While attending the recent Society for American Archaeology meetings in Vancouver, I had a chance to visit the University of British Columbia's Museum of Anthropology. Besides being impressed with their extensive collection and display of totem poles, I really liked two elements found in their galleries.
The first were these drawer blocks that housed various artifacts. On top of the block were large catalogs where one could look up the specifics of each of the artifacts on display. It seemed like a really intriguing way to store and display many more artifacts than one might find in a glass case, and at the same time it allowed the visitor a sense of discovery as they opened the drawers to find what was waiting within. Here you can see a room full of these drawer blocks with numerous visitors exploring their contents.
The second element that I found to be really intriguing was the location of their Digitization Studio...right off one of the main galleries...and visible through a glass window. Although we visited on a weekend and therefore didn't get to see any digitization being undertaken, the description printed at the right of the window explained what would be going on during the day during the week. This seemed to solve two problems that any Museum might have: (1) creating a space where digitization work could take place (i.e. carve it right out of your gallery areas) and (2) showing visitors how the Museum actively stewards their collections.
Oh, and if you look closely at the lefthand side of the studio window you can see a third neat feature: an Object of the Day. Here it is close up....
