The collections committee for my museum has recently decided to create an "institutional archives" to actively collect the history of our own organization, but separate from our permanent collection and mission. That means I've been asked to draft guidelines for such a collection: what we should collect, what we shouldn't collect, how it should be organized, etc. The museum has always collected such material, but not in any formal way. (Currently, it is scattered in boxes throughout our building.) The idea is to preserve some of the more important documents, such as publications, newsletters, committee minutes, financial records, pamphlets and/or photogrpahs from major events, etc., but not necceesarily to collect evidence from every small event or project that we undertake. Does anyone else have an example of such a guideline? Do any of you maintain an institutional archives? Also, I'm hoping to create a policy for an Education Collection. So far, we have a few objects that have been designated for use in educational programs only, but do not have a policy to control what is included in that collection and what is not. (I'm trying to avoid the tendancy to simply give to the Education Collection anything not accepted into the permanent collection.) Does anyone have an Education Collection Policy they would be willing to share? Thank you all so much for your help! Kate Higgins Curator Pejepscot Historical Society 159 Park Row Brunswick, ME 04011 207-729-6606 207-729-6012 (fax) ========================================================= 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).