Ed Southern's musings are a little frustrating because I missed the
original posting from Jill Tatem which set them going.  Still, I think he
has picked up an immensely important point when he asks
 
>        Is the lesson then that commiting finding aids to
>WWW, at least in the former's present form, is akin to
>using an electronic medium for essentially a paper-,
>print-, and linear-oriented document?
 
To which I would respond that, yes that is, pretty much, what everyone is
doing at the moment, even though the graphical interface of something like
Netscape may blur the point a bit.  In turn, I would ask cautiously,
however, whether we can in fact avoid that situation?  Are we not, by the
nature of the beast, tied to some extent to such a linearity?
 
If we give access to a structured and hierarchical description of our
holdings at the series level (let alone at the item level) we must surely
maintain the linear nature of hierarchical description if we seek to
provide the contextual, administrative and functional information which we
strive to provide in our paper finding aids.
 
>How about some hypertextual finding aids? Interactive finding aids?
>Moving pictures? Still photos? Computer graphics to
>give the user the feel and atmosphere of your search
>room? (Of course, perhaps no one will need a search
>room in the future....)
>
Excellent ideas and all definitely applicable either to the "lists"(an
alternative word needed?) or to the informational side of the presentation
(how do you get here, where do you eat, what kind of facilities does the
archives have?).
 
One caveat though - the present very slow transfer of graphic data,
particularly over phone lines and at peak times on at least some direct
network connections, limits the practical application of these ideas - put
too much in and your clientele will give up in disgust.  Still, the rate at
which the technology advances is such that by next Tuesday week we may well
be OK.:)
 
 
-----------------
Michael Saclier                                     [log in to unmask]
Noel Butlin Archives Centre                  voice:  06 249 0147
Australian National University              fax: 06 249 0140
Canberra ACT 0200 Australia
              Disclaimer: I don't speak for them & vice versa