THE MAJOR FARNHAM CRAFTS STUDY CENTRE COLLECTION at The V&A

Only one photo of each item, means no base photo, no mark no Hi-res photo. I want x10 photos of each item

That’s always the problem with museums. They don’t post photos of the mark

They’re supposed to be there for research. Not including extra photos is just lazy. Some don’t even post photos of most of their collections

Yup, times change. Visiting their website is relevant now, it's not just there to find out what time they are open. By the time they get a few more photos up there we will have moved on to full 3d-scans in mega hi-res, it's not far off.

True, but when I did a museums studies degree back in the 90s the museums were starting to include photos on their websites but were then informed of the copyright laws and rushed off (literally; during the presentation) to remove them because they don't want the general public using them for free. Many museums have had students photographing and archiving their collections over the subsequent decades but are hoarding the photos, and now with the massive Government and Council funding cuts they don't have the manpower or the tech to upload them and their collections are ending up boxed up in basements or deaccessioned

Aberystwyth University has a huge studio pottery collection and ephemera archive, some of which is online but the curators don't bother replying most of the time if you ask about items that aren't online but are in their stores. And they don't include the marks.

You could argue that an online presence is more important than the actual museum itself. Without a decent website how do people find you - word of mouth does not go far nowadays. if I told you about an amazing new museum of ceramics in say Bolton then the first place you would look in online. You would not ask for their phone number or their address, you certainly would not go to Bolton looking for it without first looking over the website.

I dont think the job of a museum is to have a good website , its a collection catalogued its about seeing the real object, and its not about people getting bargains on ebay ( sorry a bit controversial) nowadays all folks want to see is tiny pics on their cameras, I don't manage to get much reaction at all to photos of my work on internet and social media but people who seeit for real are happy to spend 200€ for a pot and 500 for a planet paintings cost more

You are slightly different than a museum. My argument is that I would not dream of going anywhere without checking the website first. I don't have the spare time or effort to turn up at places on the off chance.

No website, no info, no visit.

And if you redirect me to a 'facebook' page then you can forget it.

I understand but a recommendation from someone who has been there would be even better

Most Museum collections are held in trust for the general public so they should be accessible in various forms, be it in the flesh or online. But the Government, both local and national, demand they justify their existence/funding based on footfall though the door, so that discourages internet access.

teapot , no not if I can't find it online. I'm not going to travel without looking it up first. It might be closed or might have been temporary. As I said - no website no = not going

I tend to agree with both NaomiM and philpot, my local museum the 'Sainsbury Centre' seems to have ditched the idea of the conventional museum display in favour of an adventure playground approach apparently this is to make the visit more interactive for the less academic visitor and get more feet through the door, all of the display cases at the east end which contained their ceramics ,modernist sculptures etc are now gone,the idea being that for those interested in such 'stuff ' these can now be viewed more comfortably on line whereas more general visitors to the museum can find more interactive things to amuse them, from my experience the place most casual visitors head for is the cafe. As NaomiM says funding relies partly on footfall .