http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/12/science/12MUSE.html
Right now anyone with access to the Internet, whether a Ph.D. candidate
or a seventh grader, can check the mammal collections of 17 museums at
once on Manis, the Mammal Networked Information System.  and for those
who want to find ferret related art in museum collections: ...
The size of the task is hard to imagine.  Art museums have undertaken
similar efforts
 
For the AMNH itself:
Of the 3.3 million specimens of living vertebrates at the museum,
Dr. Novacek said, 2.8 million are represented online, including the
mammals, reptiles and amphibians.  The birds are next.
 
For MaNIS:
http://elib.cs.berkeley.edu/manis/
[Posted in FML issue 4025]