Hi Steven,
I curate the collections and exhibits of a small local museum with a
collection of perhaps 6,000 items...mainly historical, archival, and fine
art.  We also have an "Education Collection," "Reference Collection,"
"Exhibit Prop Collection," "Fragment File" etc.  None of the items in these
for-use groupings are formally accessioned.  The museum does not have donor
files for these items, nor entries in the database.  Each item has a small
tag or label mentioning the source, if known.  But we are not committed in a
public trust sense to provide special care in perpetuity for these items.
We do not use gloves with them, we do not store them in archival housings,
and they can be "consumed." They are not treated like accessioned objects,
and therefore if they began their museum lives as accessioned objects they
become deaccessioned in order to serve these other functions.

I hope that is a helpful response to your query.
Best wishes,
Ellen Carrlee
Curator of Collections and Exhibits
Juneau-Douglas City Museum


>-----Original Message-----
>From: Steven Stewart [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
>Sent: Friday, September 12, 2003 1:16 PM
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: "Study" Collections and deaccessioning
>
>
>We are trying to organize our various holdings at our museum.
>There are
>several different collections here that have been used in the
>past.  There
>is of course the permanent collection where all items are formally
>accessioned.  Then we have a couple of other collections with
>various other
>levels of registration.  My question is this:  An item is in
>your permanent
>collection, but for whatever reason the Collections committee
>has seen fit
>that the item does not exactly fit the strict requirements for the
>Permanent collection. We do not want to "dispose" of it, just
>"reclassify"
>it to our Education or Exhibit Prop collection so that it may
>be used more
>appropriately.  I define deaccession as "formally removing an
>item from the
>PERMANENT collection" while others here have associated the term
>with "Disposal of an item from the permantent collection",
>which to their
>understadning meant the museum getting rid of it.  Does a formal
>deaccession need to take place if an unrestricted item is
>simply being put
>in an Education Collection, not thrown away, sold, transferred
>or in any
>other way disposed of?
>
>Also, what kind of levels of registration do some of you go to
>for an item
>that is in a "study" or "education" collection?
>
>Steven Stewart
>
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