On Mon, 22 Apr 1996, CarolM5397 wrote: > Recently learned from someone who ought to know that an instituition may > legitimately call itself a Museum even thought they have no collection. > Supposedly elements of the defininition came from the AAM. I would like > to survey the list membership to determine how important or even essential > it is for a "Museum" to have a collection. > > Carol Morgan > > Museum Director > What about ecomuseums used for community development. It can have no collections at all.(Some may disagree by saying that there are collections in an ecomuseum, but not exhibited in the sense the museum people ususally do it. Well, this is just a different outlook and needs closer investigation.) Whereas museums should have collections or not in order to be defined as a museum is an interesting and contemporary issue. Hope there would be many replies to Carol's mail. Bhaskar Chakrabarti University of Cambridge