Follow up to this debate. First, I agree, however it is hard to know what
the public "wants." I get letters from our local public complaining that we
don't have everything on exhibit, "like it used to be." We have a large
collection -- tens of thousands of objects -- so, of course not all will
ever be on display at once. And we have numerous exhibit spaces to fill so
by the time we finish with all of them, it's about time to start over!
Well, it keeps things interesting, eh?

>    The debate I came across - whether museums should attempt to display
>their entire collections, is simple in my mind. First, displays should
>change over time. That means bringing items from reserve collections and
>replacing items that have been displayed. That way, people have a reason
>to come back, knowing that there will always (or, at least, often) be
>something new to see.
>Second, for those of us who have separate galleries for temporary
>exhibitions, items in reserve collections are essential.
>Third, reserve collections allow us to cooperate with other museums and
>galleries, lending them items to include in temporary exhibitions.
>Fourth, we have the question of study collections. A hundred wooden
>planes would not be of interest to the average visitor. A dozen would be
>adequate to slake their interest. But for the true student, the more the
>better.
>I have seen small museums which showed everything. They were something
>like junk shops, with a confusing array of items and absolutely no story
>line that anyone could identify.
>Without our reserve collections - at least 3/4 of the total - we would
>be very limited in what we can do. Instead, we can pull interesting
>artifacts from storage for guessing games with visiting school classes.
>We can lend items to classes (with careful selection to ensure nothing
>particularly rare or valuable is placed in danger. We can do all sorts
>of things which serve the community, and serving the community is what
>we're all supposed to be about.
>
>Bill Clarke
>Director
>Restigouche Regional Museum
>Dalhousie, N.B.
>Canada