Professional codes of ethics and international doctrinal texts recognize the world’s archaeological heritage as the common heritage of all humanity. As such, archaeologists are obligated to share research results, including collections, with the widest audience possible, and the Internet provides exciting ways in which this can be accomplished. As a community, Canadian universities are not at present providing adequate public access to the archaeological collections in their care, particularly via Web-based channels. In this thesis, I argue that Canadian universities should provide improved online collections access. I provided Web-based public access to a sample of the Grand Rapids (Manitoba) Survey collection, and solicited user feedback in the form of an online survey. The results show that a worldwide audience did access the collections, indicating vastly improved access. Survey results imply that a public audience does find archaeological collections interesting, and is capable of learning something from the style of Web presentation used here.

Professional codes of ethics and international doctrinal texts recognize the world’s archaeological heritage as the common heritage of all humanity. As such, archaeologists are obligated to share research results, including collections, with the widest audience possible, and the Internet provides exciting ways in which this can be accomplished. As a community, Canadian universities are not at present providing adequate public access to the archaeological collections in their care, particularly via Web-based channels. In this thesis, I argue that Canadian universities should provide improved online collections access. I provided Web-based public access to a sample of the Grand Rapids (Manitoba) Survey collection, and solicited user feedback in the form of an online survey. The results show that a worldwide audience did access the collections, indicating vastly improved access. Survey results imply that a public audience does find archaeological collections interesting, and is capable of learning something from the style of Web presentation used here.