Dear Museum-l, nhcoll-l and Nhc-sla members, For a workshop on management of invertebrate paleontology collections, I am preparing a section on endangered and orphaned collections. I am interested in knowing if: 1) your acquisition policy specifically addresses endangered/orphaned collections, and 2) your deaccession policy or founding charter addresses the disposition of collections if your institution were to close or dissolve. If the answer to either of these is yes, I would appreciate receiving via post a copy of the appropriate section(s) of your policies. Although I am interested in paleontology collections, I think comparing how other disciplines/institutions handle this issue will be informative. Also, I would appreciate your comments on the working definition of an endangered/orphaned collection which I cite here from West, 1988 (Collection Forum 4(2):65): "An endangered/orphaned collection is a substantive body of systematic material which is or soon may be no longer regarded as of value in its present ownership. This may be due to reduction of or absence of staffing or other support, or negative or uninformed institutional policy decisions. The collection thus is in danger of becoming lost to the systematic research and education community ....." I welcome your comments on this issue. I will post a summary of comments to the lists in early June. Thank you in advance for taking time to respond. ......Julia Golden Curator of Paleontologic Collections University of Iowa Department of Geology, 121 TH Iowa City, IA 52242-1379 tel: 319-335-1822 fax: 319-335-1821 email: [log in to unmask]