It seems like a lot of organizations struggle with accepting athletic trophies into permanent collections. On the one hand, trophies seem to the general public like a very historic item - after all a trophy has a date, and sometimes other information placing the trophy in history. A trophy is a memorial to an accomplishment, and to not keep that might suggest that the accomplishment was transitory or unimportant. On the other hand, space and resources are limited at local historical organizations. Trophies take up both time to catalog and care for and space to store, and yet might be seen to have limited use in telling the story of any given area. From a cost-benefit point of view, perhaps trophies should be taken into collections only with great fore thought. So, two questions:

• How do you evaluate trophies when considering including them in your permanent collection?
• What are the stories that trophies help tell?

While at the American Association for State and Local History Conference in Atlanta last week, one session made the point that while libraries have users, historical organizations count visitors. Visitation is a passive activity, while using is an activity: a participation where the public has a stake in the institution. Are people as passionate about local history as libraries? Should historical organizations start thinking of its public as users? Is there historical value in continuing to call our public visitors? Please elaborate.