The Canadian Museum of Civilization is experimenting with what we call "open
collections storage". This consists of a long series of linked floor to ceiling
cases, each with several shelves of folk art. Each item has a small card with
an accession number. Every several feet, there is a chest-level holder with
plastic covered cards giving basic information about the object (what, who,
when, where kind of thing) which the visitor can use to get basic information.
There are also study desks with binders (to be replaced, in the fullness of
time, with computers?) giving all the information we have about the artifacts
in that area, for those who really want to dig deep. We are evaluating visitor
use of this area and find that (a) a lot of visitors streak right past the
cases, even though they contain bright, attractive, interesting items; (b)
relatively few use the plasticized cards and (c) virtually no one uses the
desks.

A similar approach (but without the desks and their deep layer of info) is used
in Montreal's archaeological museum (conmstructed right on top of a working
archaeological site - a neat trick!).

The National Museum of Science and Technology in Ottawa has a small workshop
with glass walls and an open balcony looking down into a work area, where
visitors can take a peek behind the scenes.

The Field Museum in Chicago and the Strong Museum in Rochester NY have other
types of "study" collections.

At our annual (free admission!) "open house" in September, the
behind-the-scenes tours of conservation and collections storage are always
extremely popular.

Harry Needham