Museum Management Plan

National Park Service

U. S. Department of the Interior

Kalaupapa

National Historical Park

 Cultural Resources

 Pacific West Region

 July 2006

Kalaupapa National Historical Park

Museum Management Planning Team

Jonathan Bayless, Chief Curator

Yosemite National Park

Yosemite, CA

Susan Buchel, Park Curator

Kalaupapa National Historical Park

Kalaupapa, HI

Kent Bush, Regional Curator

Pacific West Region

Seattle, WA

(Team Leader)

Carola DeRooy, Archivist

Point Reyes National Seashore

Point Reyes, CA

Brigid Sullivan, Chief Conservator

Collections Conservation Branch

Northeast Conservation Center

Boston, MA

Department of the Interior

National Park Service

Pacific West Region

2006

Kalaupapa National Historical Park

Museum Management Plan

Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan 5

Executive Summary

The Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan 

identifies a series of collections management issues facing the park and 

presents corresponding actions to address them. The park is currently 

managing an archives estimated at 137,000 items; a library estimated at 

800 titles; and museum collections estimated at 134,000 items, for an 

estimated total of about 271,000 items.

The collections have passed through a primary development phase that 

was outlined in the Collection Management Plan completed in 1983. Two 

seminal events, the addition of a journeyman-level curator to the staff and 

the construction of a collections facility, have completely changed the 

collections management and use dynamics at the park. However, the new 

program and facility lack status and definition within the park and the 

community as a whole. This should be corrected by an overall program 

identity, supported by internal protocols for collections development, 

preservation, and use, and followed by the necessary planning and 

programming for the projects, funds, and staff to move the program 

forward.

This Museum Management Plan offers recommendations for actions 

designed to take the park archives, library, and museum collections 

through the next developmental phase, leading to full program integration.
6 Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan

Key Recommendations

The key recommendations are listed here, while more detailed action 

recommendations follow each issue section of the plan.

• Establish a park-specific collections philosophy and protocols for role 

and function as well as for development; incorporate these into future 

park planning documents.

• Develop and implement protocols which direct collections growth to 

provide the information resources needed by park staff.

• Improve information management tools and access procedures that 

promote intellectual and physical access to the park archives, library, 

and museum collections.

• Institute a proactive collections preservation and conservation 

program.
Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan 7

Table of Contents

Executive Summary ........................................................................................................ 5

Key Recommendations................................................................................................ 6

Table of Contents............................................................................................................ 7

Introduction .................................................................................................................... 9

History of the Museum Collection................................................................................. 11

Museum Management Philosophy................................................................................. 17

Purpose of Museum Collections Within National Parks............................................. 17

How Collections Represent Park Resources............................................................... 18

Determining where to Locate Park Collections.......................................................... 19

Establishing Access, Use and Management Policies.................................................. 19

Professionalism......................................................................................................... 20

Issue A—Collections Development............................................................................... 23

Issue Statement ......................................................................................................... 23

Background............................................................................................................... 23

Discussion................................................................................................................. 27

Existing History Collections...................................................................................... 28

Future Acquisitions................................................................................................... 29

Proactive Acquisitions............................................................................................... 30

Recommendations..................................................................................................... 32

Issue B—Collections Preservation ................................................................................ 33

Issue Statement ......................................................................................................... 33

Background............................................................................................................... 33

Discussion................................................................................................................. 35

Preventive maintenance activities.............................................................................. 39

Recommendations..................................................................................................... 43

Issue C—Archives and Library Management ................................................................ 45

Issue Statement: ........................................................................................................ 45

Background............................................................................................................... 45

Discussion................................................................................................................. 53

Recommendations..................................................................................................... 61

Issue D—Planning and Program Development.............................................................. 63

Issue Statement ......................................................................................................... 63

Background............................................................................................................... 63

Discussion................................................................................................................. 64

Recommendations..................................................................................................... 70

Appendix A—Suggested Collections Access Policies ................................................... 73

Appendix B—Suggested Library Operating Policy ....................................................... 89

Appendix C—NPS Records Management ..................................................................... 99

Appendix D—Preparing Inactive Records for Transfer to Storage.........................105

Appendix E—Transfer of Resource Management Field Records to Museum Archives 105

Attachment A: Five Phases of Managing Archival Collections................................ 120

Attachment B: Sample Archival and Manuscript Collections Survey Form.............. 121

Appendix F—Suggested Workload Analysis............................................................... 123
8 Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan

List of Illustrations

Front cover Seamount on Kalawa Coast, Molokai

Front cover, interior Map of Kalaupapa National Historical Park

Back cover, interior "Siloama Church, or "Church of the Healing Spring," was 

originally founded in 1866 by patients exiled to Kalawao 

Settlement, Kalaupapa Peninsula. The church structure was first

erected in 1870, and rebuilt in 1880 and in 1966."

Back cover A box tomb dated 1895, now entwined in the roots of a tree, is one 

of over 1300 still visible on the Kalaupapa landscape.

Figure 1, page 16 Downtown Kalaupapa, 2006

Figure 2, page 16 The Pali, 2006

Figure 3, page 22 Kalaupapa patients’ aloha shirts in general storage

Figure 4, page 62 General storage in Hale Malama

Figure 5, page 62 Hale Malama

Figure 6, page 66 Collections processing area in Hale Malama

Figure 7, page 72 Archival boxes in general storage

Figure 8, page 98 Oversize archives in general storage

Figure 9, page 104 Unfinished storage area in north wing of Hale Malama

Table 1, page 24 KALA museum collection: numbers of objects by subject 

discipline, divided into cataloged and un-cataloged collections, 

from 2005 data
Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan 9

Introduction

Within the Pacific West Region, the Museum Management Plan (MMP) 

replaces the Collection Management Plan (CMP) referred to in National 

Park Service publications such as the Outline for Planning Requirements; 

DO#28: Cultural Resource Management; and the NPS Museum 

Handbook. Whereas the CMP process generally concentrates on the 

technical aspects of archival and museum operations, the MMP recognizes 

that specific directions for these technical aspects already exist in the NPS 

Museum Handbook series. 

The MMP process therefore does not duplicate that information. Instead it 

places archival and museum operations in a holistic context within park 

operations by focusing on how collections may be used by park staff to 

support specific park goals. This plan recognizes that there are many 

different ways in which archives, libraries, and museum collections may 

be organized, linked, and used within individual parks, and as a result

provides park-specific advice on how this may be accomplished within 

this specific unit. Where necessary, material found in the NPS Museum 

Handbook or Conserve-O-Gram series will be referenced in the text, and 

where required, technical recommendations not covered will appear as 

appendices to this plan.

Kalaupapa National Historical Park was authorized on December 20, 

1980, “...to provide for the preservation of the unique nationally and 

internationally significant cultural, historic, educational, and scenic 

resources of he Kalaupapa settlement on the island of Molokai ...”. While 

it was recognized almost immediately that this definition must include the 

personal belongings and papers of both patients and care givers, it was not 

until May 18, 1987 that the formal archival and museum collections were 

established with accession #1. 
10 Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan

For almost 20 years, the collections were inadequately managed under 

substandard conditions, and Kalaupapa residents felt that the Service was 

incapable of caring for these materials, so donations fell. These conditions 

have been reversed with the construction of a new facility and 

employment of professional staff over the past three years. This has 

allowed the park to become active in collections documentation, 

preservation and access, which in turn has stimulated both collections use 

and acquisition. The next decade promises to be very exciting for 

collections management at Kalaupapa.

The park staff and the MMP team worked together over the course of the 

site visit to develop the issue statements contained in this plan. Topics 

addressed meet the specific need of Kalaupapa National Historical Park as 

discussed during those meetings, and thus do not necessarily represent a 

complete range of collections management concerns. Most elements of 

this plan are developmental rather than remedial in nature. The 

recommendations are intended to guide the park through the process of 

creating and implementing a workable system that supports all aspects of 

park operations, while at the same time providing guidelines for the 

growth and development of the museum management program.

Members of the MMP team were selected for their ability to address 

specific needs and concerns of the park. Primary information gathering 

and the initial draft were developed over a two-week period in June, 2006.

