[NHCOLL-L:5003] Re: valuation of collections

[John E Simmons]

Cindy,
Why do you want to assign a value to the collection?  Is this for insurance
purposes, to demonstrate how much the collection is worth in general, or
some other reason?  There are many kinds of valuation that can be done for
collections, but you must be careful to define your purpose first (e.g.,
insurance values are generally fair market values, but research value would
be based on the potential for future use of the collection as well as the
previous research history).

--John

John E. Simmons
Museologica
128 E. Burnside Street
Bellefonte, Pennsylvania 16823-2010
simmons.johne at gmail.com
303-681-5708
www.museologica.com
and
Adjunct Curator of Collections
Earth and Mineral Science Museum & Art Gallery
Penn State University
University Park, Pennsylvania

On Wed, Oct 6, 2010 at 5:27 PM, Opitz, Cindy <cindy-opitz at uiowa.edu> wrote:

>  I’d like to hear from colleagues about how you approach collection
> valuation and where you turn when tasked with assigning value to natural
> history collections. I understand that collections hold scientific/research
> value as well as monetary value. We have over 112,000 biological specimens
> (birds, mammals, insects, aquatic invertebrates), and ethnographic/
> archaeological objects…where do you begin?
>
>
>
> Cindy Opitz
>
> Collections Manager
>
> Pentacrest Museums: Museum of Natural History
>
> and Old Capitol Museum
>
> 11 Macbride Hall
>
> The University of Iowa
>
> Iowa City IA 52242
>
> 319-335-0481
>
> www.uiowa.edu/~nathist <http://www.uiowa.edu/%7Enathist>
>
> www.uiowa.edu/~oldcap <http://www.uiowa.edu/%7Eoldcap>
>
>
>
>
>



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