The way it sounds to me, by the time you've done all this you no longer
have a storage area--you have an exhibit.

What about security?  What happens when staff need to actually work with
the collections?

Harry Needham (Tel 776-8612) wrote:
>
> Quite a few mueums are trying some variation of this. A few that come to mind
> are the Strong in Rochester NY, the Smithsonian's Museum of American History,
> Montreal's interesting archaeological museum, the Canadian Museum of
> Civilization and the National Aviation Museum here in Ottawa. We have also
> experimented with "open houses" last summer and are planning to have our
> collections storage site open to the public all day every day next summer.
> There are lots of other museums trying the same thing.
>
> What makes them work? Hard to say, as they're all so different. I do NOT
> pretend to be an expert, but I think the following are factors:
>
> 1. Orientation
>
> I think visitors have to understand WHY all this mateial is put on display and
> WHY there is a very limited attempt to display the material in an attractive
> setting.
>
> 2. Organization
>
> I believe that traditional ideas of thematic organization of the material ought
> also to apply to open collections storage, otherwise it all starts to look like
> a little dog's breakfast and the visitors become frustrated and/or bored.
>
> 3. Layered information
>
> Different kinds of visitors have differing information requirements and this
> holds as true for open collections storage as for other exhibits. I think you
> must associate SOME limited information with each artifact (more than an
> accession number!) so that the casual visitor can tell what it is - but I think
> you also have to have readily available information in depth, possibly arranged
> in layers. This can be achieved through labels or readily available binders,
> cards or computer displays.
>
> Bear in mind that you get some pretty serious students visiting such
> collections and they will need some kind of a place to work.
>
> 4. Live interpretation
>
> While expensive, it is a great asset to have people in the area who can not
> only answer a visitor's questions, but who can help stimulate their interest.
> "Do you see that cigar? That's the one Winston Churchill was smoking when the
> photographer Karsh yanked it out of his mouth and snapped his famous portrait",
> etc., really makes such exhibits more interesting and gives each visitor the
> illusion of having shared a precious secret that no other visitor knows.
>
> 5. Positioning
>
> I think it is also important for open collections storage to be logically
> linked to the thematic flow of exhibits and galleries, or they may become
> irritating.
>
> Harry Needham
> Canadian War Museum

--
Janis Beth Wilkens
Curator of Collections/Interim Director
Museum of York County
4621 Mt. Gallant Road, Rock Hill, SC  29732
803-329-2121    Fax:  803-329-5249
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