I agree with Eugene. It really IS important to do two things:

a. have a clear sense of mandate, hence what you will and will NOT collect. I
think it's important to periodically assess your collection,identify its
strengths and weaknesses and focus your acquisitions on the areas where you are
weak (if you want to round out your collections) or areas of strength (if you
want to concentrate on a few major themes). This sounds pretty fundamental, but
I have the sense that a lot of museums (perhaps especially the larger ones?)
never seem to get around to it. We have a large collection of toy soldiers (we
got rid of the tiny comboys and aboriginal people to our affiliated children's
museum);  should we have acquired this collection at all? I think not.

b. have a no strings attached policy on accepting donations. We require donors
to sign a form that acknowledges that we have complete rights over the use of
the material, including its disposition by various specified means, including
sale. We refuse to accept any donation that comes with even the least bit of
conditions on retention or use, regardless of how much we'd like the material.

Where we have had problems in the past is with donations "at the door". We will
never refuse a visitor who arrives with a box of Great Uncle Charley's First
World War souvenirs; to do so would be unduly cold-hearted. But once we receive
them, and the donor has signed the form, we will take a hard look at them and
only add the interesting things (or any medals/decorations awarded to a
resident of Canada) to our collection. The rest stays in the living history
collection, where it can be used, destroyed or sold, to buy artifacts we really
need. Do we really need 200 1950s pattern RCAF greatcoats? Why should we not be
able to dispose of those we don't need to buy that grenadier's uniform we could
really use in a gallery? But, if you aren't sure whether the donors of any of
these placed any conditions on their donations, your hands are tied - at least
until the moths eat 'em up!

Harry Needham
Canadian War Museum