Bookmark Collector

That series of articles by Deanna Dahlsad continues to be really interesting. In the latest entry, Curator of Your Own Museum: Part II, she discusses defining the purpose of your collection. Her point is that a museum curator asks and answers a set of questions that define the scope, focus, and goals of the collection. The answers define a mission statement for the museum.

She has three key questions:

1. What is trying to be preserved?
2. Why is this important, and to whom?
3. What is the scope of the collection?

How do I answer these for my own collection? There have been a lot of reasons for me to acquire a bookmark, and I don’t feel I need to limit myself on this. Clearly, the person that is the most important target audience of my collection is me. But, what I’ve found with even the limited amount of time I have spent organizing, is that I’ve really enjoyed reviewing my collection. I’m trying to preserve a set of memories, techniques, art, and other things I’m probably not aware of.

What I like most about this series of articles is the set of questions I’m now asking myself. I’m looking at this pile (okay, maybe now it’s less of a pile) of bookmarks in new and really interesting ways. It’s making this into something more than just organizing.