DEALING WITH THE COSTS OF CURATION: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

Moderator: S. Terry Childs, Archaeology and Ethnography Program, National Park Service,
    Washington, D.C.
 

CURATION: CAN ARCHAEOLOGY AFFORD THE FUTURE?

Lynne E. Christenson, Collections Management Program, San Diego State University, San Diego,
    CA

Many jurisdictions and agencies now require curation for archaeological collections. Can archaeology afford curation? AAfford@ in this context includes not only methodological issues like cost, time and personnel, but also theoretical issues involving sampling designs and collection strategies. This paper focused on identifying the theoretical issues involved in curation which will directly affect both field and laboratory methodologies. It is essential that the dialog begin now between the field personnel and the curation professionals, so that the archaeology profession begins to consider curation, not at the end of the project, but at the beginning.
 

 

THE ADOPTION AND USE OF CURATION FEES ACROSS THE UNITED STATES

S. Terry Childs, Archaeology and Ethnography Program, National Park Service, Washington, D.C.

An increasing number of US repositories now charge fees to curate incoming archaeological collections owned by other organizations, particularly to meet the costs of providing high-quality collections management that satisfy professional standards. Based on an informal yet systematic survey begun in 1997, this paper provided data on curation fee structures across the US and their significant variability in many aspects of the curation process. It examined the criteria used to establish and reassess fees over time. It concluded with strategies to increase understanding of why fees are justified, how they might be controlled, and why archaeologists who create collections should care.
 

 

CURATION FEE STRUCTURES AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA MUSEUMS, OFFICE OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL SERVICES

Eugene Futato, Office of Archaeological Services, Moundville Archaeological Park, Moundville, AL

The University of Alabama Museums, Office of Archaeological Services (OAS) has been providing fee curation services to a wide range of Federal, state and private concerns since 1984. The two basic elements of fee curation costs at OAS are accessioning and collection maintenance. Collection rehabilitation can also be provided. Various contractual arrangements are available to meet the need of clients. This paper outlined our fee schedule, how the fees were initially determined, and how they have remained relatively stable. The paper also detailed the services included, and described the different ways we contract these services.
 

 

STANDARDIZING REHABILITATION AND ANNUAL MAINTENANCE COSTS FOR FEDERAL ARCHAEOLOGICAL COLLECTIONS

Marc Kodack, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Louis, MO

The costs for rehabilitating and maintaining federal archaeological collections vary greatly between repositories across the U.S. The absence of standards that all repositories can use to calculate these costs has directly led to this variability and has resulted in an inability to make comparisons between repositories on the services being offered. I discuss standard categories to use for calculating rehabilitation and annual maintenance fees using data gathered from a Department of Defense project to identify potential curation partners in each state as well as rehabilitation projects performed by the St. Louis District. I then propose two standards for calculating rehabilitation costs, (1) a 1ft3 box whose contents require minimal rehabilitation and (2) a 1ft3 size box whose contents require maximum rehabilitation.