On Sun, 27 Oct 1996 [log in to unmask] wrote:
 How do children's museums classify/inventory the materials/objects in their
 exhibits?
At The Children's Museum of Indianpolis, we classify the objects in our
permanent and our education collections with a modified version of
*Nomeclature*.  Our collection of 100,000+ objects pretty much parallels
collections held by large public or general history museums.
When I'm looking for good examples of collections policy and procedure, I
call colleagues at the Milwaukee Public Museum, the Public Museum of Grand
Rapids, the Strong Museum and Henry Ford Museum, as well as other
children's museums such as Boston and Please Touch.
We use a modified version of MIMSY to register new accessions, make loan
contracts, catalog and inventory our collections.  We use the standard
three-part accession number on all of our permanent & education collection
objects.
  Are there distinctions made between consumable objects and artifact that
 may be cataloged  into the museums collection?
There are many types of consumable materials at The Children's Museum.
I'll tell you what we do with the objects given to the museum as
handleable objects to augment exhibits & programs:  we mark all of them
with the code TCM-I (The Children's Museum of Indianapolis), so just in
case they're not expended, when they come back down to collections we
don't re-process them as found in collections objects.
  Where do collections policies/procedures fit into the Children's Museum
 environment?
We have a formal, detailed collections management policy, revised three
years ago, that must be approved by the museum's board of trustees.  Our
procedures manual is based on the policy document.  All staff in the
museum are expected to follow the collections policy.
Thanks for asking!
Robin Toulouse
Collections Manager
The Children's Museum of Indianapolis

  Please let me know what you think and how this issues
> are handled in your museums.


> Thanks,
>
> Kevin Conley
> Assistant Coordinator
> Museum Assessment Program
>