Is it junk?

It preoccupies museums, archives, records managers and ordinary folks looking to live within their living space. What to keep, what to purge?

What may be junk in one context can be valuable in another. Some archivists would want to dispose of records, like passenger lists, keeping only a few samples. As genealogists we value the list that records our ancestor's voyage, and get worried when we learn of records being disposed of without the genealogical community having had its say.

Time magazine has a story, one of those we all like to read, of just such an issue and a problem turned into opportunity. University College London asked the public, and held events, including:

‘Fight at the Museum: Rescue My Object!’ had experts battle to convince an audience to save their favourite object housed in different collections at UCL.

‘Treasured? Hunt’ invited people to seek out intriguing objects and specimens in store and decide for themselves just how treasured objects should be

Read the article at http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1936768,00.html?iid=tsmodule?artId=1936768?contType=article?chn=world