Museum-L'ers, I believe the important role museums play in "education" has changed drastically over the last odd years. Even though a "museum" may not have a collection, rest on the evidence that they do teach and often use some form of "collection" (a zoo has animals, an art gallery paintings, a living history park has artifacts and/or reproduction items and so on and so on) and the rest have some form of historical plan or subject manner that ties them into calling themselves a "museum." Even the grand-master museums are in some form of now going beyond and above education with an increasing role in entertainment or edutainment. It is a way to attract visitors, new audiences and a wider public. As long as "museums" or such organizations listed are teaching, entertaining, but using some form of artifact, reproduction or historical line....let's just call them "museums" and let it rest as such. We are all doing the same job of educating the public. Oh, no..this opens up a new ball of wax....schools have artifacts...universities have artifacts...they educate, they use history...they entertain students (yes ~~ some students just go to be entertained!) <<<SMILES!!!>>>> Then what about libraries... they are part of the museum world? You see one can go on and on. Museums are simply "learning centers," and if an organization/nonprofit ties into educating, entertaining, etc., let's just call them again..... MUSEUMS <it is just a title, since there are many types doing a good job of educating people...even the playlands at McDonalds and Disneyland> John Martinson, Curator of Collections From the ever-growing, expanding, and changing ~~~ This Is the Place Heritage Park. Yes...we are considered a "living history" museum. We have "real" artifacts, real historical buildings, a photograph collection, an Indian burial vault for NAGPRA items, a library, real animals (are we a zoo then??), we have horse and wagon rides, we have paintings, pottery, and we even have an eating establishment, a gift shop, and we show a movie!!!! Yup, we are still a museum. Yes, you can be one of the first to visit my wonderful, NEW, fabulous (and under-construction) web site at: http://ourworld.cs.com/john29mart/ Yes, I am still working on it, and making corrections slowly, but it will give you an idea of what we are about at the Park. We are adding about nine new reproduction and period buildings this year, and two new outdoor amphitheaters. Watch out Williamsburg and you other big guys...we are growing!!! Oh yes, the site is my own, not the Parks where I humbly work performing "museum" duties. And you will be visitor "#1" (GEESH!! I cannot figure out how to drag and drop a counter...I don't use HTML in the program I designed the site. Help!!!) But ~~~~~ Enjoy! ========================================================= Important Subscriber Information: The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes). If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).