The team wishes to thank the staff of Kalaupapa National Historical Park

for the courtesy, consideration, and cooperation extended during this 

planning effort, in particular Park Curator Susan Buchel and Cultural 

Resources Manager Jennifer Cerny. Their time, efforts, and involvement 

greatly facilitated the work, and is very much appreciated. These 

individuals obviously are dedicated and committed to the preservation of 

the park resources, and it is a pleasure to work with such professionals.
Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan 11

History of the 

Museum Collection

Kalaupapa National Historical Park (KALA) came into existence in 1980. 

Three years passed before permanent staff was assigned to any part of 

park operations, so the first decade of the park’s museum collection efforts 

were guided and facilitated with the dedication and attention of regional 

curators at the Western Regional Office and later the Pacific West Office.

In what could be considered the first museum collection efforts, Regional 

Curator Dave Forgang contracted in 1982 with Bruce Doneaux, a 

volunteer care-giver at Kalaupapa, to compile an initial inventory of 

potential museum objects found in those Hawai’i Department of Health 

buildings slated for transfer to NPS ownership. A curatorial study team, 

including Dave Forgang, Tom Mulhern (Chief, Park Historic Preservation, 

WRO), Diane Nicholson (Registrar, Golden Gate National Recreation

Area), Diana Pardue (Curator, Curatorial Services, HFC), and Mark 

Tanaka-Sanders (Museum Technician, USS Arizona Memorial), visited 

Kalaupapa for a week in late 1982 to assess the potential for collection 

management at the site and prepare a Collection Preservation Guide. The 

guide included an interim Scope of Collection Statement, 

recommendations about potential cooperative agreements with potential 

partners, and general guidance in the storage and management of 

collections should the park begin to acquire items.

In 1985, Diane Nicholson, as Western Regional Curator, wrote an initial 

Scope of Collection Statement for KALA. Nicholson returned in 1987 

with a curatorial team consisting of Yosemite Museum Technicians 

Norma Craig and Martha Lee, to begin processing the park’s first 

accession. This large donation followed the1982 Doneaux inventory. Full 

reconciliation was not possible, since five years had intervened between 

inventory and donation. 

From the first accession in 1987, through 1997, collection management 

tasks continued to be coordinated by Regional Curators Diane Nicholson, 
12 Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan

Jonathan Bayless, and Kent Bush, sending curators and technicians from 

other parks for short periods. 

In 1989, a seven-month cataloging project was funded, bringing Yosemite 

staff Norma Craig, Mark Swetland, Fermin Salis, and Martha Lee, as well 

as Yosemite Curator Rosie Pepito. Pepito returned to the park on onemonth projects for each of the next eight years. This initial push to gain 

accountability inspired additional donations and field collections from 

residents and park staff.

Collection storage presented a challenge from the start. The Settlement’s 

Jail (LCS 22635) was given over to collections, though it presented the 

environmental problems associated with old and deteriorated structures. 

With regional assistance, a Bally 14’x14’ modular building was installed 

in the Police Headquarters in 1989. Air conditioning was soon added to 

this insert, providing a more controlled environment for smaller objects, 

paper, photographs, and other media. The majority of the collection 

remained housed in the Jail cells, spaces that offered only minimal of 

shelter while allowing easy access for pests.

The park’s first historian, Sharon Brown, arranged for the museum curator 

at USS Arizona Memorial, Deborah King, to serve as KALA’s first 

curator-of-record, for .2 FTE annually. This arrangement continued from 

September 1997 until April 2001. During these years, the collection 

enjoyed more consistent care and progress. Brown, King, and Regional 

Curator Kent Bush finalized a Scope of Collection Statement in 1998.

Funding allowed for incremental improvements in storage equipment and 

storage environments. Brown and King cleaned out the back rooms of the 

Police Headquarters to provide additional collection storage space as the 

collection continued to grow, though again, this was a space lacking any 

environmental control. With project funding facilitated by Regional 

Curator Bush, the park acquired a refrigerated container to augment the 

inadequate storage spaces. Planning for renovation of the Jail into a more 

standard collection storage facility also began. 
Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan 13

King and Brown cooperated with the International Association for 

Integration, Dignity, and Economic Advancement (IDEA) as that 

organization developed a large, multi-media traveling exhibit, “Quest for 

Dignity,” that included objects from the KALA collection. “Quest” 

opened in 1998 at the United Nations lobby in New York, then traveled to 

Honolulu, Maui, and Beijing, China. The park also created a small exhibit 

for the bookstore located in the American Japanese Association (AJA) 

Hall in 1999. The exhibit attempts to show how patients have modified 

tools and equipment to enhance their daily life and some of the 

recreational activities enjoyed by patients. This exhibit, with few 

modifications, remains in place. 

Two large accessions during this time period, the Kenso Seki household 

and the furnishings from Ed Kato’s workshop, were acquired for their 

potential as sources for furnished structure exhibits and research into late 

20th century patient daily life. These large collections required the 

assistance of several out-of-park curators to evaluate, inventory, and 

remove the household goods from their original locations to temporary 

storage. 

The curator-of-record instituted the first scheduled housekeeping, 

environmental monitoring, and IPM procedures for the collection storage 

areas, and maintained records between 1998 and 2000.

The curator-of-record arrangement with USS Arizona Memorial ended 

when both the park historian and the USAR museum curator transferred 

from their respective parks. Christi Shaw served as the park’s cultural 

resource manager from December 2000 to November 2001. She

suspended most museum management functions of the park, but did 

facilitate a long-running contract with the Research Corporation of the 

University of Hawai`i (RCUH) to catalog archeological collections. 

Jennifer Cerny has served as the cultural resource manager from October 

2002 to the present. Museum management activities during this time 

included the Collection Condition Survey, the collections storage plan for 

the new facility, the purchase of large storage equipment, RCUH and VIP 

projects to continue cataloging archeological and slide collections, 
14 Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan

initiation of Stations of the Cross reproduction, and safe storage of 

originals. 

Also, after persistent lobbying with upper management, Cerny was finally 

able to get a full-time permanent curator position filled, which ultimately 

allowed the reinstatement of most museum management functions.

Plans drafted for rehabilitation of the Jail as museum storage showed that 

this structure could not be brought to museum standards. Design of an 

entirely new structure began in 2000. Consultation with the Hawai’i State 

Historic Preservation Office resulted in the decision to locate and design 

the new structure to fit within the footprint of the old Quonset hut known 

as “construction camp.” Funding was obtained, and construction of the 

structure went to contract in 2002.

Regional Curator Kent Bush visited the site in 2002 to evaluate the 

facility’s design. He also made recommendations for use of the storage 

spaces to facilitate the ordering of storage equipment and supplies needed 

to successfully move the collections. Conservators Gretchen Voeks and 

Brynn Bender conducted an initial collection condition survey in 2002 to 

provide preservation guidance and facilitate the safe move of the objects. 

During this period, at the request of the park, Voeks gave attention to 

some of the park’s most significant objects—preparing survey reports, 

cleaning, and developing conservation treatment requests for objects from 

the St. Philomena Church and for the Fresnel Lens. The St. Philomena 

Church cross (KALA1411) was treated. 

The park obtained base funding to hire a permanent GS-11 Museum 

Curator in 2003 and Susan Buchel came on duty July 2004 as the park’s 

first permanent museum management staff. The curatorial operation and 

supplies were consolidated at Paschoal Hall for a year so work could 

continue while waiting for completion of the new structure. Buchel retired 

in July, 2006.

Construction delays and building design deficiencies challenged the 

museum program from 2003 to the present time. In November 2005, the 

staff was allowed beneficial use of the facility’s south wing which 
Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan 15

contained the compactor storage cabinets, and the move of the collection 

began. The facility was blessed and named Hale Malama by the 

community in December 2005, during commemoration of the park’s 25th

anniversary. Currently, about 90% of the cataloged collection has found a 

permanent home in Hale Malama.

Two long-standing deficiencies were corrected in early 2006: staff 

conducted a 100% inventory of the collection and updated records to 

reflect the current status of objects, and the park’s Scope of Collection

Statement was updated from the 1998 version by Buchel, with the 

assistance of Regional Curator Kent Bush and Golden Gate NRA Curator 

Diane Nicholson.

