This response reminded me of a situation in a natural history museum for which I once volunteered extensively- about museums changing their mandate, etc. This museum had many items stored away in back spaces and went through a period of cleaning out these areas. I guess they were in a hurry, because they assigned maintenance staff essentially just to throw out the collected materials. So a type specimen of a swordfish was thrown out a second floor window, to land with its sword buried in the ground. This promptly broke. Some models of the original dinosaurs also went into the dumpster. Eventually someone realized what was happening and the cleaning proceeded more cautiously. I am not sure what the moral of this story is except maybe to say that sometimes good materials have been thrown out without thought- hopefully it doesn't happen now but does the volunteer know that? Could you also just try some retraining, explain why materials were removed and why it is important to follow procedures? The person may be a maverick or simply someone who is well intentioned but lacking all the relevant information? Nina S-R >>> [log in to unmask] 11/01 9:15 AM >>> In a message dated 10/31/2006 4:35:59 PM Eastern Standard Time, [log in to unmask] writes: As a nonmuseum employee, my take on this is slightly different. it's interesting to see how this falls out from your perspective, but here's where I see it differently: o First, you better be VERY careful how you handle this employee. Smack him/her down off the roles or formally give them a comeuppance, and they may find their way to the press who is as uninformed as am I when it comes to deaccessioning. It could just come off that your museum doesn't care about the artificats with which it's entrusted and just throws them away willy nilly. Absurd, yes, but that's how it could play out. The volunteer could present themself as history's hero having salvaged these items and ensured they were preserved somewhere. ****************** A properly run, formalized museum should simply not accept donations that do not fit its mandate. However museums evolve and staff changes and eventually someone decides to clean out the "junk" that has accumulated over the years to make room for more significant artifacts, even though this trash was someone else's treasure at another time and would be now elsewhere. As a volunteer at a small, very specialized museum I do my share of dumpster diving for items that I feel are fascinating and significant, but are of no interest to the curator. It is a troubling question as to what to do with them. My approach is to hold on to material in the hope of someday passing it on to another generation, a task that should be the responsibility of a museum. However as my age accumulates, the practicability of this approach becomes questionable. I would not donate this material in another name, but am concerned about the ethics and legality of selling or donating it in my name. The legal problems would be solved by supervised destruction of deaccessioned items at the museum but this goes against the very reasons I volunteer at the museum. I hope to see more discussion of this subject. Mike Csontos ========================================================= 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).