Distant lives & digital surrogates

Innovation, outreach and collaboration in university museums can take many forms. In recent years, virtual access through web sites and electronic publishing has helped to transform university museums into dynamic spaces for teaching, research and community outreach. The Lachlan Macquarie Room, located inside Macquarie University Library in Sydney, is a unique heritage museum containing the original timber panelling and fittings from the Scotland home of the University's namesake, Lachlan Macquarie. Since 1995, public use and awareness of The Lachlan Macquarie Room, and its related display items, has been expanded through the development of dedicated web sites, public exhibitions and seminars examining the life and times of Lachlan Macquarie in Britain, North America, Asia, the Middle East and Australia. This paper examines how curatorial staff at Macquarie University are exploiting web-based technologies to provide 24-hour access to the museum and describes the initiatives under development to establish national and international research partnerships to promote the history of this unique historical collection