The natural resource Inventory and Monitoring Program for Hawai’i

national parks resulted in increased collecting activity within park 

boundaries since 2002. Most collections have been retained at the Bernice 

P. Bishop Museum, the state’s repository of choice, with no connection to 

park museum documentation. For some time, it was assumed that since the 

park is managing state lands, the collections had no connection to the 

park’s museum program. Since the museum curator position has been 

filled in 2004, three collections have been retained at the park, including a 

reference collection of plant specimens, an invertebrate collection, and a 

small herpetology sample. Work has begun to reconcile past collection 

actions between the Bishop and KALA collectors so that the park’s 

museum records reflect the work accomplished and provide intellectual 

access to all projects. 

Backlog cataloging by Research Corporation, University of Hawai’i,

employees continued in 2005-6, including several large archival 

collections, and historical materials from many small collections. Park 

Curator Susan Buchel’s two years at KALA primarily focused on updating 

museum records, processing undocumented accessions, beginning to 

refine the collection through deaccessioning, and implementing the move 

of the collection to the new facility. 
16 Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan

Figure 1 Downtown Kalaupapa, 2006

Figure 2 The Pali, 2006
Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan 17

Museum 

Management Philosophy

The basic principles for managing museum collections in national parks 

are not always well understood. Park managers, resource managers, and 

interpreters are often too busy with their specialties and daily work to fully 

consider the concepts and logistics governing collections management. It 

is easy for parks to fall short of developing a sound museum management 

program and, as a result, not realize the full benefit and value possible 

from their collections.

This section provides the following background information about 

museum collections:

• The purpose of museum collections

• How museum collections represent park resources

• Determining where to locate museum collections

• Establishing access, use, and management policies for collections

• Professionalism in collections management

Purpose of Museum Collections Within National 

Parks

Museum collections always contain objects and specimens, and most 

parks administer their own archives and operate their own libraries. These 

functions are necessary to support the work of the organization as a whole. 

It is not unusual for these resources—archives, collections, and libraries—

also to be accessible to the public.

Within national parks, museum collections (including archives) serve four 

basic functions:

• Documentation of resources – Park collections should serve as 

documentation of the physical resources of the park as well as the 

history of the park efforts to preserve and protect those resources.
18 Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan

• Physical preservation and protection of resources – Park collections 

should help preserve and protect park resources, not only by keeping 

the specimens and collections made to document the resources, but 

also by preserving the information about the individual items and the 

resource as a whole. This is central to the management of both natural 

and cultural material.

• Research – During documentation of collections, a park performs 

research to provide the background information used in cataloging. 

The park is also responsible for making this information available to 

legitimate research, which can itself lead to new discoveries about an 

individual item, or the park as a whole.

• Public programs – The park is responsible for using its collections to 

provide information to the public. Exhibits, publications, and 

interpretive programs are traditional means of supplying public 

information, but new technology has led to other communication 

methods, including electronic access through web sites and on-line

databases.

How Collections Represent Park Resources

A park’s museum, library, and archival collections provide different 

perspectives on its resources:

• The museum collections, which contain three-dimensional objects and 

specimens, represent the resources within the park boundaries. 

Examples of museum collections include: artifacts from archeological 

activities; specimens and resulting reports from resource management 

projects; paint samples and building fragments from restoration of 

historic structures.

• The park archives should contain files, manuscripts, personal papers,

maps, building plans, and photos that document the history of park 

development and the management of park resources. Individual 

collections within the archives should further document the activities 

that created portions of the museum collections. Examples of park 

archives include: copies of field journals and maps created while 

collecting botanical specimens; photographs taken during historic 

structure work; maps and as-built drawings made during utility 

installation; and property, land, and water use agreements that 

document past acquisition and use of park lands.
Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan 19

• The park library should contain both published literature and less 

formal reports and documents relating to park resources and their 

management. Examples might include: general literature concerning 

local history, flora, and fauna; specialized scientific studies relative to 

biota and archeological resources found in the park; circulating copies 

of all park specific planning documents; and trade, craft, and 

professional journals reflecting the need for park staff to remain 

current in their field.

Determining Where to Locate Park Collections

The NPS Museum Handbook should be used as a guideline for identifying 

locations of branch or satellite park collections, and establishing 

methodologies for their documentation, organization, storage, and use.

Centrally located collections are often most effective since they promote

efficient use of space (particularly in terms of combining preparation and 

work areas). However, it may also be efficient operationally to split the 

collections among potential users (for example, the herbarium and insect 

collection going to separate branches for storage and use).

Branch or satellite collections are possible as long as proper preservation 

and security conditions are met, and the requisite work areas necessary for 

management and use are provided. Overall responsibility for 

documentation, preservation, and reporting should, however, remain 

vested in one curatorial lead position, no matter where branch collections 

are located.

Establishing Access, Use and Management 

Policies

Access, use, and management policies define who can access the 

collections (both staff and public), what types of use are possible and 

under what conditions, and how the collections should be managed. 

Desired outcomes or products should be identified as well; for example,

the types of services that are desired by staff from the collections manager. 

Some examples might include production of over-lays for buried utilities; 

production of CDs containing research done at the park; liberal access to 

botanical specimens for comparative studies; and inter-library loan 
20 Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan

services. Samples of access, use, and management policies may be 

obtained from the lead curator.

The park may wish to consider the use of focus group exercises to develop 

a number of park-specific documents, including a Role and Function 

Statement, for the combined collections. These would clearly state who is 

responsible for the development of a joint resource and how it will 

function to serve park-wide goals. Access and use policies should be 

defined and implemented. Responsibilities for development, 

documentation, and management of the resources should be defined in a 

formal position description and associated performance standards. These 

objectives must be fully defined in writing if they are to be accomplished 

in fact.

Professionalism 

The management of archival, museum, and library collections requires the 

application of three different, but related, management philosophies and 

technological approaches. These disciplines each have two components: 

technical and professional. It is possible to be proficient in either one of 

these components without being functional in the other.

The primary difference between the technical and the philosophical lies 

not only in understanding how to apply the technology, but in being able 

to determine when, why, and which technologies need to be applied in any 

given situation. This distinction and ability can be called 

“professionalism,” and it can be an illusive, difficult thing to define—

probably because most practitioners of the curatorial craft possess varying 

degrees of facility with both the technological and the philosophical 

aspects of the work.

Professionalism does need to be practiced and exercised to develop 

properly. It is better fostered by mentoring, particularly in the early stages, 

for professionalism is difficult to develop in isolation. It takes fairly

intimate association with a range of others working in the craft, so that the 

developing professional personality has a healthy range of philosophy, 
Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan 21

opinion, and action to model. Professionalism also needs to be maintained 

in much the same manner.

The management of park archives was added to park curatorial portfolios

in the mid 1980s, and increasingly, most park curators also manage the 

individual park library program. This accretion of complex duties has to 

some extent resulted from the overall loss of permanent positions servicewide, and particularly within the parks. These factors are not likely to 

improve in the foreseeable future, so park management must ensure that 

each position is filled with the best qualified candidate available.

The professional series and journeyman level for the position of park 

curator is GS-1015-11. The GS-1016 series is the technician or specialist 

series, which is not expected to operate independently from professional

oversight. A GS-1015-11 is required by qualification standards, service, 

and regional policy to manage independently a museum program and 

administer museum program funds. Parks that do not have a GS-1015-11

position on staff need to provide this oversight through the use of an 

agreement for a curator-of-record. This is a Pacific West Region 

requirement.

The curator-of-record approach to providing professional services to all 

parks is a logical outgrowth of the network system, and the reductions in 

staffing and funding that all programs are currently facing. This approach 

matches the existing resources to park-defined needs, and it has the 

support of the regional directorate and the regional professional staff. 

Park managers having a professional on staff providing required curatorof-record services for other parks need to be aware that this service 

constitutes an accretion of duties. The factor of just and adequate 

compensation for services needs to be discussed and resolved on a parkto-park, and park-to-professional staff basis. Park managers should also 

realize that curator-of-record duties may cause a reduction in services to 

the providing park that could be resolved by part-time technical help.
22 Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan

Recommendations

• Create a focus group of senior staff representing all park divisions and 

branches to define what the collections should contain, how they 

should be managed and accessed most efficiently, and what products 

should be produced upon request.

