At the American Numismatic Society we have just begun putting thumbnail images of all objects that are sent down to the photography department on to our web-site. You can see links to these at http://www.amnumsoc.org/collections/images/imlist.html . This is a fairly aggressive policy but it has been well received by our membership and the general public. We decided that the public service far outweighs the copyright risk. It's only 400 coins right now but we intend to just keep going through our collection of almost 1 million objects. The scale of this project raises all sorts of technological and financial issues but we are happy with the internet as a distribution medium from the philosophical point of view. -Sebastian -----Original Message----- From: John Martinson [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Wednesday, March 22, 2000 11:07 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Pros' and Cons' of collectionon the Internet or a webpage Dear Museum-Lers, I am interested in knowing any ideas or the pros and cons of having your artifacts such as pictures of objects on the Internet. I wanted to do so. Our Park is a nonprofit organization that manages the state property and collection, and the individual with the State said "no." However, now they want me to speak at a meeting on the topic. To me the collection and artifacts are not just for showing and exhibiting, but educational...and the value of research, discovering more about the topic would open if they are on the Internet. I did not imply to put the entire collection/inventor on, but would like certain items as examples of early Mormon furniture, Utah pottery, some of the historic homes, etc. I know there are researchers who now are researching our pottery for MS papers' and reports. So this is a pro....making a collection more accessible for research. For example, a negative factor is the concerns with copyright and people on the Web who might take items from the collection they find on the web and use them for their own purpose. So it opens legalities and new issues. Help, help, OHHHH Help!!! Any ideas for conversation and a list of pros and cons I could discuss at the meeting? Best, John Martinson, Curator, This Is The Place Heritage Park ========================================================= Important Subscriber Information: The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes). If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes). ========================================================= Important Subscriber Information: The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes). If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).