Please Touch Museum had a brilliant system based on the mnemonic of a
traffic light:
Red - hands-off, accessioned
Yellow - careful, supervised handling, accessioned (usually natural
science objects like mineral specimens safe for handling)
Green - hands-on, not accessioned but inventoried, sometimes
reproductions or duplicates of Red or Yellow objects
The system ultimately proved to be better in theory than practice (like
most systems) as there were always struggles with who was responsible
for what and other issues exposing the devil in the details.  That never
stopped me from being really impressed with its elegance.  My hat is
still off to Donna Horowitz, then curator, who developed it.
Aaron

Aaron Goldblatt
Museum Services
Metcalfe Architecture & Design
211 North 13th Street, Suite 503
Philadelphia, PA  19107-1610
215-557-9200 P
215-557-8383 F
[log in to unmask]  
www.metarchdesign.com 

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