ABSTRACT
Instead of seeing the museum's collection as a constant or stable entity with the same things saved in perpetuity, people should look to ideas of variability and changeability, full of energy—as something vital. Seeing the collection as a force of change to make a difference in the overall mission of the museum is critical. Gifford Pinchot's ideas suggest that a forest is not simply a one-time acquisition that we leave to its own devices, but that a forest is preserved by continually perpetuating it through constant decisions to add and remove material to promote vitality. Forest management practices were designed to maintain strong and healthy forests. Libraries, closest cousins to museums, have made considerable efforts to improve the management of their collections based on their missions. The value of focusing on the library system of weeding is that it draws on the assumption that eliminating weeds leads to greater use of the materials that remain.
