Hi Carrie;
I'm presuming by acquisition forms, you mean the same as what my
institution calls its Gift Agreements--the documentation that transfers
legal title of artefacts to the institution.
Our organization includes a museum and archives that use the same
form--we also have an art gallery, but I don't believe they use that
form (however, most of their acquisitions are purchases, and so don't
much use gift agreements--the sales receipt provides proof of legal
transfer of title). The form itself works fine for both users, but
there is some difficulty in administration if a donor should happen to
bring in archival and artifactual material at the same time.
For example, we recently had a donation of a 1950s drum majorette
uniform, with accompanying photos of the donor wearing the uniform. We
filled out a single Temporary Receipt (TR) for all, pending approval of
the donation by our Accession Committee. A photocopy of the
institutional copy of the TR was made so that a copy of the TR could
accompany the photos to the archives and the uniform to the museum.
After approval of the acquisition, our Gift Agreement (GA) needed to be
signed by the donor, and here's where we've run into trouble. Each
department normally prepares its own GAs; for that to be the case here,
the donor would receive one GA for the uniform, and another for the
photos--to GAs for one donation, and I'm sure most of our donors don't
make much distinction between "museum" and "archives" when they offer
such collections to us. Having one department or the other do the GA
for all items has proved unsatisfactory, as each department has its own
(if parallel) approval process. As our organization also has a "core"
department that sees to the administration of the institution as a
whole, we tried having our Records Co-ordinator prepare and send out GAs
for both museum and archives--but this bogged down due to delays in the
museum and/or archives submitting the appropriate information to the
Records Co-ordinator (whether from waiting for the Accession Committee
to approve the donation, or while researching recommendations to the
Accession Committee, or missing paperwork "lost in the shuffle", etc.).
As things stand now, we really haven't satisfactorily resolved the
situation. Archives and museum still prepare their own GAs, and I guess
we both hope not to receive mixed donations! In the example I
referenced above, we have a GA on file for the uniforms, but not for the
photos....
If anyone has suggestions for a solution here, I'd love to hear them!
Cheers,
------------------------------------------------------------
Tim McShane, Assistant--Cultural History
Medicine Hat Museum and Art Gallery
1302 Bomford Crescent S.W.
Medicine Hat, AB T1A 5E6
(403) 502-8587
[log in to unmask]
>>> [log in to unmask] 04/19/05 8:43 AM >>>
I currently work for and organization with a museum, archives and
library; each
having their own acquisition forms. Management is looking into
creating an all
purpose form for all three sections. Does anybody work for an
organization that
currently uses a form like this and are there any drawbacks to the
practice?
Thank you,
Carrie Snow
Disclaimer: The information transmitted is intended only for the
addressee and may contain confidential, proprietary and/or privileged
material. Any unauthorized review, distribution or other use of or
the taking of any action in reliance upon this information is
prohibited. If you received this in error, please contact the sender
and delete or destroy this message and any copies
=========================================================
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).
|
