I can't speak for the other museums I mentioned in my previous memo, but I can describe what we've done at the Canadian Museum of Civilization and Canadian War Museum, which have taken very different approaches to the idea. At the Canadian Museum of Civilization, the idea is to construct a series of large cases, approximately 3 metres high, fairly shallow, with a study kiosk every few metres. These cases will be located (only the first has been put in place) in otherwise underutilized areas of the public (museum) wing. The artifacts have labels bearing only a reference number. Every few metres, there is a rack on the face of the case which holds a number of plasticized cards containing more information about each artifact in the immediate area (what it is, when it was made, where, of what, etc. (all the items in the first case built are from the museum's folk art collection. Only a tiny fraction of the enormous collection is on display and this will still be true when the remaining six or seven installations are in place. Security is not a concern as all the objects are in cases and in areas patrolled by CMC's hosting service. The situation at the Canadian War Museum is quite different. The only parts of the collection that are on display are the larger artifacts - tanks, vehicles and artillery. For security reasons, we do not permit visitors into certain areas - firearms, war art, textile storage, badges and medals, etc., unless they are bonafide researchers where special permission has been granted. Nor do we include the workshops in the open area. We DO have a number of large cases, containing material from the collections that are not otherwise on display, so that visitors can have a sense of what is in storage. Each artifact is labelled. The current labels provide only basic information regarding the artifact, but we will be improving these to provide more contextual information. Where we have models or other illustrations of the artifact "in action", these are displayed with the artifact. When we opened the facility last weekend, security was provided chiefly by a few staff members who volunteered to work on weekends and by volunteers provided by Friends of the Canadian War Museum. Next summer, when staff will be working in the building at the same time as visitors are in the open areas, we will use the Friends, as well as staff of our hosting service, for security - and to provide information to the visitors. Harry Needham Canadian War Museum