In Virtual Museums, an Archive of the World

Museums around the US are attempting to move their collections into cyberspace. Once completed, digitization projects such as that at the American Museum of Natural History will allow anyone around the globe with a connection to the internet to browse and study images and notes on millions of fossils, plants, animals, and – of course – pieces of art. "The goal, officials at several museums say, is to link many collections in cooperative databases. Ben Williams, the lead librarian at the Field Museum, said, 'We're all heading toward a kind of digital global museum' — in effect, a catalog of the world." – YaleGlobal