We are almost guaranteed obsolescence by the time we reach consensus. But without the development of a common agenda, we risk the creation of disparate and incompatible systems which are not positioned to take advantage of the full potential of developing network communications technologies. The case for standards has been made regularly and frequently in the museum documentation community, and in the broader information management community. 2 Standards enable us to share information effectively and efficiently, without fear of data loss or misinterpretation. They safeguard our investment in information, ensuring predictability and consistency.
Guidelines provide shared methodologies.
They enable collaboration and cooperation through the development of consistent approaches to common problems. Sharing the ways and means of doing things avoids a duplication of effort. The interconnectivity provided by the Internet and WWW provide further impetus for the development of common approaches to the creation of image databases. In the brief time since the release of NCSA Mosaic, we have seen the potential for the network distribution of visual information about museum collections. Many institutions have begun to make significant portions of their collections available this way.