Greetings all: Ever one to get involved in such matters, I'm including a link (below) to a most profound parable I came across years ago. Naturally, reaction to the story will vary greatly amongst museum professionals. (You see variety at this URL, as well.) http://www.rider.edu/~suler/zenstory/books.html David added a keen comment about "aura" - in one of these messages - which is a shade of Walter Benjamin. While Benjamin mourned the risk to "aura" by mechanical reproduction, he championed mechanical reproduction as a means to spreading knowledge. This relates to comments several days ago from someone who mentioned having a copy of the Constitution on his bookshelf. Of course, the words are the words . . . regardless of the sanctity (or existence) of the original artifact. While I'm all in favor of conservation/preservation, I'll not drive myself to the point of pathological. Deb mentioned ego . . . in the context of 'publish or perish'. Of course, in history, egos are responsible for great masterpieces and world wars. I'd rather do without the great masterpieces in order to avoid the world wars! Congratulations to Gene, David and Deb - excellent observations all around. Roy: Always helping us put things in perspective! Sincerely, Jay Heuman ========================================================= 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).