Inside the Meta Center: A Cabinet of Wonder

This paper will examine several aspects of Australian Museums On-Line (http://amol.org.au). A brief historical overview of the evolution of the web site will set the backdrop for exploring the distributed national collections of the Australian museums. Acting a gateway or metacenter for museums on-line collections the AMOL web has also become a focus for a revitalized community network that is flourishing across the country. The AMOL web has recently undergone major redesign and this paper will include discussion of the difficulties of inherited architecture and the process of morphogenesis. The new design seeks to reinterpret the AMOL web as a "cabinet of wonder" for museum professionals, community users and researchers. This paper will present some of the new projects that have been developed on the web that will be of interest to an international museums community.