[NHCOLL-L:334] Further on the accession by committee question

[Jane MacKnight]

Thanks for those who have responded and I'd still appreciate additional
comments.  The issue for me is that as a merged museum, Cincinnati
Historical Society, Cincinnati Natural History Museum and Cincinnati
Children's Museum, I need to have a single system for evaluating all
acquisitions.  Typically we have between 200-300 new accessions annually of
which 90-95% are history objects, printed works and manuscripts for the
library.  Natural history accessions result from donations and field
collections.  Natural history curators would love to have a separate system
for their acquisitions but logistically it would be a fiasco.  However, we
do not have the registration/collection management staff to manage parallel
structures for different types of collections.

We don't have a Collections Committee of our Board.  The director, who comes
from a history background, is used to the committee system and only wants to
see those acquisitions that may provoke budget, political, space issues
etc..  Basically, I see a committee of collections staff who would review
all incoming acquisitions.  Thoughts?

Thanks,
Jane

Jane MacKnight
Registrar and Director, Collections and Research
Cincinnati Museum Center
1301 Western Avenue
Cincinnati, OH 45203
Tel: 513/287-7092
Fax: 513/287-7095
Email: jmacknight at cincymuseum.org