AN ONLINE ACCESS AND DISCUSSION SYSTEM FOR HARNASSING UNDERUTILIZED COLLECTIONS

Most museums regularly display or conduct research on only a fraction of the objects and specimens in their collections. Constraints imposed by lack of time, space, personnel, and funding lead to situations where important collections sit underutilized in storage. This paper documents the efforts to rehabilitate one such collection through an online access and discussion system.

The 1,700 fossil specimens of the Illinois State Museum’s Langford Collection and several hundred additional specimens from other Mazon Creek collections were digitized and placed online along with their raw cataloging data. In addition to standard tools for searching and browsing the prepared data, special features were added to the database’s web interface to allow visitors to annotate the specimen records with information of their own.

It is the goal of this project to enhance the reliability and usefulness of the collections data by tapping the knowledge and interest of outside professionals, avocational paleontologists, collectors, and students. In this cooperative arrangement, the Museum benefits from the increased research value of the collection, while the public benefits from its increased availability, and from the sense of contribution that participation imparts.

The database has been online since February 2001. Results to date have suggested some improvements in the structure and operation of the system that will be implemented by the end of August 2001. The final version of this paper will report on changes in the usage of the system following the implementation of these improvements.