The Importance of Collections. A mineral collection provides a consolidated resource for research and education. Even when field sites become mined out, built over because of construction projects, or altered because of environmental changes, the collections will endure. But the collection can be used to engage people on many levels including education programming, summer camps, accessible public lectures, public programs, volunteer programs, docent programs, audio tours, exhibits accessible to the impaired, co-created exhibitions, social media, augmented reality, expeditions, and traveling exhibits. In addition, online content and interactions are getting richer, more accessible, and easier to implement all the time. Each one of the listed items above would be a blog post on its own about how mineral collections can be integrated into those outreach aspects. But in the end, a museum can do all/some of these, or none of these. There are a considerable number of ways to engage the public in this way, even showing them things that they didn’t know they wanted, and having some members of the public be a part of the museum collection/exhibition process will instill them into the community as ambassadors and champions of the collection. What matters is that the museum listens to what the public wants and acts accordingly to deliver trusted, factual, and digestible content. The collections are the scientific and educational resource of undeniable facts.
In the end, building on the trusted relationship with researchers and the community is probably how a museum mineral collection will continue to be used, accessed, and grow for the next 100 years.
Further Readings:
I will update this with articles that I find useful and interesting.