The iPad Transfer and CONTRAB discussions in earlier posts have inspired me to consider how collections could learn from each other or even be combined. This might be achieved by the following five step process:

• List collections
• Allocate Collection Type and Physical/Digital to each collection
• Allocate Practices to each collection
• Identify Collection/Practice combinations that you wish to explore for two or more collections
• Explore possibilities for Collection/Practice combinations

These steps are described in more detail, and with examples, below. 1. List Collections: Here is an example set of seven collections: Music, Silver, Memorabilia, Friend Emails, Family Archive, Computer Artefacts, Stamps. 2. Allocate Collection Type and Physical/Digital to each collection: Create a table with the collections in the left-hand column, and then populate a further two columns with Collection Type and whether the collection is primarily of Physical or Digital objects, as shown in the example below. Before specifying Collection Type, bear in mind the following: Accumulations are sets of objects that are collected out of functional necessity and made use of in some way or other. They are often undocumented and are rarely thought of as being complete or incomplete. Items tend to be acquired somewhat randomly without being part of any long-term plan. Amateur Collections are created when owners decide what they want to collect as a hobby, and then seek out and assemble appropriate pieces at their leisure. Items tend to be deliberately sought after, and owners often investigate aspects of the objects and become knowledgeable about them. Amateur collections may also be documented in some way or other. Files are collections of factual information assembled on a specific media, and retained to refer to and/or use later. Files often incorporate some form of labelling or indexing to help users find items within them. Paper-based documents are often collected in Files. Archives are collections of objects which have been moved from their original locations and placed into long-term storage. Archives often contain old things and may not be looked at very often. 3. Allocate Practices to each collection: Add another column to the table in which to specify any Practices that you intend to perform with each collection. Use single words where possible.4. Identify Collection/Practice combinations to be explored Go through the Practices and pick out any that occur in more than one collection and that you think might be similar or combined in any way. Number each instance as shown below. 5. Explore possibilities of sharing solutions for Collection/Practice combinations: Create a table with each of the numbered Practices in the left-most column and the collections in which they occur in a middle column. Then detail the way in which each Practice will be performed and/or supported across the collections in which it occurs, in the right-hand column as shown in the example below.I intend to try out this approach when I undertake the next phase of this journey – to investigate all my own collections with respect to features common to some or all of them.