William - I agree also with Astrid, Gregory and Angela regarding working this mass collection(s). Organize with your safety in mind, then the safety of the collections, then determine ownership, then think of needs and budget. I must also stress... look at this not as a chore, but an opportunity for your skills as a museum professional to shine. Too often I've been in your situation. Most of the time a collection is not necessarily 'not managed' as Angela states... but poorly administered by well- intentioned, political or academic people (even at large institutions) whose goals are not like ours in the field. They rarely ask for advice. Due to these factors, in 90% of cases, there is barely or no paperwork and confused missions and collection scopes. So as you start, remember you have the advantage here to make the decisions of how and where to begin the process, to mold (pardon the pun) these collections and making them accessible, accountable and interpretable. Best of luck, Cheryl Stoeber-Goff, Museum Curator Historic Services Division Monmouth County Park System 805 Newman Springs Rd Lincroft, NJ 07738 Ph: 732-975-9747 Fx: 732-975-9748 [log in to unmask] ________________________________ NOTICE OF CONFIDENTIALITY This message, including any prior messages and attachments, may contain advisory, consultative and/or deliberative material, confidential information or privileged communications of the County of Monmouth. Access to this message by anyone other than the sender and the intended recipient(s) is unauthorized. If you are not the intended recipient of this message, any disclosure, copying, distribution or action taken or not taken in reliance on it, without the expressed written consent of the County, is prohibited. If you have received this message in error, you should not save, scan, transmit, print, use or disseminate this message or any information contained in this message in any way and you should promptly delete or destroy this message and all copies of it. Please notify the sender by return e-mail if you have received this message in error. ========================================================= 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).