• Define the role and function of the combined collections by formal 

statement, formal access policies, and formal methodologies for 

depositing collections material, archival information, and required 

literature into the collections.

• Assign responsibility for developing and managing the joint 

collections to a single administrative unit and individual with a written 

position description and performance standards. 

• Identify possible cooperative partnerships within the park network and 

in the community with individuals and groups that hold common 

interests regarding the preservation and management of park 

resources.

Figure 3 Kalaupapa patients’ aloha shirts in general storage
Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan 23

Issue A—

Collections Development

Issue Statement

The Kalaupapa museum collection requires strategies and standards 

to guide the acquisition of collections and archives, and systematic 

efforts to build a first-rate collection. 

Background

The growth of the current museum collection has been described in the 

first section of this plan under history of the collections. Since the park’s 

establishment, the Kalaupapa museum collections have grown in response 

to the availability of materials from numerous sources, especially from 

Settlement patients and the State Health Department. Responsibilities for 

collections were assigned to park staff as collateral duties, with 

professional assistance from visiting regional and park curators over the 

years. Finally, by 2004, when a museum curator position was created, 

acquisition and documentation of collections became an on-site operation. 

During 2006, the new museum facility has come on-line and offers the 

first real opportunity to care for museum collections in a high-quality, 

protected environment. The current museum collection is summarized in 

Table 1 (on the next page) by discipline, and broken down into catalogd

and un-cataloged portions.

The collection numbers in Table 1 can help in the understanding of 

strengths and weakness of the KALA collections, but they are also 

somewhat misleading. Archeological investigations result in large 

numbers of very small fragments and chips, with subsequent high counts. 

Archives counts each page of a report as an item, with an average of 1,600 

pages in a one cubic foot box of documents. 
24 Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan

Discipline Cataloged

Not 

Cataloged

Discipline

Totals

Archeology 95,665 7,000 102,665

Ethnology 72 0 72

History 14,094 14,627 28,721

Archives 31,039 105,906 136,945

Biology 401 2,443 2,844

CMR Data

Paleontology 0 0 0

Geology 3 0 3

Totals 141,274 129,976 271,250

Table 1 KALA museum collection: numbers of objects by subject discipline 

divided into cataloged and un-cataloged collections, from 2005 data

Beyond the view of simple counts, by volume the collections are primarily 

historical, with archives and archeology well represented. These three 

disciplines are expected to remain the majority of collections well into the 

future. The biological collections, very important in their role as vouchers 

of the park’s biota, will be a collection type with slow and steady growth.

Many of the historical items came to the collection with preservation 

problems, and most were stored in substandard, less-than-ideal 

environmental conditions, sometimes leading to further physical 

deterioration. In addition, often records of their origins were either not 

kept or became disassociated from the objects themselves. Nevertheless, 

many of the collections remain in good condition with clear records of 

their history and association, so vital to their interpretation as museum 

artifacts. 

The new museum facility now provides the park with good quality 

museum storage and work space. It also has adequate capacity for new 

additions to the collection for the foreseeable future, unless numerous 

large assemblages of materials are added wholesale. Understanding the 

projected “time-to-capacity” for any museum facility is fundamental for 

planning and acquisition purposes. Any additional space needs should be 

dealt with in future years by constructing additional space, and 

recognizing the need in time to do the necessary advance planning, budget 

building, and construction. 
Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan 25

Natural history collections (in this case, primarily biological collections) 

have since been developed. The majority is stored off-site at the Bishop 

Museum and the University of Hawai’i. Some of the Inventory and 

Monitoring specimens have been conveyed to the Bishop Museum for 

permanent retention, a step that meets the long-term interests of both 

parties. A small collection of on-site herbarium specimens and marine wet 

specimens have been developed for on-site reference.

Archeological collections located at the park and off-site appear to meet 

federal and NPS standards for their development under the auspices of 

archeological mitigation and investigation projects. 

The following evaluation method, called “Collection Evaluation 

Protocols,” was developed by Kent Bush, Brigid Sullivan, Deb King 

(Curator, USAR), and Rosie Pepito (Curator, LAME) during a 2002 site 

visit to KALA for evaluation of a large assembly of materials from two 

patients. During this visit, the team performed an initial assessment of the 

materials and made a preliminary selection of items the NPS would retain. 

While the overall approach of these protocols is sound, each question still 

requires a substantial amount of interpretation. Depending upon the 

narrow or broad approach of the evaluator, few or many materials may be 

accepted into the collection.

Collection Evaluation Protocols for Cultural Material at Kalaupapa 

National Historical Park 

Considerations of the following questions is recommended when evaluating 

cultural material for retention in the archives and museum collections of the park:

• Is the item significant exclusive of context? [Examples are original works by 

known artists or memorabilia signed by notable persons.]

• Is the item significant due to the individual who made, collected, or used it?

• Is the item significant as part of an assemblage or organized collection? (An 

example is archeological material.)

• Is the item representative of life ways or specific cultural or belief systems of 

the owner?
26 Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan

• Does the park have a current or projected need for this item for use in an 

exhibit or furnished historic structure?

• Is the item duplicative? [Examples are boxes of empty food jars or stacks of 

paper cups.]

• Is the item a potential hazard to staff/visitor health and safety? [Examples are 

canned food, pressurized containers, paint, and oil.]

• Has the physical condition of the item deteriorated to the extent that the item 

is no longer useful for documentation or exhibit?

There is no set score for retention as opposed to disposal. In general, a ‘yes’ 

response to any of the first five statements would indicate the item is a candidate 

for retention, while a ‘yes’ response to the last three statements would indicate a 

candidate for disposal. (kb revised 6/21/02)

The May 2006 SOCS shows that much thought and effort went into

creating a useful, viable document that guides the park in its acquisition,

especially for its history collections. It recognizes the need to evaluate the 

degree of representation of any given period, person, material type, or 

activity in the collection. The strengths and weaknesses within the 

collection are described, and the gaps identified. It also discusses the 

limitations of the ability to store and care for collections. At the end of the 

SOCS, Section 7 discusses an acquisition strategy for 2006 for the history 

collection. It sets forth specific criteria for evaluating whether potential 

collections should be acquired and ends with a table titled “History Object 

Acquisition Scale” that characterizes the five criteria from high to low 

values for acquisition, and gives some examples and definitions. 

Given the progress visible with the revised SOCS, additional tools can be 

developed to guide the development and growth of the KALA museum 

program. This issue attempts to create a plan that will establish a sound 

professional approach for the program.
Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan 27

Discussion

Kalaupapa NHP is a special environment that embodies a unique history 

and a wonderful sense of community, culture, and place. A living 

community of Hansen’s disease patients to the present day has meant that 

historic buildings continue to be used, and everyday artifacts, photographs, 

commemorative objects, and documents continue to be acquired, used, and 

enjoyed. In short, a rich material culture is still present. This poses a 

challenge to the park to develop guidelines to avoid over-collecting, if an

approach is used that views everything on-site as suitable for inclusion in 

the museum collection. The past tendency to ‘collect it all’ needs to be 

reassessed, as the limited ability to store, preserve, and document museum 

objects may have allowed harm to occur as lower-value items also claim

precious resources.

The park’s newly drafted Scope of Collection Statement (SOCS) defines 

the intent of the park collections and attempts to direct and limit the 

growth of collections, a great improvement to the lack of specific guidance 

in the previous SOCS. It also discusses how the new criteria can be 

applied for culling materials from the existing collection and removing

inappropriately accessioned materials. Some of those materials are in

untreatable, unstable, and corroded or fragmentary condition; they lack

documentation; or they are redundant, commonly available late 20th

century everyday items. The MMP team whole-heartedly supports this 

need, and would go even further in the attempt to purge the collection of 

materials that detract from the quality and significance of the park’s 

collection.

