Date of Award

2013

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Textiles, Fashion Merchandising and Design

Department

Textiles, Fashion Merchandising and Design

First Advisor

Linda Welters

Abstract

Many universities with historic textile and costume collections do not have websites promoting their collections. The websites not only increase awareness about the collections, they also allow the institutions to become worldwide research facilities, while simultaneously promoting the historic textile and costume field.

This study evaluated private and public university historic textile and costume collections in the United States to determine how the websites were constructed and what material was included. Upon completion of website analysis, I contacted specific universities for further study based on how well the websites matched a list of components for a valuable website developed from the review of literature. With this analysis and survey information from website mangers and developers, I developed recommendations and suggestions for creating a useful website for university textile and costume collections.

The research was conducted in multiple steps and once all the data were acquired, responses and analyses were transcribed onto an Excel spreadsheet, further developed into tables and charts identifying essential and beneficial information pertaining to my research. The recommendations and suggestions were then derived from those results.

Results demonstrated a variety of website design techniques utilized by university collections. Elements from the desired list of components were observed in all websites. Some websites were better developed matching more of the components while others were more basic.

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