Hi all!

Going a step further on what's already been said about
accessioning books, I'm curious whether any of you have
reference libraries, and if so, are the books accessioned?
Our policy is to accession rare and historic books into our
permanent collection and not allow the public to handle
them. We do have a reference library that the staff and
public can use and the feeling has been that we shouldn't
accession reference books (care of collection books, books
on wagons or cowboys or historic quilts, etc.) 

What is standard for reference libraries regarding books
that the staff uses and that the public can use with
supervision? If a book is donated to the museum but it's
determined not to be historic and worthy of the permanent
collection, but it is placed in a reference library setting,
should it be marked to signifiy the donor? I've seen no
standard in my museum and I'm curious what others have done
in their museums. Is anyone else facing the same sort of use
and status issues? 

Cathy Osterman
Curator of Collections
CFD Old West Museum
Cheyenne, WY



----- Original Message -----
From: Sherry <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [MUSEUM-L] accessioning books
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2006 14:50:32 -0500

> I've never heard of such a policy regarding copyright. 
> I'm with you.  We accession books.
> 
> Sherry Massey
>   ----- Original Message ----- 
>   From: Laura Bachelder 
>   To: [log in to unmask] 
>   Sent: Tuesday, August 22, 2006 8:51 AM
>   Subject: [MUSEUM-L] accessioning books
> 
> 
> 
>   Hello,
> 
> 
> 
>   I have a question for all our registrars out there. I
> have just taken a new job as Curator. My predecessor had
> determined somewhere that books should never be
> accessioned due to copyright issues. For example, we have
> a new collection of a politician's campaign materials
> which includes a cookbook that the campaign committee had
> developed and published. Per my predecessor, the cookbook
> can't be accessioned with the rest of the collection. This
> also held true for magazines.
> 
> 
> 
>   In my experience I would have accessioned the book so
> that it was intellectually connected to the rest of the
> collection. I would think that our only concern as far as
> copyright is concerned is how we use the book now that it
> is in the collection. Obviously if we do not hold the
> rights we will not want to be reproducing it for sale in
> the Museum Store or be allowing indiscriminate public use.
> Accessioning would simply mean that we own that particular
> copy of the book, not the rights to the material.
> 
> 
> 
>   How are others dealing with this?
> 
> 
> 
>   Laura M. Bachelder, Curator of Collections
> 
>   Midway Village & Museum Center
> 
>   815-397-9112 ext 108
> 
>   815-397-9156 fax
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
>  
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