Robert A. Baron writes: > In fact museums tend to have three collections (following your > thought): the one on view (including those rotated into view), > the one in permanent storage, and lastly a virtual collection > made up of those items that have been on view. I think we agree but I would add that the objects in the collection have links outside the museum (as anyone involved in NAGPRA will attest) with communities with their own histories of the objects. That student downloading images from a database should have access to both the museum interpretation and the outside history and related non-museum sources. We have the technology for that now and I don't like to think it's going to be used to present only the "official" museum view or just to digitize Gardner's. The AAM made it clear in "Excellence and Equity" that education should be expanded through new technology. Of course they didn't say HOW that can be done... Robbin Murphy Managing Editor, ArtNet [log in to unmask]