Daryl Fischer's idea about behind-the-scenes tours is a good one, and
many museums implement this. It's always a good benefit for members and
contributors, but can be offered to the general public as well. The
trouble is that you have to schedule it, no matter how you slice it, and
it will therefore have minimal impact on the average visitors, who will
not be in a position to avail themselves of it because they're present
at the wrong time. I'm sure there are creative ways of maximizing the
impact, and it's definitely a personalized service that should be made
available in some form. Many museum facilities are already cramped and
crowded and cannot accommodate many visitors at a time, and I should
think this would be a major problem in some cases. Museums need to be
designed to facilitate behind-the-scenes group tours to make them really
effective.
  If I designed a museum, I would try to incorporate "open storage"
concepts, and perhaps catwalks everywhere so that people could see staff
at work--not necessarily constantly, but frequently. --David Haberstich