Hello all,

I am a contract collections technician, and while conducting an inventory
for a material culture collection, we have come across several
object-specific mounts and boxes for which we would like to maintain the
association. For mounts, we have employed a system of registering the mount
as a separate component and assigning a preceding "M" to the object's
accession number so that we can track the location of the mount should it
be helpful for future display or research. In many cases, the display
mounts or bases are non-archival and may never be used again, but could
possibly be helpful in the creation of new archival mounts or in provenance
research (some come directly from galleries, collectors, and donors); other
mounts are unsafe, do not provide adequate support, or simply take up too
much room in very cramped storage areas and have been moved to another area
(not climate-controlled, secure, etc.) and the location recorded in TMS.

More recently I have been wondering if there is a similar system for
tracking boxes or even crates specifically used to transport objects,
presumably with customized packing materials/interior supports? I ask
because resources are, as expected, tight at this institution, and to avoid
creating redundant object-specific containers and/or wasting materials
would be preferred. In an ideal world, the object might be stored in or in
proximity to its box, but alas. Most of these kinds of boxes are archival
and labeled in some way with the corresponding object's accession number,
but otherwise there is no way for someone to know if there was a box
created for an object at an earlier time. Would I simply use a different
preceding letter to indicate a storage container as was used for the
mounts? I am the only original member currently on the project, with my
time at this institutioncoming to a close soon, and I worry that due to the
recent staff changes much of the knowledge of the collection and its
history and quirks (including interesting storage locations) will be lost
after my departure.

Thanks in advance for any help and my apologies for the length of this
email!
Erica

=========================================================
Important Subscriber Information:

The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes).

If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).