While I understand your point regarding staff storing old clothing and
household items at the museum, I totally disagree with your stance when it
comes to books and similar materials.

First of all, I keep a sizeable collection of books, journals, maps, etc. in
my office IN ORDER TO BETTER DO MY JOB!  (1) When I have someone on the
phone, they don't want to have to call back or wait for me to go to our
library and then get back to them.  They want an answer.  (2) When I need to
quickly check a fact while writing, it takes significant time to go to our
library, wander through its much larger collection to find the appropriate
source, carry it back to my office, and then return it when I'm done.
That's company time being wasted, which "you" are paying for.  Instead, by
having a library in my office, I can grab the book and return it in less
time than it would take just to get to the library (never mind the browsing,
returning to the office, and the second trip to the library to return the
book).  (3) I have resources that our library doesn't--should my work be
hampered by our library's lack of funding, when I have the necessary
resource at home?  What a waste!  It is terribly small-minded and
short-sighted to not allow staff to keep work-oriented materials at work.

Second, my office is an office, just like a staff member of any business.
Why should I not be able to decorate it?  Most companies have found that a
comfortable work environment makes employees *more productive*.  I have
pictures on my walls, a CD player on my desk, and even a couple of small
sculptures and stuffed animals among the books on my shelves.  I would
consider it an unfair demand that I work in an ugly, sterile space, lowering
productivity by lowering morale and loyalty to my employer.

Actually, I also have a couple of items of clothing at work!  I keep a
sweater, because sometimes it's cold at work.  [This is especially true in
late spring and  early fall, when we can get a cold snap but the steam plant
is shut down for the season.]  I keep a t-shirt and sneakers, because I have
at times needed to change.  This may be because I was caught running an
errand in a rainstorm or because I wore nice clothes and suddenly have to do
something really grubby (like play with bloody carcasses or sooty/dusty
boxes).  I don't use them very often, but the alternative is to refuse to
work because it's too dirty and to miss work to go home and get out of cold,
wet clothes.  Again, my *employer* loses productivity if it prevents me from
storing emergency supplies.

So it's going to be tricky developing guidelines for what staff can keep at
work.    If you maintain your new policy, you will lose productivity in a
variety of ways.  You can go back to the status quo, which causes the space
problems you are trying to solve.  Either extreme is against *your* best
interests.  A middle ground will be to allow materials that enhance staff
performance (books and other resources) and some "reasonable" (and that's
the catch) amount of other material.  Anyone with a desk or an office can be
restricted to what fits there.  Those who don't should perhaps be provided
with something (at least a locker or drawer or, better, a desk/table) and
then limited to what will fit there.

I'll be interested to see what others write.

Robin K Panza                         [log in to unmask]
Collection Manager, Section of Birds          ph:  412-622-3255
Carnegie Museum of Natural History       fax: 412-622-8837
4400 Forbes Ave.
Pittsburgh  PA  15213-4008  USA

-----Original Message-----
From: John Rumm [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Staff members recently received a directive stating that all personal items
presently stored in the institution were to be removed by  a specified date,
and were not to be stored there in the future.  In reply, staff members are
asserting that...the directive itself was unfair.

I'd appreciate learning about, or being directed to, other institutions'
guidelines that address the issue of staff storing personal property in
museums (or, for that matter, historic houses, archives or libraries.)
Listmembers can post their replies to the list or direct them to me
personally.

=========================================================
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).