Eduardo,
  I would like to give you my perspective on why the public does not have
access to the collections at museums.  I am a affiliated with the Carnegie
Museum in a voluntary role.  I must also state my opinions in no way
reflect an official or unofficial statement of the museum.
  Collections in museums serve to document the past and present history of
our world.  They must serve several constituencies...the scientific
community, the educational community...and the business community.  Most
of us may be familiar with the scientif aspects of collections.
Describing new taxa, undertaking revisions of genera and families, etc.
The educational community is where I put "the public".  They are educated
through exhibits, identification days, tours by docents, behind the scene
tours, and museum publications.  The business community may need the
museum to authenticate the identification of a taxon, accept voucher
specimens, or help with environmental impact studies.
  Thus there are many demands on the collections.  Museums tend to be
understaffed.  I may pay $30-40 US to enter an amusement park, however,
there is no museum that I know of that charges such a sum for me to view
the exhibits.  Maybe if patrons were to pay such sum, they would be able
to creat new exhibits.
  On another line, why should the collections be open to the public?  I
work in a non-profit hospital.  This does not allow the public to wander
around the operating rooms, laboratories or even the morgue at will.
There are areas, that are restricted, for the safety of the staff,
patients and visitors (public).  Allowing the public open access to the
collections area may expose then to risks from chemicals and equipment
that they are unaware of.
  The collection itself must be protected from us, public and museum
personnel alike.  Collectors may think of a shell in terms of 20-30 years;
the time period that we own it for and then we may have no further
concerns.  Museum personnel view themselves as custodians of the
collections.  They must assure that they will be accessible for 100's of
years into the future.  Actually, for some indefinite time.  As stewards
of the collections, access must be controlled.  Ideally, the collections
will be stored in climate controlled settings.  Those who need access to
them can obtain it, those who just ant to gawk at the collections would
need to be kept out...professionals and amateurs alike.
  I do wish more of the collections were on display.  I would love to be
able to work on creating a display with the Carnegie's material and build
an exhibit hall devoted to the Mollusca, freshwater, terrestrial and
marine.  Space limitations and MONEY prevent this from happening.  Also,
some in the field of museum administration are getting away from
collection based exhibits and moving toward high tech exhibits.  While I
would like to see a blending of both approaches, I fear that we are
swinging to much in the direction of high tech computer, robot, etc. based
exhibits.  We all need to track this in the museums close to us, and give
feedback to the museum staff.
  I fear that I am rambling, and will stop here.  Obviously, I am for
limited access to collections, but not limiting only the public but anyone
who does not have a legitimate need to use a collection.  It is the
responsibility of the museum staff to decide what a legitimate need is and
they should not decide capriciously.  There should be written policies on
access to the collections.

Charlie
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Charlie Sturm, Jr
Research Associate - Section of Invertebrate Zoology
                     Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh, PA
Assistant Professor - Family Medicine

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