Does the world need another website?

This question weighs heavily on me and my colleagues at the Archives of American Art.  As an individual scholar, what value does a new site devoted to [my] interests add to the already crowded field pages that compete for attention? As a representative of the Smithsonian, how does a new site devoted to content area advance our mission “to increase the diffusion of knowledge.”

The digital project we are currently undertaking allows us to present and interpret audio excerpts from oral history interviews.  To date, we have served transcripts from these interviews in person in our manuscript reading rooms and on our website.  A digital project may enable us to expand our presentation of oral histories to include aural histories.