>> I think it would be particularly >>interesting to debate what is the >main consideration in deciding to >>prepare programs for the Internet - public access? >museum profile? >>publicity? education? We have two small museums in Muncie, Indiana. Our main purpose for putting up a sight is to let more people know about the resources we have to offer. The Delaware County Historical Allaince has a library and writes 2 publications. We have been in existance for (more or less) thirty odd years and we have people every day who have never heard of us. > >I would be delighted too to hear how other Museums develop their web sites >as we are in the process of re-making our (one year old site) at the >moment. >Are webmasters are using commercial vendors for this purpose or working >in-house for example. The person who is constructing our site will also be training me (the Admin. Asst.) on how to update the page. So I will in a sense be the webmaster. Our pages will not be too involved, but a nice addition to the web. You can take a look at the construction at: http://www.iquest.net/~gothicpoet/temp/ Like I said, we are a small site. >Once the content has been more or less agreed upon we will be able to turn >other issues such as target audiences, educational versus commercial, which >language or languages to provide information (our museum provides labels in >English, Hebrew and Arabic) and the hardest issue of all, how much leeway >do we allow our visitors to answer us .... this is a most delicate problem >as we dont have the manpower to answer the pottential flood of inquiries on >all of our collections. We don't really anticipate a large volume of mail, but we are training a couple of volunteers to handle mail on a couple of days a week. Thanks for this discussion, I know I have lots of questions! Angi Weiss Administrative Assistant Delaware County Historical Alliance ************************************************************* The Delaware County Historical Alliance P.O. Box 1266, Muncie, IN 47308-1266 (317) 282-1550, (317) 282-1058 (fax) Office open Monday - Friday, 9 - 4 *Moore-Youse Home Museum, 122 E. Washington, Muncie open Wednesday through Sunday 1 - 4 *Heritage Library, 120 E. Washington, Muncie, open Monday and Tuesday 10 - 4, Saturday 10 - 1 *Emily Kimbrough Childhood Home Museum, open by appointment