Bernard, there is a video of a panel discussion, available on youtube, that explores the topic of museum web sites and their value. You can search for it by title, "What's the Point of a Museum Web Site." The meat of the discussion starts about 5 minutes in; there's some good philosophical as well as practical insight.
Sarah Clark Curator Staten Island Historical Society Staten Island, NY 718-351-1611, ext. 272 www.historicrichmondtown.org Explore our collections at: http://historicrichmondtown.org/collections ------------------------------ Message: 2 Date: Wed, 31 Jul 2013 19:59:38 +0000 From: Bernard Hamlin <bernard.ham...@otagomuseum.govt.nz> To: "mcn-l at mcn.edu" <mcn-l at mcn.edu> Subject: [MCN-L] Online vs physical visits Message-ID: <hg95dalyrjx6wfwubiv4u782.1375300773721 at email.android.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" Hey there, I've been having a long running discussion with our team about the impact of our website on physical visits to our building. The rub appears to be the idea that offering a Web experience of objects and exhibitions will cannibalise real experiences. I'm not convinced that this is the case but I don't have any numbers, which are important! Would anyone out there be willing to share door numbers say before and after launching an online collection? Or a similar metric? Thanks Bernard Hamlin IT Coordinator Otago Museum
