[Nhcoll-l] Educational collections

Anita Cholewa chole001 at umn.edu
Fri Apr 4 11:33:50 EDT 2014 

We are a natural history museum serving a university community.
I've attached our museum-wide collections policy - it includes interwoven
information about the regular (research) collection and the educational
collection.  "Teaching" collections are kept in the respective departments
and used strictly for classes - they are not part of our museum collections
(though they may have deaccessioned material given to them).

Cheers,
Anita


On Fri, Apr 4, 2014 at 9:16 AM, Kirsten Nicholson <norops at gmail.com> wrote:

> I would be very interested in hearing responses to Rodrigo's post.
>
> Rodrigo, we are a museum of cultural and natural history, and have a
> strong museum studies program that uses the museum as a laboratory for its
> minor program. I'm planning to revise our policies as well, as we have a
> strong teaching component to our museum and I have the sense that more of
> our program is dedicated to teaching than may be true of other museums (I
> may be wrong about this, I'm gathering information on this now). I'm really
> curious to see what you come up with and would perhaps like to talk to you
> more directly about how you develop your policy.
>
> We have two types of "teaching" collections, ones that are/were developed
> specifically for teaching courses on campus (the usual "-ologies"), and
> what we call a "loaning" collection that is heavily utilized by local K-12
> schools. The loaning collection is largely made up of fairly common species
> that are easily replenished when specimens are damaged beyond use
> (replenished via our salvage permits, road kills, bird window suicides,
> etc.). The loaning collection is comprised of study skins and mounts, while
> the teaching collections are largely study skins, although for some species
> we bring in mounts, especially if they are uncommon in our collections.
>
> Because of our teaching focus, there are some species for which we only
> have one or a very few specimens, and while they are formally listed as
> part of permanent ("research") collections, they are still earmarked to be
> used in classes on campus, although following special handling (they are
> trotted out for that day's lab/class, usually put back in the collections
> afterwards, can be requested for viewing by students of the class with
> observation). I made this policy decision because otherwise most of these
> specimens really go unused, and our students gain tremendously from
> studying them.
>
> Anyway, just a few thoughts from here; looking forward to hearing more of
> what you hear!
>
> Cheers,
>
> Kirsten
>
>
> On Thu, Apr 3, 2014 at 1:59 PM, Pellegrini, Rodrigo <
> Rodrigo.Pellegrini at sos.state.nj.us> wrote:
>
>> Hello everyone,
>>
>>
>>
>> The NJSM is tightening its collection policies and records, and the issue
>> of our educational collection came up. We're a multi-specialty museum, with
>> 4 collecting bureaus: Archeology/Ethnography, Natural History, Cultural
>> History and Fine Arts.
>>
>> Only Archeology/Ethnography and Natural History have educational
>> collections, and I've been asked to formalize a policy for them (with the
>> understanding that most objects in these collections are to be handled
>> multiple times on a daily basis by visitors, and we expect them to
>> deteriorate in the process).
>>
>> I recall a similar discussion/question in this list serve a few months
>> ago, but I can't remember or find any finished policies being posted.
>>
>> Would anybody whose institutions have drafted a collections policy for
>> their "hands-on" educational collections kindly send me a copy for review?
>>
>> I would also be very interested in any comments and suggestions you may
>> have regarding the subject and formalizing it. It is my understanding that
>> since these objects are expected to deteriorate, most institutions
>> (certainly all I have ever worked for) have treated them informally (no
>> real museum records kept save for an inventory).
>>
>>
>>
>> Thank you all for your time.
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>>
>>
>> Rod
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> [image: NH Logo - Small]
>>
>> Rodrigo Pellegrini, MA, MS
>> Registrar, Natural History Bureau
>> New Jersey State Museum
>> 205 W. State St.
>>
>> PO Box 530
>> Trenton, NJ 08625-0530
>> USA
>>
>> Voice: (609) 292-5615 (office)
>>        (609) 826-3924 (laboratory)
>>        (609) 826-5449 (storage)
>> Fax: (609) 292-7636
>> E-mail: Rodrigo.Pellegrini at sos.state.nj.us
>> Website: www.newjerseystatemuseum.org
>>
>> Blog: http://njstatemuseum.blogspot.com/
>>
>>
>>
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>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> NHCOLL-L is brought to you by the Society for the Preservation of
>> Natural History Collections (SPNHC), an international society whose
>> mission is to improve the preservation, conservation and management of
>> natural history collections to ensure their continuing value to
>> society. See http://www.spnhc.org for membership information.
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> Kirsten E. Nicholson, Ph.D
>
>
>
>
>
>
> *Assoc. Prof. Biology          and       Curator of Natural History Dept.
> of Biology                             Museum of Cultural and Natural
> History217 Brooks Hall                            103 Rowe HallCentral
> Michigan Univ.                 Central Michigan University Mt. Pleasant, MI
> 48859                 Mt. Pleasant, MI 48859 989-774-3758 <989-774-3758>
>                              989-774-3829 <989-774-3829>*
>
>
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> _______________________________________________
> NHCOLL-L is brought to you by the Society for the Preservation of
> Natural History Collections (SPNHC), an international society whose
> mission is to improve the preservation, conservation and management of
> natural history collections to ensure their continuing value to
> society. See http://www.spnhc.org for membership information.
>
>


-- 
__________
Anita F. Cholewa, Ph.D.
Curator of the UM Herbarium (MIN)
   and Acting Curator of Lichens
J.F. Bell Museum of Natural History
University of Minnesota
1445 Gortner Ave
ST PAUL MN 55108-1095

campus mail code: 6022
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