Sharing Historic Costume Collections Online

The recent increase in online costume history resources has provided scholars of dress with fresh sources of information for inspiring and validating their research. The best digital archives consider the needs of their users in creating systems that make it easy for more users to access the greatest amount of relevant information. Users of online costume history resources have specific needs that should be addressed, both for internal users (organizing and entering information) and external users (finding information). This paper follows a panel presentation at the 2014 Symposium of the Costume Society of America, on the subject of digital initiatives for sharing collections of historic costume underway at individual American colleges and universities. In the presentation and resulting discussions with CSA members, common concerns became evident, both for information seekers and managers of historic costume data. These concerns and potential solutions are addressed in the following paper