Some very good and valid points have been raised on the issue of
deaccessioning.

However not every institution started with a full-fledged acquisitions or
collections policy. From my experience in the museum world, it really has
only been in the last 15 or so years that written policies such as these
came into existence for many museums, and some museums are still without
these documents.

In the case of the museum in which I currently work, the collection started
off in 1880 as a private collection, before being transferred in the 1910's
to an institution whose director thought the collection interesting and
worth saving. We acquired many, many items en-mass after the world wars from
the government (military), and people gave us things. We had a mandate -
Canadian military history, but no guidelines for enforcing it, so over the
years we were offered collections of things military and often there would
be items that were not relevant but which we took anyway. As was the way of
many museums decades ago. These decisions were also made at a time before
computers and before many institutions had qualified museologic staff. (in
the beginning my museum was staffed exclusively by ex-military, now we have
maybe 2-3 people on staff with experience in the military but also with
formal museum studies behind them). In most cases the items being considered
for deaccessioning are items that came in to the collections in the
pre-policy days.


And yes, as someone else from Canada mentioned, in Canada we do have
different laws and regulations then the US, and here a donor can receive an
income tax deduction for the value of their collection which means that we
cannot return these collections to the donors without the donors repaying
this amount to our Income Tax people - all very complicated to do.

A very interesting and relevant topic. Thanks to all who have contributed to
this discussion.

Carol Reid
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