ABSTRACT
This chapter offers three concepts for discussion regarding the description and classification of collections and how new practices may get us closer to cataloging meaning-making. First, considering the roles that collections play in fulfilling our museums' missions and meeting audience needs. Second, adding new ways to describe objects that go beyond intellectual access and explore the collections' impact on emotion and behavior. Third, Sharing the task of describing and classifying collections with the audiences who provide meaning. There are those who have personal associations with the objects we curate, not just donors and their descendants, but other people for whom our collections trigger personal memories based on any number of details related to memory and identity. In a profession in which curators are increasingly sharing authority and museums are seeking civic engagement, the idea of "active collections" needs to be described in terms that more effectively address the value they have for audiences.
