Libraries, archives and museums everywhere are struggling to get their collections online. Working with the county historical societies in Minnesota was testament to this barrier. Some mini organizations are able to use Omeka and other free web software -- but the barriers to entry, even with free software, are still too much.
This is why models like the Minnesota Digital Library are a great solution! County historical societies can send their physical collections of images, maps, etc. to participating institutions, they are given metadata templates to help guide their data input, and then the MDL puts their content online.
This is also why data consortia like the Great Rivers Network are hugely beneficial. The GRN then comes along and crawls the MDL's site to display MDL results on the GRN site, the Minnesota History Center site and the participating organization's website (if they have one)!
Daily, on library and archive blogs, I read about the trials and tribulations collection institutions are having mounting their collections online. Partnerships are key and the access to the collections partnerships garner is a huge benefit to the collection organization.
One of the most widely used tool for getting collections online is DSpace.
Another method, widely used by museums is ContentDM.
These tools are the start to bridging the gap collection organizations have to getting their content out there. But, they're still lacking the sophistication and reach that the collections deserve. What will fill the gap? What do collections need?
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Go librarians!