[Nhcoll-l] terminology question

[John E Simmons]

Lennart,
You have received some very good advice from Nigel, Dirk, and Andy, but
just to make sure that your original question is addressed, a bit of
clarification is in order:

As Andy pointed out and the *Spectrum* standards recommended by Nigel
state, if an *accessioned* specimen is permanently removed from the
collection for any reason, you should indicate that it was *deaccessioned*,
and the deaccessioning process must be thoroughly documented as well as the
*disposal* process (disposal refers to how you get rid of the specimen,
such as by exchanging it with another museum or giving it to another
museum, destroying it completely, selling it, etc.). Remember that (1) only
accessioned specimens can be deaccessioned; (2) the process should be well
documented; and (3) you should not deaccession specimens that are lost or
missing.

The specimen record for deaccessioned specimens should be maintained in the
museum--do not re-use catalog number of destroy any of the documentation
about the specimen. The record is still valuable, even if the specimen no
longer exists.

As Dirk explained, a *lost* or *missing* specimen may turn up long after it
has gone missing. For this reason, if you cannot find the specimen, you
should not deaccession it, but rather indicate in the specimen record
(e.g., the catalog or accession record) that it is lost or missing. In the
52+ years I have worked in natural history museums, I have seen a lot of
lost or missing specimens suddenly turn up in the wrong container, in
teaching collections, and in other museums by accident. As Dirk explained,
even if you think specimens were lost in a war, you should not deaccession
them but record them as lost or missing.

If a specimen is used for *destructive sampling*, it can be deaccessioned
as long as the process is documented, but as Dirk mentioned, frequently
such specimens are not completely destroyed--there may be DNA or bones or
skin or other parts that are not destroyed, in which case these should
remain in the collection. Because each specimen is a record of the
occurrence of a species or object at a particular place and time, saving
parts of a damaged specimen is still important. Furthermore, in science
museums we should keep in mind that we do not know what research use our
specimens will have in the future. For example, the Earth and Mineral
Sciences Museum & Art Gallery (where I volunteer) has many geoscience
specimens that are rich in pyrite and over the years have crumbled to dust.
At first glance, you might think that the pile of grit left behind is
useless and should be thrown away, but recently, some researchers have
asked specifically for that sort of material because they can extract rare
earth metals, etc. from it. Similarly, the remaining parts of even heavily
dissected specimens may have use in the future.

The important thing is to document what was done to the specimen, when, by
whom, and for what purpose.

--John

John E. Simmons
Writer and Museum Consultant
Museologica
*and*
Associate Curator of Collections
Earth and Mineral Science Museum & Art Gallery
Penn State University
*and*
Investigador Asociado, Departamento de Ornitologia
Museo de Historia Natural, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Lima


On Fri, Jan 14, 2022 at 3:49 AM Lennart Lennuk <
Lennart.Lennuk at loodusmuuseum.ee> wrote:

> Hi!
>
>
>
> Just a quick terminology question.
>
> What is a word for the act when an specimen in collection is destroyed and
> it needs to be maked that this specimen no longer exist in that collection?
>
>
>
> Best regards!
>
> Lennart Lennuk
>
> Head of collections
>
> Estonian Museum of Natural History
>
> +372 6603404, 56569916
>
>
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