a collection in which we have got lost...

I seem to be getting lost in our gardening collections. Having established the different types of item we are going to include - we have decided to concetrate for our first session on the printed ephemera. Thinking this would be a relatively easy topic - just a few seed catalogues I have become a bit overwhelmed by the huge variety of items - seed pockets, accounts, catalogues, certificates, adverts, letters, mail order forms, magazines, pamphlets - even job applications. There is so much scope in these collections there is a danger in "getting lost" in them. Tempting though this might be I think we always need to keep our different audiences in mind - both within the museum (the audiences we will be presenting the material to in our first collections session) and also our visitors. That is why I think it is so important to include a range of staff and volunteers in this process - in many cases they know our visitors far better than I do. Despite many attempts to not become the curator in my ivory tower it cannot be denied that I do not spend any considerable amount of time "on the shop floor" except with our rather more specialist research enquiries. So how does a curator start to begin to know visitors - well by working closely with those who work with them directly every day - front of house. It is going to be great for me to learn from our other staff how we can use the collections more effectively. Enticing though it might be it is important to not get so lost in our collections that we lose sight of our visitors. As with so much in the museum world it is about balance.