The Reciprocal Research Network (RRN) is a website that provides online access to museum collections housed in a wide range of institutions throughout the world. It provided our project team with the core digital information about the MacFarlane Collection that is featured in this website, and which we then added to and elaborated on.
The ethnographic objects in the MacFarlane Collection are also displayed in the RRN, where they can be viewed, studied and commented upon by users (researchers, curators, community members, students). The RRN also allows users to communicate with each other, and to exchange knowledge about collections and artifacts. Information added about the objects by community members adds to the information written by museum anthropologists and helps to fill out the picture of Inuvialuit uses of specific objects and life in the 19th century.
When you browse or search the MacFarlane Collection in this website, you will see green button links to “View this item in the RRN”. This link will take you to the RRN, where you can request an account (you need an email address to sign up). Once you have an account, you can view the MacFarlane Collection and other collections in museums that are RRN partners, such as the Smithsonian Institution, the American Museum of Natural History, the Canadian Museum of Civilization, the Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, and many others. You can also connect with other researchers, students, and communities who are using the RRN.
Reciprocal Research Network (RRN): [http://www.rrnpilot.org/]
Instructions: To access the RRN, you need to request an account. You will need an email address, and you will fill out a short form on the RRN website. You will be asked to tell the RRN administrators a little about yourself (for example, “I live in Inuvik and want to learn more about the MacFarlane Collection” or “I am a student learning about museum collections”). You then click the “Request an Account” button, and soon after you will receive an email confirmation saying that an account has been created. Once you have an account, you will have access to all the features on the RRN. They include (from rrnpilot.org):