The development of the collections for the disciplines of biology and 

archeology appear to be fitting and modest in the anticipated volume of 

future growth. The archival collection and library holdings are discussed 

under Issue C. 
28 Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan

Existing History Collections

The collection protocols given on the previous page and the current SOCS

help refine guidance on evaluating new and existing collections. The first 

logical step is a re-evaluation of existing collections, including those in 

storage at all locations, applying stricter criteria than those used in the 

past. While the SOCS and collection protocols suggest a possible filter for 

decision-making, this MMP recommends as explicit an approach as 

possible be developed. For the purposes of culling the current collections, 

materials that should be considered highly suitable for deaccessioning can 

be defined as:

• Items with no documentary record of source of accession or 

original ownership, whether located on the artifact (tag, label, 

inscription) or documented as oral information in a report or record.

Examples include baseball bats, suitcases, tools, etc. Most of these 

items cannot even be shown to have originated from Kalaupapa (even 

though for most it is highly likely, the uncertainty is still a very 

negative factor).

• Items in very poor condition, especially those items that are useful 

primarily for future exhibit use. In many instances, one would not 

want to exhibit items in deteriorated condition as they would never had 

been originally used. Examples include highly soiled and torn hospital 

gowns, rusted operating equipment, heavily termite-damaged wood 

household items.

• Items that are mass-produced and common throughout the 

industrial world, and add nothing to the Kalaupapa story. Examples 

include razor blades, matches, tools, kitchenware, clothing.

• Items represented in large numbers of identical units. It is 

understood that some duplication in small numbers for smaller objects 

is desirable to allow for exhibit rotation and loans. Examples include 

hospital cups, razor blades, gummed file labels.

Once items are identified as suitable for culling, it is essential that the 

items be inventoried and documented before any further disposition. The 

inventory must be checked against any possible records already in ANCS+ 

(if unprocessed, or disassociated from its accession and/or catalog 

number). Such documentation should include the following information:
Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan 29

• Description and dimensions

• Accession/catalog number, if applicable

• Manufacturer names, models, or serial numbers

• Photograph (optional depending upon object)

• Basis for culling

Culled materials that have been documented must be disposed of through 

appropriate means and methods to ensure that professional and 

management ethics and requirements are met at the highest level. If any 

difficult or questionable decisions are encountered, the park can seek 

assistance from the regional curator and other expert museum 

professionals. 

Future Acquisitions

The attention and investment necessary to build high quality museum, 

archive, and library collections should not be underestimated. Perhaps no 

other area of museum programs is as vital to the long-term success of 

meeting the park’s mission for preserving and interpreting the material 

culture and documentary record. The park has completed the construction 

of Hale Malama, and it represents a significant investment in providing 

quality space for the museum collections. The program will benefit from 

an investment in strategic planning on the purpose, role, and function of 

the Center (as discussed in Issue D on Planning and Program 

Development). 

In instances where the park has evaluated potential collections and decides 

against acquisition and retention, the recordation of these materials using 

the same methods discussed here for culling collections will create a 

permanent record of the recent modern material culture remaining on site.

The evaluation process for new acquisitions should follow the revised 

SOCS, and use best management practices of professional museum 

disciplines to make assessments of acquisitions. When materials are ready 

to be accessioned, the following actions should be undertaken:
30 Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan

• Accession documentation should include a description of the 

evaluation process and, in particular, what values and significance 

justified the acquisition. Values can range from general purposes

(exhibit, research, historic value, or institutional identity) to very 

specific values (one-of-a-kind, a series complement, relating to a 

specific person, building, or event). Documenting what values are 

considered important should be done on the Accession Receiving 

Report and in ANCS+ using the significance field.

• Notes on specific items, if unique from the assemblage of materials, 

should immediately be recorded. Often, cataloging occurs months or 

years after materials are acquired. If information is not recorded about 

specific objects and the rationale behind their acquisition and 

significance, it risks being lost.

• Acquisitions that constitute a systematic effort should be described. 

Examples include working with another institution, group or family 

over time leading to a series of accessions, or a series of purchases 

targeting specific materials.

• As observations, evaluations, location, and identity of outside 

collections are discovered, and overall lessons are learned, they can be 

recorded in a folder or journal that will provide useful information for 

future SOCS revisions and collections managers in general.

Proactive Acquisitions

The park will continue to be offered historical objects and archives from a 

variety of sources, and will need to exercise judgment and tact in its 

appraisal of such offers. The creation of a museum curator position has 

allowed the program to proactively seek out important acquisitions. At the 

same time, as the work on Hale Malama is completed, and the correction 

of past acquisition problems is addressed, the park can expand its 

proactive search for collections and archives that enhance its museum 

collections.

Efforts to locate high quality materials should use a variety of strategies, 

including discussions with patients, their families, current and former 

employees, church employees, and others. Institutions such as the Damien 

Museum, the Bishop Museum, state and federal archives, and historical 

societies can be sought out for their information and artifact holdings 
Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan 31

linked to Kalaupapa’s natural and cultural history. Most of these 

institutions have already had extensive interactions with the park and its 

staff, and these relationships need to be continued and strengthened. By 

sharing finding aids, new information, and research, institutional bonds are 

developed and maintained, developing partnerships and a sense of 

community.

As Hale Malama is completed and becomes fully operational, the program 

and park would greatly benefit by holding workshops on its mission, 

vision, goals, and functions. Participants could include appropriate park 

staff, outside museum partners, community representatives, regional and 

other park museum professionals. The complexity of technical and public 

issues involved should be recognized; both separate and combined 

meetings for museum staff and public participants would allow for 

targeted issues of concern to be addressed by the suitable mix of 

participants. As an alternative for formal workshops, informal discussions 

can be used to develop draft statements that can be shared and reviewed to

seek feedback and concurrence. But given the crush of day-to-day 

activities, workshops best allow vital discussions and concurrence to take 

place that are hard, if not impossible, to duplicate otherwise.

Kalaupapa NHP and Hale Malama represent the commitment of the nation 

to preserve, honor, and interpret the rich land and culture contained within 

Kalaupapa. Hale Malama can be developed into a sterling museum facility 

that serves as a focal point for bringing together people, knowledge, and 

collections. With good planning, acquisitions, and partnerships, it could 

reflect the very best of National Park Service and Hawaiian tradition and 

innovation.
32 Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan

Recommendations

• Continue coordination and planning with archeology and biology 

programs, managing collections both on- and off-site.

• Re-evaluate existing history collections using strict criteria to ensure 

that materials have high significance, applicability, and good condition 

suitable for retention in the collection. 

• Cull materials rejected on the basis of inappropriate inclusion in the 

collection. 

• Document culled materials to provide a record of what has been 

removed from the collection.

• Develop acquisition criteria that refine the selection process. 

• Document accession evaluations and significance of any specific 

objects as a component of all accessions. 

• Develop a system to document acquisition sources, strategies, 

evaluations, collection gaps, and other useful information.

• Hold workshops and strategic planning sessions to explore the vision 

for Hale Malama. Incorporate results into its scope and its collections.
Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan 33

Issue B—

Collections Preservation 

Issue Statement

A strong museum preservation program is essential to ensure the 

integrity and survival of collections and archives for future use.

Background

Construction of the Hale Malama museum storage facility marks a 

watershed moment for collections preservation at Kalaupapa National 

Historic Park. Although the north side of the structure is not yet complete, 

most of the museum collections that had been stored in significantly 

substandard locations throughout the park were moved to the completed 

climate-controlled south wing of Hale Malama by May, 2006, along with 

the curator’s office, curatorial workroom, and park library.

The north wing offers a mirror-image footprint for additional storage of 

collections. It also includes a separate room to serve as a receiving area for 

inspection of in-coming collections, freezing infested collections, and 

washing and processing archeological material and other collections as 

needed before moving them into the clean storage areas. The park hopes to 

complete the north wing in 2007-2008, and a fee-demo proposal is under 

review.

