Moderator: Terri Barry, Office of Acquisition and Property Management, U.S. Department
    of the Interior, Washington, D.C.
 

Michael Hager, Executive Director, San Diego Natural History Museum, San Diego, CA
Robert Sharp, President, Robert B. Sharp Company of Colorado, Inc., La Fayette, CO

We can=t raise money for collections at our museum. Collections are at a low priority around here B they aren=t sexy enough to sell.@ Sound familiar? In fact, huge amounts of money are spent on collections and their support, and private financial support is available. Like other aspects of museum operations, collections must be viewed as part of the whole and included in strategic planning. An institutional development plan, which emerges as a strategic plan and includes support for collections, can achieve spectacular results.
 

Nicola Ladkin, Registrar and Adjunct Professor, Museum of Texas Tech University,
    Lubbock, TX

The theory and practice of preventive conservation facilitates a broad-based and holistic approach to the preservation of collections on an institution-wide basis. Preventive conservation is concerned with the stabilization of entire collections to reduce the need for object-specific conservation treatments. It is precisely this broad focus that makes it the most effective strategy for the in-perpetuity preservation of federal collections irrespective of whether they are curated in federal institutions or with other collections in non-federal institutions. Preventive conservation allows personnel to build upon ethical collections management practices to preserve federal collections in effectively monitored and controlled curatorial environments.