The role of the National Initiative for a Networked Cultural Heritage (NINCH) is to encourage the development of the National Information Infrastructure as a means to preserve, access, and build creatively upon America’s cultural legacy, in a manner that embraces the fullest understanding of that country’s cultural heritage.
The Initiative began in 1993 as a collaborative project of The American Council of Learned Societies, The Coalition for Networked Information, and The Getty Information Institute (then known as The Getty Art History Information Program).
The main headings on the home page are:
The organization ‐ Mission & Strategic Plan, Officers, Working Groups and Projects, Bibliography and so on,
News & Events ‐ Newsletters, Calendar, NINCH Listserv
Community Resources ‐ Guides to digital resources and important, current
publications
Issue Resources ‐ Copyright (fair use) and, in time, standards, preservation, access and so on.
What’s New
Selected Recent Announcements ‐ news items of general interest to users
The presentation of information on the home page is very orderly, generally; but there is too much material. It has reached the point where a different navigation scheme is required. At present, there is a risk of users not getting all the value they could from the site because of the mass of information available.
There are few graphics; and the look of the site is not dramatic ‐ in fact, it is low‐tech. Some of the pages don’t have good navigation links and, when present, are only at the bottom of the page. It would also be nice if there were indications on every page of when it had been updated and how feedback could be provided. However, this is easily forgiven because of the utility of the site. Also, members of the cultural community might not have expensive computer hardware at their disposal for accessing a truly high‐end site.
The chief strengths of the site are the quality, range, and currency of the information presented. It is a wonderful resource and very well maintained. The LISTSERV (discussion) archive is valuable too, since responses can be sorted by date, thread (topic), and author.