Gathering park collections in one purpose-built location presents an 

unprecedented opportunity to evaluate and refine the entire collection for 

the first time since collecting material culture of the Kalaupapa Settlement 

began in 1987. In the past, the park has deaccessioned superfluous lab and 

hospital equipment and seriously deteriorated objects during 

reconfiguration of previous storage in the Bally Building. The Seki and 

Kato collections received a preliminary cull when they were organized and 

packed for storage in the refrigerated container. However, centralization of 
34 Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan

museum storage makes it possible to systematically inspect all the objects 

in the collection. They can be evaluated not only in the context of the 

Scope of Collection Statement, but also with reference to redundancy 

within the collection, integrity, and to present condition and survivability,

thus creating a coherent and purposeful permanent museum collection. 

In anticipation of the long-planned move to the new centralized storage 

facility, a Collections Condition Survey was prepared by WACC 

Conservators Gretchen Voeks and Brynn Bender in 2002, which included 

an assessment of the overall condition of the collections by material type 

and recommendations to improve storage conditions in the future. Brynn 

Bender returned to KALA in 2005 to direct and instruct staff in packing 

techniques and in curatorial-level cleaning techniques to prepare the 

collections for the move. 

The primary conservation focus of the park continues to be on preventive 

conservation concerns such as pest control issues, environmental tracking,

and routine maintenance of museum areas. A draft Museum Housekeeping 

Plan has been prepared that addresses housekeeping, IPM, and 

environmental monitoring programs. It also includes additional facility 

concerns that are normally outside of the scope of curatorial museum 

maintenance activities such as security, fire suppression and detection, and 

maintenance of building utilities. Remedial conservation of museum 

objects has been confined to the on-site conservation treatment of the 

original iron cross from Saint Philomena Church in Kalawao by WACC 

conservator Gretchen Voeks in 2002 and the removal and cleaning of the 

original 1890s-era “Stations of the Cross” chromolithographs from the 

interior of St. Philomena’s. 
Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan 35

Discussion

With the new curatorial building and creation of a full-time curator 

position, the museum program is poised to emerge as a strong player in 

cultural resource management at Kalaupapa National Historical Park.

Current Status of Storage

The Carrier HVAC system in the south wing is equipped with reheat 

capability to regulate relative humidity. Conditions within the storage 

room generally range between 68 to 72°F and 50-60% relative humidity 

(RH) which is entirely appropriate for the sturdy vernacular furnishings, 

personal possessions, and household objects that constitute the bulk of the 

KALA collections. The 2002 Collection Condition Survey documented 

the general condition of collections by all material types present, and the 

major causes of deterioration were nearly always traceable to high relative 

humidity. This promotes a high rate of insect and mold activity destructive 

to organic and synthetic materials, and a high rate of corrosion of metals 

accelerated by the salt-laden atmosphere of Kalaupapa, which promotes 

the electrolytic corrosion process. 

Long-term exposure to conditions of high relative humidity can hydrate 

mold spores to the point where they can actually fruit in conditions below 

the generally accepted mold threshold of 65-70% RH. However, signs of 

mold activity in the Hale Malama storage room were primarily limited to 

evidence of past infection in the form of staining of paper and textiles. 

Objects originally stored in the Bally building were subject to constantly 

high RH and rampant mold growth in the 80 and 90% range for several 

years before air-conditioning was installed in 1990. Installation of a 

dehumidifier in 1995 lowered conditions far below the mold threshold to 

25% RH. Although this low level was unacceptable for organic material 

that had equilibrated to a high moisture content over the years, the low RH 

had a positive effect on reducing mold and insect activity as well as 

lowering the rate of metal corrosion. Before moving collections into the 

south wing, all objects were superficially cleaned and frozen for pesteradication to maintain a secure environment for long-term storage. Even 

with the past condition history of the objects, a wide-scale mold infection 
36 Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan

is unlikely to occur in the new storage room and future outbreaks should 

be detectable with routine examination.

However, the enormously significant collection of photographs, film, and 

magnetic and digital media documenting life in the Kalaupapa Settlement 

requires colder and drier conditions for long-term preservation than the 

moderate climate maintained in the storage room. Ideally, these materials 

now present in several museum storage units should be consolidated into a 

microclimate vault and maintained at RH between 30 and 40%. 

Re-use of the Bally building was originally considered to store the 

unstable metal collection which would profit from the low RH% and at the 

time of the site visit, briefly for possible storage of the photograph and 

media collection. The north wing is equipped with electrical hook-ups for 

installation of this or similar self-contained air-conditioned storage units. 

However, it is probable that the 20-year old Bally building has outlived its

useful life. More than likely, the foundation of the metal-clad structure has 

corroded to the point that moving it may cause further damage and 

compromise the structure to the extent that maintenance of a microclimate is no longer possible. Twenty years is about the life-span of these 

structures, and the park should consider building a permanent storage 

vault within Hale Malama to accommodate the photo and media 

collection. A dedicated climate control system should also be installed in 

the vault to maintain the specialized stable environment required for the 

long-term preservation of these complex materials. 

Although the vault may be constructed in either storage wing, location in 

the south wing against the front wall entrance of the room now occupied 

by empty specimen cabinets and two large map cases has advantages. 

Placement of the microclimate vault against an inner wall in the climate 

controlled wing is more energy-efficient, and although the park is 

planning to scan archival materials to make copies for researchers and 

staff to use, placement of the vault in the south wing is more convenient to 

the adjacent curator’s office, workroom, and library. 
Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan 37

As the Hale Malama facility continues to develop, the park plans to move 

collections that remain in the following locations to the completed north 

wing:

• Refrigerated container (boxed Kenso Seki and Ed Kato household 

collections)

• Bally building (miscellaneous materials moved from the Jail in May 

2006) 

• Jail (furnishings and items too large for the Bally Building) 

• Paschoal Hall (boxed contents from the Seki and Kato garages)

Although most of these collections have been through a preliminary 

evaluation which eliminated the retention of hazardous materials (for 

example, paint cans, fuel, pressurized aerosol cans, medicine, insecticides,

and objects in an advanced degree of deterioration having significant 

material loss), the collection should be further evaluated with stricter 

selection criteria before placement in the permanent museum collection as 

discussed in Issue A. When the collections to be included in the museum 

collection have been identified, storage space needs can be estimated for 

the north wing. 

The north wing has been designed to accommodate a large footprint for 

compactor shelf and pallet storage for which tracks have already been laid. 

Depending on the amount of material that passes through the Scope of 

Collection filter, the north wing may prove to have more space than is 

needed to house the collection, especially considering that the south wing 

storage room is only about half full at this time. 

In the ten-to-twenty year forecast, the major collections growth area will 

be primarily archives rather than objects, furnishings or natural history, 

and will be at a rate of about three boxes a year. Acquisition of additional 

large complete household collections from residents is not anticipated, 

although pending acquisition of a disassembled 2nd order Fresnel lens now 

stored in a shed at the Coast Guard lighthouse may create a need for 

storage of this large item. But there is ample room for this as well as for 

Saint Philomena objects such as the Queen Liliuokalani organ and the 

conserved iron cross in its large customized microclimate storage case. 
38 Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan

At this point, the curator has the opportunity to evaluate all space use 

issues in terms of both storage and related museum activity needs before 

the collections are completely moved into the Hale Malama north wing. 

These issues include but are not limited to:

• Design of a microclimate vault for photo/film/media collections.

• Placement of natural history collections with reference to their access, 

use, and maintenance.

• Configuration of the room in the north wing designated for mixed-use 

compatible functions such receiving, examining, and processing (basic 

cleaning) in-coming collections, pest-control freezing treatments, and 

processing archeological collections from the field prior to moving 

collections into the secure storage rooms.

• Additional computer-equipped office areas needed to augment NPS 

presence in the building and to accommodate related cultural 

preservation activities and research needs such as List of Classified 

Structures (LCS) activities. 

• Provision of a separate enclosed clean space for curatorial and archival 

storage supplies and equipment.

• Best use of library with reference to needs of park staff and visitor 

users.

Suggested actions to address these issues include:

• Building a microclimate storage vault in the south wing as discussed 

above (funded for FY 07 and FY 08, MCPP).

• Placing natural history wet specimens and the herbarium cabinet in the 

curatorial workroom so staff can access the collections without

entering the museum storage room. Actually, it is not necessary to 

store wet specimens in a flammable cabinet. Wet specimens are often 

stored on open shelves, but because the room is also used for curatorial 

activities, a standard GSA supply cabinet can be used to enclose them 

in the workroom. 

