Users decide how, when, and where they will use an institution's materials. In fact, most people do not even distinguish between a museum and a library site. They are looking for information. The academic users present underscored this notion, claiming that the important issue is not which institutions digitize which materials or on whose Web site they reside. The crucial need of academic users, both faculty and students, is to have the broadest possible access and the most powerful searching tools to locate digital resources wherever they may be found.
Costs are also a major concern.
History museum administrators joined their art museum colleagues, however, in stressing the need for new efforts to provide better descriptive control over collections. They also agreed that libraries need to follow the lead of museums in developing a more sophisticated attitude toward marketing and in addressing issues of intellectual property.