The thread on deaccessioning items has been interesting and informative with
several helpful suggestions being posted.  However, I think that part of the
solution is to avoid the touchy subject of deacessioning items.  A well
planned and followed mission statment and collection policy can be a great
help.  Many people have commented about having numerous items not related to
the the museum's mission or several examples of the same artifact.  Before
items are accessioned they should be evaulated to make sure that they fit
into the museum's mission statement and scope of collecting.  Also, if a
museum already has numerous examples of the save artifact addtional ones
should not be accepted.  Having said all that I realize this often only
happens in a ideal setting and things do get into a collection that
shouldn't, but a major part of any deacessioning effort should be a study to
discover what went wrong in the overall scheme of things that resulted in
need for deacessioning.  I hope that this isn't too long and doesn't sound
like I am giving a lecture.  I just thought only one side of the problem was
being addressed here.  A great deal of attention was being give to the
solution but very little attention was being given to preventing the
problem.  If the over all problems are not addressed museums can find
themselves addressing the problem of deacession items every few years.  This
takes too much time away from other projects and there is a great risk of
public relations problems--so the less often you have to do it the better.

Just my two cents.

Trent Litchfield
Graduate Student
Murray State University






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