• Possibly reinstating the deleted wall on the library side of the central 

office area to help define and separate functions. The wall can be fitted 

with windows for visual access to the entrance area, and, as per the

original design, can be fitted with ductwork to support airconditioning.
Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan 39

• Framing a room between the receiving room and the storage area for 

clean dedicated storage of curatorial supplies.

• Creating one to three office areas for cultural resource management 

activities along the exterior wall in the north wing adjacent to the 

kitchen / restroom area leaving the double door access route open from 

the receiving room to the storage area beyond.

Preventive Maintenance Activities

Environmental Monitoring

At the time of the site visit, environmental monitoring was wellestablished with HOBOTM data loggers set at 24 minute intervals and placed 

in the following locations:

• Hale Malama south wing (HMS) 

• Hale Malama office areas (HMO)

• Bally building

• Refrigerated container (CONT)

• American Japanese Association (AJA) ( two exhibit cases)

• Lighthouse garage (Fresnel lens)

Data is downloaded monthly and records of external climate-related 

events are maintained. Comparative records are kept of outside conditions 

via a data logger sensor placed outside Hale Malama. 

Monitoring environmental conditions in museum areas is established as a 

central part of a comprehensive preventive maintenance plan. Monitoring 

records inform the curator about the success of maintaining a climate 

appropriate to preservation of the museum collection. Monitoring is a 

crucial activity for areas served by a climate control system, chiefly 

because of the need to track the system’s performance and evaluate its 

ability to perform within the conservation standards for preservation of the 

collection. It will also detect drift from set points, mechanical 

malfunctions, and extrinsic structural problems detectable through analysis 

of the charted data. 
40 Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan

If an area has no passive or mechanical climate control systems, it is 

sufficient to gather a climate profile of one year to establish general 

conditions in that particular area to inform curatorial decisions toward

disposition of museum objects. If climate control is introduced, then 

continuous monitoring should be started. Given these guidelines, after 

obtaining a year’s data, it is really not necessary to monitor conditions 

continuously in the AJA, lighthouse garage, or the office area of Hale 

Malama. The diagnostic utility of strategic monitoring lies in the ability to 

see cause (mechanical) and effect (climate) through continuous monitoring 

in real time. If monitoring records from the climate-controlled areas of 

Hale Malama indicate divergence from set point conditions, the recording 

intervals should be changed to 5 minute intervals. This would more 

closely approximate real time and produce more accurate diagnosis of 

mechanical malfunctions and extrinsic events which could destabilize the 

storage environment. 

Both the Housekeeping Plan (or Museum Preventive Maintenance Plan) 

and the Integrated Pest Management Plan should be stand-alone 

documents, although routine and scheduled procedures such as trap setting 

and inspection should be included in the housekeeping schedule for 

museum areas to ensure their completion. 

Integrated Pest Management

Along with the tropical environment of Kalaupapa comes an army of 

insects and rodents destructive to the museum collections. The 2002 

Collection Condition Survey provides a brief history of sporadic past IPM 

actions taken by the former USAR curator-of-record as early as 1998; 

funding of a formal plan was discussed with the lead curator but was not 

completed. The present curator has now developed a substantial IPM 

section in the draft Housekeeping Plan that provides a more detailed 

history of past IPM actions including the fumigation history of VikaneTM 

(sulfuryl fluoride) treatment to structures in the park by professional 

contractors. The draft documents current IPM actions such as pest 

eradication of collections by freezing and by heating prior to moving 

collections into Hale Malama.
Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan 41

Application of lethal heat treatments for pest eradication is a complicated 

issue and much has been written about its effectiveness and appropriate 

use in various situations. To be effective, treatments must be designed in 

reference to the biology of the insect and the tolerance of specific 

materials to temperature and relative humidity manipulation. Without that 

input, heat treatments as applied to collections at Kalaupapa to date may 

not have been effective, and might actually have endangered collections 

by exposing them to condensation within the enclosed blanketed and 

plastic wrapped pile. Diurnal conditions of heating and cooling would 

certainly serve to enhance the condensation cycle effect. The heat and 

moisture dynamics within the plastic covered pile may serve more as an 

incubation chamber more destructive to the object material rather than to 

the pests. 

Objects too large to be treated in the park’s chest freezer could be treated 

in a large walk-in freezer unit which may be available at no cost from the 

government military excess property unit in Honolulu. 

Careful attention has been paid to preparation of objects before moving 

them into the collection storage room, but wide gaps around doors to the 

outside could be given temporary door sweeps as simple as flaps made out 

of blue painter’s tape. If the door is not routinely used, the gaps can be 

covered with tape until the poorly set doors can be reset. 

Like any other physical treatment to objects, it is imperative that any 

applied pest control treatment, whether freezing, heating, or fumigation be 

noted in the museum object’s record.

The procedural steps and concerns outlined in the draft IPM section 

indicate that the KALA IPM Plan is well on its way. 

Conservation Treatment Needs

As mentioned in the Background section of this issue, remedial 

conservation treatments have been limited to the Saint Philomena or 

Stations of the Cross chromolithograph series (surface cleaning and 

facsimile reproduction). Following treatment completed in 2002, the 

Father Damien cross was wrapped in MarvelsealTM and packed in a 
42 Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan

specially made box equipped with Art-SorbTM silica gel reservoir drawer 

where it has been recently moved from the Paschoal Hall to the Hale 

Malama north wing. It has not been opened since it was packed, and the 

silica gel has not been renewed. However, the WACC conservator is 

scheduled to return to KALA in August 2006, at which time the cross 

should be inspected and photographed. 

Conservation treatment records are crucial documentation for long-range 

preservation of objects. That includes any curatorial-level conservation 

treatments as suggested in the Standard Operating Procedures developed 

by WACC, particularly the washing of iron artifacts. Washing metal is 

generally more complicated in its implications than the SOP indicates, so 

perhaps the park should reconsider including it in the curatorial-level 

“toolbox” of appropriate treatments. 

After all the permanent museum collections have been identified and 

housed in Hale Malama, a Collection Conservation Survey should be done 

to identify conservation needs including any specialized survey needs such 

as photograph and film archival collections. 

Digital and magnetic media 

A few obsolescent and/or deteriorating media formats in the park will 

need to be migrated so they may be preserved and made accessible. Park 

staff should consult Conserve O Gram 19/8 “Preservation of Magnetic 

Media.”

Items such as videocassettes, audiocassettes, compact discs, and digital 

images should be evaluated by an archivist as discussed in Issue C to 

determine their value. Items with appropriate evidential or informational 

value should be migrated, and items without appropriate value should be 

discarded once inactive. Visual media should be transferred to DVD, and 

audio media should be transferred to CD. 

The advising archivist should assist the park in developing a migration 

plan standard operating procedure (SOP). It should explicitly state when 

the CDs/DVDs are to be migrated in the future, what software the current 

files are in, and what hardware is needed to use these digital files. The 
Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan 43

SOP should identify and procure the needed software and hardware to use 

these digital files. The plan also needs to incorporate park digital images. 

Bronze Memorial Plaques

The bronze memorial plaques fall between the cracks in traditional 

designation of maintenance authority. It is crucial to the preservation of 

these significant historical objects that they be cleaned and coated on a 

scheduled basis to protect them from continued deterioration by air-borne 

salts and water, which promote rapid corrosion and material loss. The 

bronze memorial plaques should be initially treated by a conservator, and 

then maintained by park staff on a set schedule recommended and 

demonstrated by the conservator. 

Recommendations

• Prepare a PMIS Project Statement for a Collections Condition Survey 

to serve as a foundation for a priority-based conservation program for 

the next five to eight years. (MCPP)

• Prepare a PMIS Project statement for a specialized survey of the 

photographic/film collections. (MCPP)

• Prepare a PMIS Project Statement for an archivist review of recorded 

magnetic and digital media for identification of viable data which must 

be catalogd. (BACCAT) 

• Prepare a PMIS Project Statement Plan for design and construction of 

a microclimate vault for long-term preservation of the photo, film, and 

media collection in the south wing of Hale Malama. (MCPP)

• Remove the SOPs on heat treatments and washing metal from the 

Museum Maintenance or Housekeeping Plan.

