University Museum, Southern Illinois Univ. (University Museum, Southern Illinois University)

The University Museum, Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, will implement the digitization phase of its 21st Century Collection Management Initiative. From 2005 to 2010 (Phases 1 to 3), the museum entered 60,000 manual records and updated descriptive information through a focused inventory. Digitization is the final stage. The proposed project will focus on 3,797 artifacts from the museum’s ethnographic, archaeological, and historic collections that represent 26 themes from Africa, Asia, the Americas, and Oceania. These artifacts will be photographed and researched to create 26 online collection portfolios that will provide users with researched context, thereby practicing good collection stewardship and intellectual collection use.