INFORMATION-SERVICES FOR THE MUSEUM OF SCOTLAND PROJECT

The paper discusses information services which are being developed wit hin the National Museums of Scotland (NMS), to support the Museum of S cotland Project. NMS has started to build a new museum in the centre o f Edinburgh, to display its rich collections of Scottish material. It is due to open in 1998. The information needs of project teams are exa mined. A strategy for responding to the rapidly changing needs of proj ect teams is described. The approach concentrates on developing a vari ety of information resources, which together meet the needs of users, and making some of them accessible throughout the organization as serv ices on a data communications network. Internal services include colle ctions databases, a collections management system for the Museum of Sc otland Project, and the library catalogue online. External services in clude the development of a Scottish national database of museum object s, and access to the Joint Academic Network. The data communications n etwork is described, and the management of the system is discussed.