Good morning,

We are currently looking at our collections policy here at the large, county historical society where I work to determine if we need to narrow the scope.  I have a few questions that would help us in our discussions, but first a little background.  Our society is over 100 years old, and has been collecting from the beginning.  We are trying to figure out how we can tighten up our collecting, so that we no longer have to deal with the usual "gee, we don't know much about it but it is typical of the period so we'll take it" type of donation to the collection.

Here are my questions:

1. Is your collecting policy very specific or is it fairly general.  
2. How often do staff appraise a potential donation before taking it in?  By appraise, I mean sorting through the donation and removing those items that do not strongly fill you collections policy.  I am in no sense meaning a monetary appraisal.
3. Is this appraisal step written into your collections policy.

Thanks for any help you can give us as we try to update our policy.

Mary Oliver
Archivist/Curator/Registrar

Montgomery County Historical Society
224 N. St. Clair Street
Dayton, Ohio 45402
937-228-6271 x115
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www.Daytonhistory.org

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