Bonnie-Dara:

Why not freeze or fumigate the objects concerned, thus eliminating your
concerns about contaminating the rest of your collection.  As a point of
interest, do you not have an established procedure concerning the
introduction of new material into your collection storage area?  It is so
very easy for one to adopt a holier-than-thou attitude when one is not
intimately involved with the situation so I am certainly interested in
hearing more details either directly or through emails with other listers as
I am sure it is a more complex issue than one might suspect.

Good Luck!

        Patricia Davis-Perkins
        Gestionnaire de projet - Numérisation des collections/Project
Manager - Collections Digitization
        Bibliothèque, archives et services de documentation/Library,
Archives and Documentation services
        Musée canadien des civilisations/Canadian Museum of Civilization
        Tél : (819) 776-8456
            mailto:[log in to unmask] 


-----Original Message-----
From: Bonni-Dara Michaels [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: February 20, 2003 8:58 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: query - possible contamination of storage environment


We were recently given a gift of over 350 objects, mostly silver, that had
been stored in an unglazed cabinet in a New York City apartment and had not
been cleaned, polished or dusted in approximately 20 years.  They are
covered with dust and dirt.  The wrapped items were placed in cabinets in
our storage area pending disposition.  The storage area is part of a
multi-floored museum storage facility with shared environment and
environmental controls including filtration.  My Director now wants me to
unwrap all these items in the storage area, and replace them in the cabinets
so that a researcher can work on them at her leisure in the storage area
over the next month.  I am concerned about contaminating the storage
environment, not merely in our area but throughout the building - is this a
legitimate concern?  Can anyone point me to a printed source, or a previous
on-line discussion of this issue, that I can use to back my protest?  Even
statements from colleagues saying they wouldn't do this would help.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Bonni-Dara Michaels
Collections Curator
Yeshiva University Museum
15 West 16th Street
New York, New York 10011
Tel: 212-294-8330 x 8815

=========================================================
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).

=========================================================
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).