1. Dungarvan Museum short-listed in international web awards 2. Book Sale - May 3rd to May 4th 3. New web-site article written by Michael Desmond ============================================== 1. Dungarvan Museum short-listed in international web awards ============================================== We had a pleasant surprise in the museum recently. The press release that we sent to the local newspapers is reproduced below. Dungarvan Museum Among World’s Top Five Museums It is quite an achievement for a small local museum to be able to compete with large museums on an international stage. At the sixth annual Museums and the Web conference (held in Boston), Dungarvan Museum’s web site www.dungarvanmuseum.org was short-listed in the Best Research Site category. To make the final short list Dungarvan Museum displaced web sites from the Smithsonian Institution and Harvard among others. Also short listed along with Dungarvan Museum’s web site were: Tate Online (Tate Galleries, UK) Division of Paleontology at the American Museum of Natural History Black Wings: African American Pioneer Aviators (American National Air And Space Museum) EH Strickland Entomological Museum (University Of Alberta) The winner of the award in Dungarvan Museum’s category was the American Museum of Natural History. At the moment the site has over 1000 pages on local history. The site uses text, video, photographs, virtual tours and downloads to explore many topics of local historical interest (the Famine, the Moresby Disaster, King John’s Castle, Waterford Men in the Great War, War Of Independence etc.). The web site allows Dungarvan Museum to function as a publishing house for local historians. Publishing on-line is a cost free method for local historians to distribute articles to a larger audience than would normally be available to them. New articles are added on a regular basis. Between 800 and 1500 different people a week consult our on-line archive on West Waterford history and over 500 people from all over the world are members of our free electronic mailing list. The web site was constructed at no charge by Martin and William Whelan of local web site design company Deise Design (www.deisedesign.com) as their contribution to preserving Waterford’s past. The site has been constructed using a content management system called Deiseditor developed by the Deise Design web consultancy over a two-year period. This content management system allows Dungarvan Museum Staff to publish their information online quickly and easily. According to the Museums And The Web organisation the sites short listed support research on museum collections and provide excellent resources for researchers from any discipline. They are primarily aimed at on-line databases and search engines that provide detailed information for individuals and or groups. Reviewed web sites were marked according to the following criterion: Ease of use for both experienced and novice researchers Accuracy and depth of content Consistency of material Currency of links and updates Extent of links and references to other related resources and sites Dungarvan Museum Society, a voluntary non-profit organisation, was founded in 1982 to run museum. In 1999 the Museum moved to a new location at the old Town Hall in St. Augustine Street, Dungarvan, County Waterford. Dungarvan Museum is part funded by Waterford County Council. You can read further details about the Museums and the Web competition online at http://www.archimuse.com/mw2002/ . ============================================== 2. Book Sale - May 3rd to May 4th ============================================== Dungarvan Museum has another second hand book sale to raise funds on May 3rd (7pm to 10pm) and May 4th (10am to 7.30pm). The sale will be held in the Museum on Friary Street, Dungarvan (opposite the Friary Church). All proceeds go to support the museum. This sale has taken on added importance since a lorry driver broke our sign outside the museum after illegally parking on the payment. He then drove off leaving the Museum with a 200 Euro bill to replace the sign. ============================================== 3. New web-site article written by Michael Desmond ============================================== Michael Desmond has written a great article on Glenanore, County Waterford. The article traces the development of a small clustered mountain village in west Waterford. It looks at the available surveys to try and trace its development and demise. For Genealogists out there family names mentioned include Brazill’s, Harney’s, Wall’s, Coffey’s, McGrath's, Power's, Foley, Ryan, Connors and O’Keeffe. If any readers enjoy the article be sure and e-mail Michael with your thoughts. His e-mail address is available on the article. You can access the article at www.dungarvanmuseum.org click on "Latest Article" in the middle of the page. Alternatively click on "Exhibitions" at the top of the page. The article on Glenanore is at the top of the list. ========================================================================== William Whelan | Déise Design | http://www.deisedesign.com | Phone : 086 2748377 " Our core product Déiseditor © allows organisations to publish information to their web site in a fast and cost effective manner. There is no need for a full time web developer, as the site can easily updated by the organisations own staff. Instant updates to keep site information fresh. Sites which are updated regularly bring users back. " Déiseditor © " Managing Your Information " ==========================================================================