Dear Museum-l, nhcoll-l and Nhc-sla members,

For a workshop on management of invertebrate paleontology collections, I
am preparing a section on endangered and orphaned collections.  I am
interested in knowing if:

1) your acquisition policy specifically addresses endangered/orphaned
collections, and

2) your deaccession policy or founding charter addresses the disposition
of collections if your institution were to close or dissolve.

If the answer to either of these is yes, I would appreciate receiving via
post a copy of the appropriate section(s) of your policies.  Although I
am interested in paleontology collections, I think comparing how other
disciplines/institutions handle this issue will be informative.

Also, I would appreciate your comments on the working definition of an
endangered/orphaned collection which I cite here from West, 1988
(Collection Forum 4(2):65):

"An endangered/orphaned collection is a substantive body of systematic
material which is or soon may be no longer regarded as of value in its
present ownership.  This may be due to reduction of or absence of
staffing or other support, or negative or uninformed institutional policy
decisions.  The collection thus is in danger of becoming lost to the
systematic research and education community ....."

I welcome your comments on this issue. I will post a summary of comments
to the lists in early June.  Thank you in advance for taking time to
respond.

......Julia Golden
        Curator of Paleontologic Collections
        University of Iowa
        Department of Geology, 121 TH
        Iowa City, IA  52242-1379

        tel: 319-335-1822
        fax: 319-335-1821
        email:  [log in to unmask]