Power, knowledge, participation - these concepts are central to the development of collection institutions in the 21st century. How can museums and libraries rethink their role as mediators, preservers, and producers of cultural knowledge? What role do their visitors play? Who can exercise interpretive power in a globalized and digital world? Contributions from academia and practice reflect from different perspectives how museums and libraries position themselves in this tension. Karl-Siegbert Rehberg, Horst Bredekamp, Lambert Wiesing, and Wolfgang Ullrich fundamentally address practices of collecting, displaying, and exhibiting. Ursula Rao, Stefanie Mauksch, and Sarah Fründt discuss the special role of ethnological museums, while Susanne Wernsing and Cindy Denner explore new pathways of knowledge production from a curatorial perspective.