Please reply off-list!

I'm revising our collections policy and have some questions that you all
may have thought about already. We take in a lot of material that is
either tied to ongoing forensics cases or that is reposited by an agency,
and we're looking at the strong possibility of much more coming in.
I'm trying to write a policy that covers our rights and obligations in
taking care of this material that, as I understand, we do not own.

My director has challenged me to come up with both a policy and sample
contract language so that we can be consistent. To date, our response to
requests for reposition have varied widely, and no one is sure when (or
whether) our responsibility ends.

Here are some of the questions we raised in brainstorming. If you have
any thoughts or comments, please let me know.
*What is reasonable to charge for curation and storage for reposited
collections?
*Does anyone set a statute of limitations for how long curation will be
provided under a contract (subject to renewal), or are all your contracts
written for care in perpetuity?
*Do you have a clause that allows the museum to acquire ownership of the
material after a certain time?
*What are your conditions and procedures for returning a collection to
the owning agency?
*What do you do if the agency ceases to exist?
*What are the responsibilities of the agency itself? Do you charge a lump
sum or an annual fee? How is that calculated? Do you have a proviso for
recovering part of unanticipated costs (conservation treatment, etc.)
from the agency?
*What procedures do you recommend if the material reposited at your place
turns out to be so legally sensitive and/or publically offensive that its
presence poses a threat to the staff and collection? Do you take on the
extra costs of security, or do you return such material to the agency of
origin?
*What do you say in a contract so that the museum does not get encumbered
with the responsibility to take care of material it does not own in
perpetuity with no support from the agency, while continuing to work in
partnership with the agency?
*What latitude is given to the museum to re-house and/or treat
collections in need? Does the museum have to get permission for any
interventive measures, or is it given some degree of freedom to make
these decisions?
*How often should contracts be renewed?
*If the museum is willing to assume ownership of a collection at the end
of a contract, and the agency cannot provide support, can that transfer
be done? Can the museum assume no-strings ownership of reposited material?
*Do repositing agencies prefer that museums provide numbering systems and
labels for reposited collections, or do they prefer that museums use the
agency's system?
*Do agencies prefer to inspect reposited collections regularly? Is that
something that should be specified in a contract?
*Do agencies agree to hold-harmless clauses in contracts in the event
that the museum undergoes a catastrophic disaster (fire, earthquake, etc.)?

I'm sure I'll think of more. Thanks for your thoughts on this.
Happy Friday,

Sally Shelton
Director, Collections Care and Conservation


-------------------------------------------------------------------------
|                                                                       |
|                 San Diego Natural History Museum                      |
|                          P. O. Box 1390                               |
|                San Diego, California   92112  USA                     |
|             phone (619) 232-3821; FAX (619) 232-0248                  |
|                     email [log in to unmask]                          |
|                                                                       |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------