[MassHistPres] This question is directed to city/town historical societies

[Daniel Bibel]

Please excuse this if it is misdirected!

I am a member of both the Historical Commission and the town's 
Historical Society.  The Society has been approached by folks from 
Digital Commonwealth with an offer to scan and digitize some (or many) 
of the Society's books and papers.  As I understand it, Digital 
Commonwealth would do the scanning at no cost, and would also host the 
digital images, also at no cost. The Society would be able to link from 
its web site to the documents.

One of the members of the Society is very much opposed to this, saying 
in essence that if we made our documents available on line, people would 
have no reason to come in to the Society (which is open only 2 hours a 
week).

My question - is this person correct?  Does makes a Society's documents 
available on line have a negative effect on visits or membership?

Any information on this would be greatly appreciated!

Dan Bibel
Medfield Historical Commission (and Historical Society)