Researchers. These are people who can gain direct access to the collections, either by looking through the stacks of minerals housed at the museum, or by
borrowing specimens that can be taken off-site (or we mail it to them) to be investigated elsewhere. These researchers go behind the scenes, and nearly all of these research projects are academic and non-profit in scope. If researchers do not use the museum collection, then the research collection is doomed as the overseeing governing bodies may lose trust in the usefulness of the collection. So what are the most important minerals that the mineralogist/geochemist/scientist need?
Public. This group is limited to viewing selected specimens that the museum deems vital for the exhibit. The level of scientific information that is conveyed to the public is often limited in scope (or out of date soon after exhibit installation), and the degree of information given to illustrate the importance of the collection is often omitted. In general, this group of people cannot physically access the collection, nor can they see the vast collections that museums house. A critical issue to address is that they don’t understand why we need collections in the first place.