Calling all beachcombers! The Atlantic Coast has some amazing beaches to explore, and during your next visit you may find an interesting shell and think, “I wonder what this is called, or what tiny creature may have occupied it?!!” If curiosity does get the best of you, this collection of shells found on the U.S. East Coast may help you to identify them. The varieties added so far include:
To properly describe these fascinating little items, the metadata fields that I chose include: Title, Description, Date, Contributor, and Type. I chose these particular metadata fields because I believe they provide the most important information about each shell to properly identify it, as well as information about who found it. The title provides the common name of the shell, description provides the approximate size, coloring, and pattern of the shell in addition to the common name, date is the date it was added to the collection, contributor shares the name of the person who found or collected the shell, and type is what type of item it is. If this was part of a larger collection of beach combing treasures, the type would distinguish it from rocks, sea glass, or other items.
Hopefully, you will be able to use this information to identify more shells on future beach adventures, or alternatively, learn more about some shells that you may already have in your collection. One challenge I faced with describing these objects was that I would like to include a geographic location of where the object was found, but could not find an option for ‘place’ or ‘location’. I may decide to add this information to the description in the future, but it would be helpful to have the ability to filter shells by a more specific location.
A side-note supporting digital exhibits: Having exhibits available online can introduce new audiences to organizations they weren’t previously aware of! Through internet searching for a particular item or information about a subject, someone might be connected to a museum’s site and then become more involved with the organization (use the site more often, decide to visit, go to an event, contribute, etc.). This interaction might not otherwise happen without the museum having a digital collection. Reaching more people is awesome!
Creating a digital exhibit can, however, add another layer of technological and financial challenges for a museum. Creating an online exhibit takes time, money, and constant maintenance. Creating a large interactive digital collection may not be feasible for some smaller museums due to budgetary constraints, but it is worth exploring grant funding options or smaller scale projects to get started and gain support. Smaller organizations may also be able to pool resources to create collections that link out to different sites. I’ve seen this occur with library information networks and consortia to provide patrons with access to a larger collection of electronic resources. Professional organizations may provide funding for support as well.
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