I hope some of you can comment on this: someone on our exhibit committee recently suggested that we start seeking out and exhibiting local people's private collections. This set off alarm bells in my head. We are a smallish (7 full time staff) history museum, but the collection is large enough to support both permanent and temporary exhibits indefinitely. The suggestion was that using community members' collections would encourage local visitation by fostering a sense of community "ownership" of the Museum (which unfortunately seems to often conflict with the staff's wish to abide by professional standards). My first concern was the possible conflict of interest when the private collection is for sale-- a museum exhibit would enhance the collection's value. My other, almost subconscious, concern was the political problem of deciding which collections are "worthy" of a museum exhibit (our mission is vague enough that I can see a lot of these decisions coming down to quality of the collection rather than subject matter). Am I being a snob, or are these legitimate concerns? Is there an article about this somewhere which I could show the committee? Has anyone else dealt with this? You can reply to the list or to me off list. Thanks! Carrie Beauchamp Registrar CFD Old West Museum Cheyenne, Wyoming ========================================================= Important Subscriber Information: The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ museum-l.html. 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).