Kulturskatter på nätet/en/Why publish material on the internet?

Publish on the internet

Students today don't look for information the same way as the children in this image did. They use the internet. To reach them, the material must exist online.

The rise of the internet have change how the public acquire information. Most use a search engine (for instance Google or Yahoo) that lead them to various information sources. Wikipedia usually figure very high among the search results.

Why publish material on the internet?

If the goal is to disseminate the material, internet is an obvious choice. But there are more concrete arguments than that:

• the material can spread without any action from your part
• the public won't have to adapt to your opening hours
• individuals from far away (including other countries) get access more easily to the material, which in turn is good for the environment
• with the aid of links, the material can be put in a context
• today most people use only the internet for their fact gathering, which means that if the material isn't there, they'll go on without the material; they won't go to your physical building to do research
• more visitors give feedback in the form of messages or even corrections to information in your collections
• the staff generally like becoming a part of the internet and to learn how the internet works
• the internet works as a display window for your collections – which may increase sales and visiting statistics

How do you publish material online?

It's easy to publish material on the internet. Most often, it's done through a webpage, either as part of the institution or in some media database. One of the largest media databases is Wikimedia Commons where material under a free license or in the public domain can be uploaded.