Stephen B. Ringle, Registrar/Preparator   writes:

> I used to do that, but our director did not like the blatent designation
> "missing", so I was forced to use more circumspect means of irecording
> and identifying what we could not readily locate.
> This was, to me, a hassle.  I appreciated the politics and diplomatic
> aspects of what the director was saying, but from a pragmatic
> collections management point of view, needed a quick and easy means
> of listing what was currently lost or missing.

If your database can search on 'field empty', you can just leave the
field empty.  If you want to exclude objects which are in a temporary
location, awaiting a permanent location (for example, an object which has just
arrived an is currently being de-bugged, or a work of art in a temporary
exhibition which has been bought/given, and will make its way into store
in a few months, you can put 'temporary location', so that it is not
caught by the 'field empty' searches.

--
Patricia Reynolds
Keeper of Social History, Buckinghamshire County Museum / Freelance Curator

16 Gibsons Green
Heelands
Milton Keynes
MK13 7NH
ENGLAND

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