Erin, An institution I once worked for tells potential borrowers that their requests require a year's processing time. This is to allow for permissions from all involved (from the subject curator up to the vice-president of collections), conservation assessment and treatment, evaluation of the borrowing institution, and then arranging for crating and shipping. It sounds like a long time, but that time was really needed to cover every requirement. Hope this helps. Martha Katz-Hyman Independent Curator On Thu, Aug 10, 2017 at 10:58 AM, Erin McKeen Johnston <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > Apologies for the cross-posting. > > Hello All, > > I am trying to figure out what the average processing time is for outgoing > loan requests, professional best practices/ industry standards, etc. How > much time does your institution require as a minimum for processing > outgoing loan requests? 9 months? 6 months? How did you determine this > processing time? Is this time frame written into your Collections > Management Policy? Is it posted on your website or somewhere else publicly > accessible? Are there published best practices anywhere about this? > > Slightly different question based on your experience: in your professional > opinion, how much processing time is ideal for outgoing loan requests? > In a past life I worked at a institution where 6 months processing time > was the policy but in reality this time frame was often very challenging > and 9 months would have been ideal. Getting policy updated was challenging > for a variety of reasons but the reality was we were always crunched for > time. > > Thanks in advance for any responses and feel free to email me directly at > [log in to unmask] > > Best, > Erin > > ------------------------------ > > To unsubscribe from the MUSEUM-L list, click the following link: > http://home.ease.lsoft.com/scripts/wa-HOME.exe?SUBED1=MUSEUM-L&A=1 > ========================================================= 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).