Dean... I've had to mull this over awhile and while I don't want to seem unduly contentious, I think that you are perhaps deluding youself a bit. While I am sure that you are completely serious about making people aware of the collection at UWF... the web just does so incredibly much more. I offer some examples from my own personal experience, of how the expanded access that the web offers can make unexpected differences. I have been aware of the the Florida State Archives photography collection for eons... or more specifically, for over 20 years. I have used it both in my state job and in connection with a historical web site that I have created which pertains to the Civil War in North Florida. And... and... *AND* I live only 6 or 8 blocks away from the Gray Building... the home of the Florida State Archives. But I almost never have browsed the photo hard copies at the Archives just for the fun of it. That is so easy to do on the web... I have done it a number of times. I even looked at the many unidentified 19th century photos of citizens of Tallahassee and found a picture that I feel must be of the grandmother or great grandmother of a woman I worked with a number of years ago. The resemblance is remarkable. I also saw something so clearly in the eyes of what must have surely been a number of now unknown Civil War veterans. The anguish and sorrow of the war and its aftermath are written plainly on their faces. I would not have seen many things that the original source objects of sit on shelves only about a quarter of a mile from me, had they not been transformed into computer graphics and put on the web. I will probably never have a chance to travel the many miles to UWF... and especially since I have no idea of the specific things that are in the collections there. I think that these limitations apply to many people who can access information on the web, and will benefit from that access if you give it to them, in ways that we cannot fathom even now. Web acces is a goal to strive towards... Even so I would have never thought to look there for a photo of my great great uncle Green Berry Haven's house in Madison. But it is there... and I found it, but I did not find it by travelling 6 blocks. I found it on my computer at home through the miracle of electrons. I did travel the six blocks to check in both the Archives proper and with the photo archives for a lead on where I could find a photo of Confederate Major Pickens Bird of Madison. Nobody knew. There was some thought that there was no such picture. But SON OF A GUN... There it is in the same Madison photo collection that houses the picture of Green Berry Haven's house. Well, maybe. There is a picture that is thought to *probably* be of Pickens Bird. I'm easy. That's good enough for me. The web opens up so very many opportunities for access to so many people. You may not have a plan now for web access to the UWF photo archives, but I think that you are going to find sooner or later that you have to have one. Big problems become small opportunities when they are broken down into managable chunks and it might be decades before the whole collection could be digitized, but that is where managing can be done by establishment of clear priorities. No pressure... but I encourage you to look to some creative ideas in this area instead of defending what I believe is an option of very rapidly declining viability. If some of UWF's photos were on the web, I *would* look at them... RW Dean DeBolt wrote: > > Richard asks a reasonable question about whether we intend to > scan and post photographs on the web. At the present time, we > do not intend to do so. There are good reasons for this. First, > photographs take a great deal of computer storage space and > when your collection exceeds 30,000 photographs, which exactly > do you put up? Street scenes? Family reunions? Second, most > archives, historical societies, and research centers have limited > staffing. We simply don't have the staff it would require to scan and > maintain an online archive of our photograph collections. > > But simply because something is not available on the web, should > not detract researchers. I could probably list a dozen historical societies > and libraries with collections the size of mine which will never find their > way to the web for the same reasons I've enumerated. > > My purpose responding to the list was to (1) point out that there are many > other sources of Florida photographs for researchers, and (2) they may > not be all online. > > Dean > > Dean DeBolt, University Librarian > Special Collections and West Florida Archives > University of West Florida Library > 11000 University Parkway > Pensacola, FL 32514-5750 > Tele: 850-474-2213. Fax: 850-474-3338. > E-mail: ddebolt@uwf.edu > ---------------------------------------------------- > Reach me by ICQ. My ICQ# is 14599771 or, > * Page me online through my Personal Communication Center: http://wwp.mirabilis.com/14599771 (go there and try it > ----------------------------------------------------