Museums maintain the physical and intellectual integrity of our natural and cultural heritage, whilst providing access to that heritage for research, education and personal intellectual and aesthetic enrichment.

To my mind museums fulfil a variety of important functions.

First and foremost they are repositories of physical information (in my field public museums are essential for holding type, figured and voucher specimens from biological or palaeontological research). Without museums we wouldn’t have a systematic method of naming and describing the species on our planet. Such information held in museums is preserved for posterity, so much is historical – it provides a base-line against which the modern world can be compared. How can we tell if global warming is impacting on animal and plant species? Compare what’s present now with what was collected and stored in a museum 150 years ago.

Beyond this very practical function, museums also provide an interface between expert knowledge and the public. Universities and learned societies are notoriously bad at filling this role, partly because it has historically fallen to museums – we in museums hold open the doors at the base of the ivory tower. The internet and television may have taken on some of this role, but there are substantial limitations that arise from the drive for popularity and a perceived need to dumb down.

Finally, I also consider museums to fulfil an inspirational role. This goes beyond education, it is a culturally immersive experience that increases our appreciation of the wide and diverse world that surrounds us. Photographs and television are all well and good, but they lack the tangibility of a real object. Despite the current trend towards virtual experiences, many feel the need for something real to interact with – even if only as inspiration for their own creativity or desire to understand more about their world.