Desktop archives are distinct from sources for which shared “Cranfield” information retrieval test collections1have been created to date. Differences associated with desktop collections include: they are personal to the archive owner, the owner has personal memories about the items contained within them, and only the collection owner can rate the relevance of items retrieved in response to their query. In this paper we discuss these unique attributes of desktop collections and search, and the resulting challenges associated with creating test collections for desktop search. We also outline a proposed strategy for creating test collections for this space.