ABSTRACT
The collecting problem facing museums has many facets. Many believe it is simply a matter of locating an answer to the questions 'What and how should a museum collect?' But the problem is also one of aspirations and implications: unsatisfied desires mingle with full stores and overcommitted budgets. And while it is possible to locate many aspects of museum context and provision that explain why museums are never entirely successful collectors, and about which museums have much to complain, those of us who undertake the collecting also cherish beliefs, philosophies and practices which contribute to our undoing. We also undertake our collecting in a changing world and it this changing world which both provides the motivation to collect and yet, as I shall explain, also questions its validity.
