by patrons of heritage institutions and other groups,
> including the general public.
>
> In cooperation with other museums, we have started collecting data on use of
> WWW sites by our patrons.
>
> Our first study, conducted over 8 days in October 1995, elicited 503 responses
.
> We were disappointed to find that only 27% of respondents had an Internet
> connection either at home or at work. Of that fraction, 78% reported that they
> did NOT visit museum sites on the WWW and only 4% (a disappointing 1% of the
> total respondents) had "visited" the CMC WWW site before visiting. Only 1
> respondent in 503 reported that the visit to the CMC WWW site had influenced
> his decision to make a physical visit.
>
> The population represented by this sample was quite unusual, being comprised
> very largely of seniors, a group not noted as major users of informatics
> services.
>
> We will continue to ask the same questions over the coming year and will repor
t
> our findings on this list.
>
> A copy of the study, of which the Internet-related questions was only one part
,
> is available.
>
> Harry Needham
> Canadian Museum of Civilization
>

Betsy Price, Project Manager            A joint project sponsored by:
The Natural History of Genes            Eccles Institute of Human Genetics
UMNH                                    Utah Museum of Natural History
University of Utah                      University of Utah Medical School
Salt Lake City, Utah 84112

801-581-6286
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