Session 14: DEACCESSIONING: GOALS AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Moderator: S. Terry Childs, Archeologist, Archeology and Ethnography Program, NPS

To Dispose or Not to Dispose? That is the Question: Proper Methods for Museum Deaccessioning
Joan Bacharach, Museum Register, Museum Management Program, NPS

1. Definitions
   1. Deaccessioning - Process to remove permanently an object from a museum collection. Deaccession types such as
      1. Involuntary - Total destruction, theft, the item is removed from the books
      2. Voluntary - Premeditated, removed item off the books (such as an item repatriated and deaccessioned under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990)
   2. 5 Goals of museums are to:
      
      • Preserve
      • Educate
      • Research
      • Interpret
      • Collect
        
        
2. Procedural requirements and guidelines
   1. Rigorous accessioning, decide if you really want an object before releasing it.
      Rigorous accessioning is a better management tool than deaccessioning, deaccessioning should be rare except as required by law
   2. Good museum record keeping is essential (leave a paper trail), have full documentation. If you deaccession, can you defend yourself, and your museum, in the court of law with your records?
   3. Deaccessioning should be the role of a committee instead of an individual
   4. The Department of the Interior and the National Park Service deaccessioning rules provide a good model
   5. Written and consistently applied guidelines
   6. Must have a clear title of ownership, without a clear title you can not deaccession

Disposal of Excess Federal Collections
Norman Miller Cary, Jr., Head, Curation Branch, Naval Historical Center, Washington Navy Yard

1. Accessioning policies of the Naval Historical Center
   1. Museum started accessioning objects after WWII, and seriously started accessioning in the early 60's, 127,000 historic objects in collection
   2. A poor acquisition policy in the past (broad mission statement - the Navy acqui red objects "significant to Navy history and culture") resulted in indiscriminate acquisitions. Have an extremely high number of WWII uniforms (people always call him on their way to the dump), have guns associated with the Army not the Navy (500 Thompson submachine guns), indiscriminate pieces of ships; excepted half the property of an Admiral when he was moving, etc; careless accessioning
   
   
   
2. Deaccessioning policies of the Naval Historical Center
   1. Late 80's, early 90's developed procedures regarding acquisition and disposition - current procedures are generally consistent with those outlined by the first speaker
   2. Have deaccessioned 4500 objects in the past three and a half years
   3. Navy is allowed to quit title of material (10 USC 7545); policies are not consistent within DOD and other federal agencies
   4. When objects are deaccessioned items are given to individual, or items are thrown away
   5. Need the Curatorial expertise to examine a collection, must examine objects carefully before accessioning, or deaccessioning
   
   
   
3. Reasons federal government should follow Navy's deaccessioning policy
   1. Government can not afford to take care of all property. You can not save all objects, government has objects it does not want or need (Example a civil war site was excavated and 12,000 civil war artillery shells were uncovered. The cost to disarm one civil war artillery shell is $1000. You can not realistically keep all those shells); cost of preparation for curation is prohibitive. Government has several collections that other institutions have better reasons to care for - need to determine level of significance
   2. Before deaccession, federal government needs to clearly define what it needs for "core federal collections"
   3. To follow Navy's deaccessioning policy, you may need a change in legislation

Primal Fear: Deaccessioning Archeological Collections
Robert C. Sonderman, Senior Staff Archeologist, National Capitol Area, NPS

1. Current policies of accession, and deaccession, for archeologists
   1. Archeologists collect objects; trained in a tradition that you keep everything you find and it is all precious. Archeological artifacts are the tangible remains of our national heritage, we keep both prehistoric and historic material. It is the law. Most archaeologists do not know what accessioning is, or what it involves
   2. Material is kept with little regard to long-term storage. If objects are so precious, why do we not take better care of them?
   3. Often objects that are deemed of no scientific value, become valuable over time. Archeologists are always changing their view of how to analyze Artifacts or adding new methods to their analytical repertoire; example: oyster shells were not always kept from excavations (considered redundant) but with new technology shells contain valuable information for multiple disciplines
   4. Museum collections vs. archeological collections
      1. Museum collections have collection policies that restrict accession; archeological collections are without restrictions; considered unethical to not collect objects if they are not in the project design
      2. Archeological objects are not seen as individual objects but as a part of a context and part of a holistic interpretation
   
   
   
2. Future policies of accession and deaccession in the field of archeology
   Archaeologists need to take the lead in deaccessioning policy development and decision making - if archeologists do not address this issue as a discipline, someone else without knowledge of archeology's special considerations will do so
   1. Instead of worrying about what to deaccession, need to train archeologists to be more selective in the field and laboratory
      1. Need to train archeologists in field to sample objects for solid research goals
      2. Need written policy for collections in field and lab - must relate to research design
      3. Need to think about future collections and how to handle them; should not touch existing collections
   2. Put material of small importance in buried storage? Can have negative connotations for the public who is paying for them but can not access them