Collections, Content, and the Web

Thirty leaders of museums and libraries met at the Chicago Historical Society (October 5-7, 1999) to discuss common questions and concerns about digitization of collections and explore the ways that the World Wide Web is affecting their collection-based institutions. This report presents the papers, under the headings of “Technology,” “Audience,” and “Collections,” that were prepared in advance of the meeting and summaries, in each section, of the discussions they provoked. Following an introductory section by Abby Smith, papers include: “Mainstreaming Digitization into the Mission of Cultural Repositories” (Anne R. Kenney); “If You Build It and They Come, Will They Come Back?” (Katherine P. Spiess and Spencer R. Crew); “Library Collections Online” (Abby Smith); and “Museum Collections Online” (Bernard Reilly). The report ends with a concluding discussion and section outlining next steps. Appendices include a list of conference participants and a summary of the report, with tables and figures.