Hi Melanie,

I agree with all what William said, especially on developing a policy  
for your case.

Important is to understand that accessioning and ownership is not the  
same thing. While you should have well documented ownership to  
properly accession something (read: invoice or deed of gift and  
transfer of title), you don't lose ownership when you deaccession  
something. The desk and chair in your office belong to your museum,  
yet, they are not accessioned. If you discover a fake you might decide  
to deaccession it because you don't collect fakes but still use it for  
educational purposes - you can, it's still yours.

If the objects were deaccessioned but never transfered to another  
institution, they still belong to the museum. Make very sure they  
weren't promised to another institution and there already exists a  
transfer of title but the transport didn't take place, though. If the  
collection is still yours, I don't see anything that would speak  
against giving a researcher access to the documentation.

Best wishes
Angela

Angela Kipp
Collection Manager
TECHNOSEUM, Mannheim, Germany
www.technoseum.de

Join the Registrar Trek at http://world.museumsprojekte.de/
Follow us on Twitter @RegistrarTrek

This is a personal opinion, my institution can't be held responsible  
for anything I write


Quoting William Shepherd <[log in to unmask]>:

> Hello Melanie,
>
>                 Barring some sort of specifics to your case any  
> records, images, or documentation you have would stay on record with  
> you and could be used by staff or possibly researchers in cases that  
> don’t violate ownership or copyright if they’ve been transferred  
> elsewhere. Especially as you still have everything on site and  
> haven’t transferred ownership to anyone else there shouldn’t be any  
> issue providing access I wouldn’t think. If the items were  
> transferred I’d refer the researcher to the new institution. If they  
> were destroyed that’s a bit more tricky but explain why and the  
> steps taken. You may also have or want to develop a policy around  
> researcher access to deaccessioned records documentation.
>
> William Shepherd
> Collections Officer
> Swift Current Museum
> 44 Robert Street West
> Swift Current, Saskatchewan
> S9H 4M9
> Phone: 306-778-4815
> Fax: 306-778-4818
>
> Archives: http://sain.scaa.sk.ca/collections/swift-current-museum
> Library: https://www.librarything.com/profile/SwiftCurrentMuseum
> Website: http://www.swiftcurrent.ca
>
> From: Museum discussion list <[log in to unmask]> On  
> Behalf Of Melanie C Deer
> Sent: April 27, 2018 9:48 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: [MUSEUM-L] Deaccessioned but not removed
>
> Hello All,
>
> So we have a very large collection that recently got deaccessioned  
> (before my time), however it has not been transferred, disposed of,  
> or otherwise dealt with. My understanding is it was deaccessioned  
> with the intent to transfer but that fell through. I now have a  
> researcher inquiring about information on some of the objects  
> deaccessioned.
>
> Do we still have rights to the documentation and images taken of the  
> objects? Or are they in lala land due to being deaccessioned?
>
> Thank you,
> Melanie
>
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