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** tomorrow **
Ralph E. Chapman
ralphchapman at earthlink.net
TITLE: Virtualization as a Critical Technology for Natural History Museums
TIME: Wed, February 27, @ 12:30p
LOCATION: 624 Agua Fria Conference Room
Lunch will be available for purchase for $5
ABSTRACT: These are critical times for natural history museums and their
collections. As real funding drops significantly, as it has in the great
majority of museums over the past twenty-five years, funding for essential work
has dropped below acceptable levels. Among the three major components of most
museums - research, public programs (education, outreach, and exhibitions), and
collections - all too often collections programs get cut the deepest as funds
disappear. Ironically, this comes at a time when we've finally realized just how
fragile most of these collections are and how badly many collections have been
cared for, some for well over a century. Consequently, funds are dropping just
as a large infusion of money is needed to reverse this long-term neglect.
Complicating this is the fact that the number of scientists interested in using
collections has greatly increased. Therefore, the need for access to the
information contained by the specimens in these collections has also greatly
increased - putting additional financial burdens on collections programs.
Virtualization technologies are a means for simultaneously increasing the
protection of natural history specimens, while allowing more economic storage
and access policies. At a time when museum components are expected to generate
significant outside funding, virtualization provides a new and potentially great
source of funds for collections programs. A great bonus of this process is that
the products of virtualization - two-dimensional and three-dimensional models
and animations - also greatly increase the value of these collections to
researchers, educators, and exhibit specialists.
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