Fellow Listers:

I would like to know what other museums are thinking about in regard to the
"museum's online" grants proposed by the IMLS under the President's
initiative to create the National Digital Library for Education.

We are a medium sized county history museum, and though we do not as yet
have a web site, we will soon.  We understand the value of information
technology,and have committed as much of our limited resources as we could
to upgrade out technical abilities.  For instance, we hope to have
interactive, computer kiosks in our children's areas in the near future.

However,we do have limited resources such as staff, commitments to our
community outreach activities, etc., that truly limit our ability to take
on more projects.  I hate to use the phrase "the timing isn't right," but
in many ways, this initiative is years ahead of our ability to participate.
Of course we have local treasures that help to the tell the story of our
geographic area, and though I truly question how often the information we
have would be accessed, we definitely wish to share what we have. What role
can smaller museums play in this initiative (I ask because I see primarily
larger facilties participating at this point in time)?  With just over ten
million dollars proposed on the museum side, how long can this program be
sustained (in other words, for those of us in smaller museums who have to
wait for whatever reason, does this program represent a continuing
commitment on the part of the IMLS)?

If Andy Finch is out there, maybe he could offer some advice for the small
museums with limited resources.

Please share your thoughts with the list on this matter.

Thanks,

Jay Smith
Reno County Museum
Hutchinson, Kansas




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