Museum of the Moving Image
Object Entry, leading to AcquisitionIntake (for possible Acquisition)
Donor contacts museum about possible donation OR museum contacts donor with a request for a donation.
If deemed appropriate for the Museum's collection, the artifact(s) is delivered to the museum (donation lot). An artifact receipt is created from a template in Microsoft Word, and issued to donor as proof of transfer of the property to museum for consideration as a donation.
The donation lot is sorted for duplicates, items in poor condition, or items that fall out of the collecting scope of the Museum. These items are returned to the donor. The donation lot is presented to the Director and/or collection committee for approval.
If the donation is approved, a complete inventory of the donation lot is made in Excel or Word (depending on number of artifacts) in order to issue a Deed of Gift.
The Deed of Gift package is sent. The Deed of Gift, created using a template in Microsoft Word, is the formal document that transfers legal ownership of the property from the donor to the Museum. The Deed of Gift package includes:
-thank you letter with instructions to donor
-two unsigned copies of the Deed of Gift
-return envelope
-mailing envelope
The Deed of Gift is returned signed by the donor and given to the Museum Director for signature. One countersigned copy is mailed back to the donor.
The other countersigned Deed of Gift is filed in the accession file. An intake record is created in the CMS which includes: donor information (managed by the name authority), an access number, the extent of the donation, the credit line, method of donation, deed of gift date, notes (for valuation and rights). Documents (such as a PDF of the deed of gift) can be attached to this record. The artifacts in the donation lot are given individual number assignments (sometimes in the CMS, sometimes into the Excel inventory worksheet). Each artifact is labeled, re-housed and assigned a storage location.
Object Entry (after Acquisition or Loan In)
Objects coming in to the Museum are generally inventoried using Microsoft Excel. These inventory sheets are attached to deeds of gift or incoming loan forms. Objects are listed on these inventory sheets at varying hierarchical levels: some in groups, others individually.
Once the donation or loan is formally accepted, the Registrar may assign object accession numbers (handwritten directly onto the Excel sheet) as the objects are processed, or the entire donation/loan may receive one number.
Accession numbers at the Museum are modeled: Year.Donation Number.Object Number, e.g. 1984.5.63. In the CMS, zeros are added to these numbers to ensure proper filing, e.g. 1984.005.0063. If the Registrar does not assign individual numbers to an object, each object is given just the first two parts (e.g. 1990.45).
Objects are then given object records in the CMS. The Museum's current CMS allows the user to create a given number of new object records based on a generic template; this feature is not used. For inventory-level only records, the artifact title, classification, and
University and Jepson Herbaria at UC Berkeley
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