Excellent questions!  Please post answers to the list.

Thanks,

Betty Brennan
Taylor Studios, Inc.
[log in to unmask]

Robert Handy wrote:
>
> LyndaK wrote:
> >
> >      Hi everyone! At the Australian Musuem in Sydney we are currently
> >      looking at the idea of open collections. At the moment we use our
> >      collections as the basis of many of our exhibitions, but like most of
> >      you have a huge range of 'stuff' out of the public eye (both natural
> >      history and anthropological collections).
> >
> >      We have three questions of you all:
> >      1. Do visitors want to see museum collections? Has anyone conducted
> >      any research into this?
> >      2. Would visitors come to museums more often if they knew they could
> >      see more of our collections? Is there research/data supporting this?
> >      3. Any examples of other institutions that have undertaken this either
> >      successfully or unsuccessfully? (we do have some literature already)
> >
> >      I know there was a thread discussing this last year and I kept all the
> >      responses but we're interested in these 3 questions in particular. I
> >      will post a summary to the list if there's sufficient interest.
> >
> >      Thanks in advance.
> >      Lynda kelly, Evaluation Coordinator, Australian Museum, Sydney
> >      [log in to unmask]
>