audiences and instituting visual repatriation (Karp 2006). Online collections overcome

geographic distance and the limitations of museum business hours, thus opening the

door to 24-hour global collections access.

       Indigenous cultures can benefit greatly from the opportunity to locate and

research culturally significant items to which their community no longer has physical

access. Non-Native museums can now utilize online technology, including wikis, to

invite Native feedback on museum collections information. Online collections may also

remedy some of the challenges that emerged as museums tried to address NAGPRA

requirements in communicating collections descriptions to distant communities.

       Online collections accessibility opens collections review and research to a public

of all ages, education levels, and socioeconomic status. Some cultural institutions offer

web users the opportunity to manipulate online objects to create personal collections or

construct interactive projects such as collages or online exhibits.6 In the past, museums

typically invited only academic professionals to research collections in storage. This

required making an appointment with museum staff, and short research visits severely

limited the number of objects a researcher could peruse. Online collections have altered

previous barriers to collections information. Increased accessibility may potentially

attract unconventional users by offering free educational resources in the familiar format

of the web. This means schoolchildren, amateur collectors, low income web-users, and

other non-academics now have the ability to engage museum objects and information

despite their inability to visit a museum in person.



6 One example of interactive online collections is the National Archives Experience:
http://www.archives.gov/nae/