Christina:

this may not be the advice you were looking for, so sorry if it is not helpful... however, I would encourage your institution to look at your collecting mission.  If it is not well-defined, you might want to consider rewriting it to narrow the focus.

As a curator for a large agency, I know that we turn down about 90% of what we are offered.  This is usually because we have something similiar, the offer of donation is not in good condition, or it does not have provenance to Kansas.

Each curator in the museum division is expected to justify each acquisition to the accessions committee.  While some of us are better at this than others, it serves an important purpose.  The curator has to check the collection to see what is already there and find out if there are any gaps in the collection that the offer of donation could fill.  If the curator can't present a good argument for taking a piece, he and the committee usually agree to decline it.

Just a few thoughts.


Jill L. Keehner

Jill Keehner
Curator
Kansas State Historical Society
6425 SW 6th Avenue
Topeka, Kansas 66615-1099
(785) 272-8681  ext. 425 



>>> Christina Phillips <[log in to unmask]> 06/04/02 09:17AM >>>
Several years ago a contracted company came into our Institution and helped create an anticipated 10 year growth plan for our collections.
In some collections we have already exceeded the needed space requirements and it hasn't nearly been 10 years.

I'm in the early stages of relooking at these figures and perhaps starting from scratch, but would anyone have any ideas or suggestions for me??

Is there a system or method commonly used  to anticipate uncrowding and collection growth?  Would you look at what came in over the past 5-10 years, come up with an average number and go from there?
My only concern is that sometimes, out of the blue, we are given very large collections (which we never anticpated).  How do you account for these possibilities?

Please feel free to repond off list.

Christina M. Phillips
New York State Museum
Museum Collections Coordinator 
CEC - Museum Operations Rm 3021
Albany, New York 12230
telephone: 518-485-8845
fax: 518-473-8496
e-mail:  [log in to unmask] 

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