OUCH!!

Yes, Yes, David....museums are for collections (but to the everyday visitor
(which is where my terms were from -- the public's concept) that may be
all a museum is ~~ a place to go to the bathroom as you mentioned.  And
not every "John Q. Public" is going to go do research, more come to see
things that are on exhibit.  They really don't care what is stored back in
the
vaults or available for research.

It is not looking at the "dictionary" for terms, but understanding what the
public
sees and wants a museum to be.  The public and "education" is the focus of
what the museum is about, and not just having a "collection" that sits waiting
for someone to dig through piles of dust.  Such a collection is useless.

I think some of your thoughts are back in the stone age, and opening up
the mind <<click click>> helps one see that museums are "public"
institutions, than dusty rooms (which was one of my definitions used) full of
old objects.

Best,

John Martinson
Curator of Collections
http://ourworld.cs.com/john29mart/

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