[BCMA] Accession / Collections Help for a Newbie

[Moderated BCMA subscriber listserv]

Dear Stephanie,
I'm an experienced conservator. For discussion
One thing I have noticed about this list is the amount of time people are
trying to deaccession stuff. So good that you are  considering the future
to miss this step. I have known a museum where the head curator and founder
collected all sorts of stuff , that in thirty years people will be getting
rid of as they got them to satisfy their whims and these artefacts had
little to do with the museum's titles . So I would say to myself in thirty
years will the next generation of curators see this as an asset or a
problem?
As a natural history collection , are you telling the story of N America,
Canada, BC or say 30 miles from you ? Are you telling the story of the land
and/ or the water  river? sea? lake?as well? What do you see as the end
point of your collection? As a natural history museum, dare I say this is
possible ? An example of every rock, plant animal (male and female) of
everything 10/20/30? miles from you. Your big call maybe is do you collect
human interaction with nature  as well

As a conservator my current interest is contaminated artefacts so be
careful of pesticide residue on skins and when you think a skin is too
degraded to maintain  and consider Bayne's decay for shells and do not let
insects eat your collection
Paul Harrison

On Thu, 18 Jul 2024 at 00:07, Moderated BCMA subscriber listserv <
listserv at lists.museum.bc.ca> wrote:

> Hi everyone,
>
> I'm newly managing education programs at a small nature facility and
> inherited no systems for how donations are brought in / out of the
> facility. At the risk of being repetitive, I have a few questions that I
> was hoping to get advice on:
>
> 1) Does anyone have a one-pager accession form that folks sign when they
> donate?
>
> 2) Where do you start when building a donations policy? I'm looking for
> something short and concise - collections is 100% not in my position, but
> it just needs to be done so things stop landing on my desk or on the floor
> of our office without explanation.
>
> 3) Does anyone have any turkey vulture artefacts that we could acquire?
> (And if so, what advice do you have on protocols for receiving one?)
>
>
> I have a couple other questions that I'd love to get some advice on, so if
> this is in your wheelhouse and you're willing to answer a few questions,
> please reach out at stephanielynn.chong at gmail.com.
>
> Cheers,
> Stephanie
>
>
> --
>
> *Stephanie Chong <https://ca.linkedin.com/in/stephaniechongeducator>*, *B.Sc.
> (Honours), M.M.Ed., CVA*
>
> *I acknowledge and am grateful to be able to live, work, and play on the
> traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories **of the lək̓ʷəŋən
> speaking peoples, specifically the Songhees and Esquimalt Nations, who have
> respected these lands and waters for thousands of years. I  also extend my
> gratitude to the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and
> səl̓ilwətaɁɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) peoples, whose traditional lands my family
> has called home for over 50 years. *
>
>
>
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