This response reminded me of a situation in a natural history museum for
which I once volunteered extensively- about museums changing their
mandate, etc.  This museum had many items stored away in back spaces and
went through a period of cleaning out these areas.  I guess they were in
a hurry, because they assigned maintenance staff essentially just to
throw out the collected materials.  So a type specimen of a swordfish
was thrown out a second floor window, to land with its sword buried in
the ground.  This promptly broke.  Some models of the original dinosaurs
also went into the dumpster.  Eventually someone realized what was
happening and the cleaning proceeded more cautiously.  

I am not sure what the moral of this story is except maybe to say that
sometimes good materials have been thrown out without thought- hopefully
it doesn't happen now but does the volunteer know that?  Could you also
just try some retraining, explain why materials were removed and why it
is important to follow procedures?  The person may be a maverick or
simply someone who is well intentioned but lacking all the relevant
information?

Nina S-R

>>> [log in to unmask] 11/01 9:15 AM >>>
In a message dated 10/31/2006 4:35:59 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
[log in to unmask] writes:
As a nonmuseum employee, my take on this is slightly different.  it's 
interesting to see how this falls out from your perspective, but here's
where I see 
it differently:

o  First, you better be VERY careful how you handle this employee. 
Smack 
him/her down off the roles or formally give them a comeuppance, and
they may find 
their way to the press who is as uninformed as am I when it comes to 
deaccessioning.  It could just come off that your museum doesn't care
about the 
artificats with which it's entrusted and just throws them away willy
nilly.  Absurd, 
yes, but that's how it could play out.  The volunteer could present
themself 
as history's hero having salvaged these items and ensured they were
preserved 
somewhere.  
******************


A properly run, formalized museum should simply not accept donations
that do 
not fit its mandate. However museums evolve and staff changes and
eventually 
someone decides to clean out the "junk" that has accumulated over the
years to 
make room for more significant artifacts, even though this trash was
someone 
else's treasure at another time and would be now elsewhere.

As a volunteer at a small, very specialized museum I do my share of
dumpster 
diving for items that I feel are fascinating and significant, but are
of no 
interest to the curator. It is a troubling question as to what to do
with them.

My approach is to hold on to material in the hope of someday passing it
on to 
another generation, a task that should be the responsibility of a
museum. 
However as my age accumulates, the practicability of this approach
becomes 
questionable.

I would not donate this material in another name, but am concerned
about the 
ethics and legality of selling or donating it in my name. The legal
problems 
would be solved by supervised destruction of deaccessioned items at the
museum 
but this goes against the very reasons I volunteer at the museum.

I hope to see more discussion of this subject.

Mike Csontos 

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