Hundreds of museums around the world now boast an online alter ego, so
aficionados have a wealth of virtual collections available for their
delectation. Catch Venus having a bad hair day on a sandstone relief at
www.ncl.ac.uk/~nantiq/fotmo95/index.html, the Object of the Month at Newcastle
upon Tyne鈥檚 Museum of Antiquities. Then go back a link or two to the Gallery of
Objects, where previous objects of the month are stored.
Skipping the Atlantic with a click of your mouse, why not head for the
Smithsonian鈥檚 genteel visitor centre at
http://160.111.7.240/activity/planvis/aboutsic.htm to find out who James
Smithson was. And don鈥檛 forget The Computer Museum in Boston, where The Virtual
FishTank at www.tcm.org/html/fishtank/ lets you create a fish and drop it into a
tank. No fewer than 22 computers will animate your fish, applying a shoal of
rules to calculate how the animal should behave.
From Britain comes some good news for scholarly insomniacs: a gateway to
all the websites of British museums and their databases will be launched during
Museums Week, 15-23 May. Try the site set up by the Campaign for Museums at
www.museumsweek.co.uk.
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If you like live events at museums, webcurators are keeping you in mind.
San Francisco鈥檚 Exploratorium hosts a number of events鈥攕uch as sumo
wrestling robots鈥攙ia webcasts for those who can鈥檛 make it to the West
Coast. Try its Digital Library at www.exploratorium.edu/digit/index.html to
sample the webcasts.
Anyone thinking of placing a collection online needs considerable expertise
in databasing to deliver the goods, warns the anthropology department at the
American Museum of Natural History. For the methods available, see their guide
at www.archimuse.com/mw99/papers/siegel/siegel.html. And you can find their own
effort at http://anthro.amnh.org/.
