I am a graduate student in museum studies just getting started on my thesis project on emergency planning for museums. The first part of my project will entail helping my museum prioritize their collection. The curator and registrar both have a pretty good handle on which objects are of the highest priority, but I have a few questions I was hoping some people on the listserv might have experience with: Is there a systematic method of discerning which objects are of the highest priority? I have been using the guidelines in the NPS Museum Handbook (pg. 10:36) as well as the Austrailian publication, Significance: A Guide to Assessing the Significance of Cultural Heritage Objects and Collections. I guess what I am asking is this - is prioritizing collections all about the value judgements by museum staff familiar with collections, or is there a more methodical way of assessing priorities? We are going to compile a tiered list of collection priorities - high, medium, and low priorities. Can anyone recommend how many objects should be in each of these tiered categories? Can anyone recommend any additional resources related to prioritizing collections? If anyone on the listserv has experience prioritizing museum collections I would love to have a conversation about your experience - please let me know if you'd be interested! Thanks so much! Molly E. Conley Museum Technician Yellowstone Heritage & Research Center P.O. Box 168 Yellowstone National Park, WY 82190 (307) 344-2262 ========================================================= 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).