This year in Chicago, MCN will revive the cross-disciplinary vision of 40 years ago and explore its promise in the present day, encouraging participation from institutions across the museum spectrum. How we are the same? How are we different? How have we dealt, successfully and unsuccessfully, with the overlapping efforts in documentation, professionalism, and use of technology across the museum community? What are we doing right, and what do we need to do better?

In 1967, a group of museum professionals in New York held their first meeting to discuss the use of computers in museum settings. This meeting was the genesis of what would become the Museum Computer Network. Art, archaeology, science, and historical museums, as well as members of the computer industry (especially IBM), all participated in those early meetings. As the museum field has grown and expanded in the past half-century, we have become more and more specialized, learning primarily from those whose experiences most closely mirror our own – art with art, science with science, etc. This conference will reaffirm and revitalize our broader connections across these types of institutions.

CONTACT:
Debbie Block, MCN Conference Coordinator
Box 1117
Cochrane, AB T4C 1B2
CANADA
Tel: (403) 949-3568
Fax: (403) 949-3291
Email: debbie [at] mcphersonclarke [dot] com