Best Practices for Managing Federal Museum Collections

Section B. - Provide Good Customer Service

B-6 Know how to access any object in your Federal museum collections [access for accountability, physical access, access to associated information, history of access and use]

Federal museum collections cannot serve your current needs if they cannot be accessed. Reasonable access or accommodation is required by law, and can be achieved in different ways for different purposes. Here are a few examples.

Accessibility Law
Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990
http://www.eeoc.gov/ada/adatext.html

Access Policies
State Department
http://www.state.gov/www/about_state/diprooms/tour.html
http://www.state.gov/www/about_state/diprooms/dipindex.html

Department of the Treasury
Virtual Tours, Building Tours, and Exhibits
http://www.treas.gov/offices/management/curator/

National Park Service (NPS)
Park Web Catalogs
http://www.museum.nps.gov
Online Exhibits
http://www.cr.nps.gov/museum/exhibits/index.html

U.S. Army
Regulations
http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/collections/CMH-ARs.htm
Army Museums, Historical Artifacts, and Art
http://www.usapa.army.mil/pdffiles/r870_20.pdf (I-10, I-11, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4-1).

Marjorie Barrick Museum of Natural History
Access Policy
http://hrc.nevada.edu/museum/Collections/accessPolicy.html

Maxwell Museum of Anthropology
Archeological Collections Management Policy
http://www.unm.edu/~maxwell/arch_collections_policy.html (VII)

MIT museum
Collections Use Policy MIT museum
http://web.mit.edu/museum/collections/policy.html#access

Museum of Texas Tech University
Collection Management Policy
http://www.depts.ttu.edu/museumttu/CMP%2012-2005%5B2%5D.pdf

Poeh Museum
Access Restrictions
http://www.poehmuseum.com/about/ab_policies_restrict.html

National Museums and Galleries of Wales
Collections Access Policy
http://www.nmgw.ac.uk/www.php/187/