Table 7) Funding - Group I
Issues:
1) Endowment of collections
- Problems
with U.S. Treasury policy - no capital funds in interest-bearing accounts
2) Funding for new projects
Recommendations:
1) Lobbying efforts
for change in U.S. Treasury policy.
- Solicit
funds from private sector (fund-raising firms, foundations)
- One
time appropriation
2) Private Sector Funds
- Corporations
- Foundations
- Philanthropic
contributions
3) Check-off box on IRS income
tax forms
Table 7) Funding - Group 2
Issues:
1) Tapping into "Millenium"
funding to support curation.
2) Tapping into agency funds
for technical and education assistance to tribes.
Recommendations:
1) Tie funding arguments
to Congress to "digestible" concepts (1st grade level maybe).
2) Get a high level marketer
- Rick West.
3) Contact National Education
Association and see how their grass-roots organization creates an issue
and
markets it.
4) Also AARP (American Association
of Retired Persons).
Table 8) Education/Marketing Strategies - Group I
Issues:
1) Increase accessibility
- communicate the value of collections.
2) Increase awareness of
the resource.
3) Collections management
is not emphasized in university-level instruction in archaeology or natural
history
disciplines.
4) Provide the museum profession
with a more broad-based interdisciplinary understanding of collections
care.
5) Public education places
a low priority on access to primary resources.
6) Schools should make more
tangible commitments and policy initiatives endorsing cooperation with
custodians
of collections.
Recommendations:
1) Grant/project proposals
should include resources for ongoing maintenance of collections.
2) Make collections storage
and processes more visible to the public.
3) More emphasis in the schools
on science processes that are naturally mirrored in collections work.
4) Increase outreach efforts
to schools and workshops for teachers.
5) Employ studies of our
audiences' needs.
6) Demands for "visibility"
are not always compatible with collections care and management tasks.
7) Appeal to shared senses
of responsibility and stewardship.
8) Make the care of collections
a less "exclusive" process, involving the general audience and the people
who
identify most closely with the
collections.
9) Broad initiative to implement
technologies well-suited to education.
Table 8) Education/Marketing Strategies - Group 2
Issues:
1) How do you market
remote museums/collections? (i.e. access to areas/sites usually made by
long
drives,
train, or plane).
2) How do you target both
broad audiences or special groups at the same time?
Recommendations:
1) Utilize the web and/or
satellite technology to your best advantage.
2) Continue outreach programs
to schools- teach, teach, teach!!!
3) Initiate activity or project
- do not wait for others.
4) Partnerships should first
exist within your organization - then seek out external partnerships.
5) Turn negative situations/publicity
into a positive strategy.
Table-9) Increasing Access
Issues:
1) Intellectual property
and access (also access for science vs. commercial ventures).
2) Access of information
- electronically information infrastructure (standards, meshing systems).
3) What is increasing access?
How to convince agencies to do it.
4) Access from our own collections,
for other collections.
5) Access to outside researchers.
6) Public access (shift from
curation facility to virtual museum, outreach)
7) What have other people
done? Make our research available to others.
8) Physical access to recommend
funding, additional work needed, etc.
9) Different levels of access
- Public
- Funding
agency
- Tribes
10) How to develop funding
without knowing what accessibility issues are.
11) Other ways to increase
access.
- Traveling exhibits
- PBS specials
Recommendations:
1) Create/promote your "own
personal museum" on the web because information is linked to increase
public's access.
2) Make more information
available which requires an increase of money, information on objects.
3) Standards - agreement
on what things are called, how information is organized.
4) It has got to be an incremental
process to work in the long-run.
5) "Require" 6-10 sets of
information for each database (I like a "card catalog" - go to the "book"
for more
specific
information), i.e.: <who> <what> etc., <county> <state> etc.)
as a start to integrate massive
amounts
of information (then each individual
database could have its own focus).
6) Intellectual property,
access - scientific vs.
Table 10) Clarifying Ownership -
Group 1
Issues:
1) Native American vs. Government
ownership (definition of)
2) Tribal boundaries cross
international borders.
3) Artifact losses/limited
access due to government control.
4) Barrier to repatriation
is government concern for proper curation by tribes.
5) Difficult to repatriate
in Mexico due to lack of legislation.
6) U.S. lacks legislation
to prohibit moving collections (Native American) out of the country.
7) Ritual objects taken from
tribal lands.
8) Cultural differences in
defining ownership.
9) Some tribes do not agree
on usefulness of NAGPRA.
Recommendations:
1) Greater understanding
of cultural views/perceptions.
2) Use NAGPRA to understand
and confront cultural differences and to make progress.
3) Greater dialogue between
tribes and government.
4) Strengthen international
connections to return Native American collections to tribes in U.S. (Keepers
of the
Treasures).
Table 10) Clarifying Ownership - Group 2
Issues:
1) Identification of ownership
with respect to legality.
2) Identification of source,
i.e.: inventory/source documentation.
3) Most museums do not have
the information/provenance readily available.
4) Too many federal agencies
with overlapping requirements.
5) Different federal agencies
and people within the same agency interpreting regulations differently.
Recommendations:
1) Simplify federal level
oversight, e.g.: consolidation of reporting to one entity.
2) Resolution of ownership.
3) Acknowledgment by federal
government by providing financial support.
4) Consolidated effort by
museum community to lobby/support.
5) Avoidance of crisis mindset.