Highlights of Canadian Collections
The "Highlights of Canadian Collections" project is a broad survey of Canadian heritagerepresented in museums by collections of fine arts, ethnology, history, natural sciences, and archaeological sites. Twenty-nine museums have each selected 10 to 15 images from their collections and have provided a photograph of their institution. In addition to being used in this project, the images will be added to the National Inventories and to the Guide to Canadian Museums and Galleries.The goals of the project are:
1. To use the Internet to provide wider access to the wealth of fascinating material in our institutions that is unknown to most people and costly to display using conventional means.
2. To provide students, teachers, and visitors to Canada with access to information on Canadian art and sciencecollections and archaeological sites so that they may develop an overview of the cultural and natural heritageof Canada.
Seventeen students from Ottawa-area high schools, colleges, and universities have been working on this project.The skills they developed are in the area of computers (imaging technology, hypertext markup language or 'html'), graphic design (Internet pages, lay-out, interplay of presentation and content), and research (working with the museum community). It is hoped that this will give museums a higher profile on the Internet, thus attracting the attention of tourist agencies and tourists, and that students (employees) will gain experience in the skills needed to meet the demands of museums in the age of technology.