• Improve strategic placement of data loggers in the Environmental 

Monitoring Plan, and consider purchasing at least one multi-channel 

data logger to simultaneously record conditions inside the south wing 

of Hale Malama and conditions outside the building with a remote 

lead. 

• Acquire a walk-in freezer unit for use in treating large objects for pest 

control. Freezer units may be available at no cost from the government 

military excess property in Honolulu. 
44 Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan

• When available, incorporate WACC grave marker survey data in the 

LCS record.

• Arrange for conservation treatment of the bronze memorial plaques by 

a conservator with specialization in outdoor metal sculpture. Laura 

Gorman, a Professional Associate of the American Institute for 

Conservation of Artistic and Historic Works, is based in Hawaii and 

has experience treating outdoor sculpture. The park may wish to 

contact her at 45-302 Mealele Street, Kaneohe, HI 96744, (808) 234-

3118 for on-site examination and treatment proposal. Treatment 

proposals can be reviewed by the regional curator. 
Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan 45

Issue C—

Archives and Library Management

Issue Statement:

Preserving and providing access to information in the park archives 

and library will facilitate management of all park resources and 

provide research opportunities.

Background

This chapter identifies critical and long term preservation needs of the 

archival collections, park records, library, and information resources held 

in the curatorial complex at Kalaupapa National Historical Park. 

Additionally, it addresses the importance of securing permanent or 

temporary staff that is qualified to apply professional standards to archival 

resources. Within the National Park Service, these information resources 

comprise a framework of unique institutional memory, document park 

resource management, and serve as a repository for the history of the 

Peninsula and Kalaupapa Settlement. Preservation requires safeguarding 

the physical integrity of the material through repair, restoration, 

maintenance, and protection of archival collections. Management of 

archival collections, as distinct from individual objects, warrants 

specialized training and adherence to professional practices that protect 

the collection’s relational integrity and create access to its content. 

Archival collections are defined here as primary source materials that 

include historic documents, manuscripts, maps, plans, drawings, art, 

scrapbooks, albums, rare books, park administrative history and resource 

management records and reports, oral histories, photographs, film, and 

other audio-visual resources. Published materials such as library books, 

journals, reprints, reports, CD-ROMS, and clippings comprise the park’s 
46 Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan

library collections, which will be discussed in more detail in a later 

section.

Preservation

Six federal laws provide the basic legal mandates for managing museum 

collections, including archives, in the NPS. Legislation began with the Act 

for the Preservation of American Antiquities of 1906, and continued with 

the Organic Act of 1916, the Historic Sites Act of 1935, the Museum 

Properties Management Act of 1955, the National Historic Preservation 

Act of 1966 and the Archeological Resources Protection Act of 1979. 

Together these mandates laid the foundation for the protection and 

preservation of historic resources, including sites, buildings, objects, 

associated records and reference materials. National Park Service policies 

and guidelines implementing the above mandates and other regulations are 

contained within DO#28: Cultural Resources Management Guidelines, 

DO#24 NPS Museum Collections Management, and the NPS Museum 

Handbook, Vol. I-III.

A major improvement to the preservation of collections occurred during 

the past year with the move of archival collections to the new Hale 

Malama collection storage room. For up to 15 years previous to that time, 

and in many cases longer, the archival collections and library materials 

have been stored in conditions where they suffered from prolonged 

exposure to numerous agents of deterioration. Ever-present high humidity, 

generally high temperatures, light, mold, exposure to damaging insects 

and pests (silverfish, termites, and cockroaches), and chloride present in 

the sea air have previously threatened and damaged these resources. These 

conditions and effects on paper and other archival materials were detailed 

in the report, Kalaupapa National Historical Park, Collection Condition 

Survey Site Visit, conducted by Gretchen L. Voeks and J. Brynn Bender 

in 2002. 

Similar effects of environment deterioration were noted in a trip report 

sent to the park superintendent by Archivist Carola DeRooy in August 

2005, after the park administrative history and resource management 

records were accessioned into the collection. Original records were 
Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan 47

extracted from numerous rust-eaten office file cabinets containing 

corroding and crumbling metal file fasteners and rusted paper clips 

adhering to the materials, along with insects and frass. Records printed on 

thermal fax paper were faded and unreadable. Photographic materials 

found at that time were also compromised and damaged by pests and 

improper storage. 

These extreme environmental conditions present some of the most 

difficult challenges that can be faced in the preservation of archival 

materials. Not all park units must battle against such forces. The 

completion of the climate controlled Hale Malama curatorial facility 

should be hailed as a major achievement towards preservation of this 

unique collection. The archival collections document the park’s rich 

natural biodiversity, cultural history, the land’s successive inhabitants, and 

the changes brought about by the establishment of the Settlement for 

Hansen’s Disease that brought Kalaupapa to the world’s attention. 

Status of Archives

The NPS recognizes the important tasks of treating and managing archival 

materials in accordance with professional archival principles and best 

practices. 

Archival methodologies provide guidance in the appraisal process, in 

which the collection’s relevancy is weighed against the Scope of 

Collection Statement. It is also judged for inherent and/or secondary value

and collections are documented to assume legal custody. These are 

followed by decisions on collection arrangement, cataloging, and 

describing collections, all processes in which professional archivists have 

received specialized theoretical and practical training. The basic steps of 

this process are outlined in “Five Phases of Managing Archival 

Collections” (Appendix E, page 120) from the NPS Museum Handbook. 

Notably, archival collections require stages of processing and description 

to preserve or create an arrangement of the materials which either protects

or establishes the creator’s relational values. This process protects their 

order and integrity, and makes them fully accessible for later research.
48 Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan

Since collections were first documented at KALA in an inventory list in 

1982, hands-on curation of archival collections has been sporadic. 

Between 1987 and 2004, teams of visiting regional and park curators, 

museum technicians, historians, resource managers, archeologists, and 

VIPs worked in small increments to document, store, organize, catalog,

and monitor the archival collections to the best of their ability. Susan 

Buchel began work in 2004 as the first FTE park curator. In just two years, 

she has succeeded in both documenting the work preceding her arrival and 

prioritizing archival collections management tasks to be done. In 2005 she

attended a training course at the Western Archives Institute in California, 

increasing her understanding of archival collection management. 

As recorded in the museum program’s 2005 Collections Management 

Report, the number of cataloged park archival holdings is 31,039. 

However, 12,002 archival items or about 38%, including documents, 

photographs, maps, and plans accessioned into the collection remain 

uncataloged. These figures do not represent additions to the collections 

made in FY2006. Neither do they represent the time and expertise required 

in the preparation of finding aids, as distinct from cataloging, necessary to 

create intellectual access to the collections. 

Currently, the curator receives the most requests for use of maps, plans,

drawings, and photographic material. A priority of the collection 

management plan is to enhance the existing catalog records and create 

finding aids or databases that make the collections searchable. Methods of 

achieving this level of control are addressed in the following discussion 

section.

The curator has increased the number of archives collections cataloged to 

33 of 64 as of summer 2006, with the assistance of several archivists and 

temporary staff working under her direction. She has realized that the 

larger more complex archival collection projects require an advanced level 

of professional archival skills. So in February and August, 2005, Archivist 

Carola DeRooy, from Point Reyes National Seashore, worked for a total 

of five weeks in the park on two details. She assisted the curator with 

planning and then returned to appraise, catalog, and create a finding aid to 

the first accession of administrative history records from all the Kalaupapa 
Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan 49

park offices and programs (accession KALA-177). In addition, the 

museum hired Project Archivist Caroline Larson for 2005-2006 through a 

cooperative agreement with the University of Hawai’i (.25 FTE). She

processed and created finding aids to several large collections during her 

term.

The curator also employed two museum technicians for a year in 2005 

who assisted her in re-housing and treating archival material to prepare for 

the move. Concerned about properly transferring archival materials to the 

new facility, the staff systematically re-housed in acid-free storage boxes 

and treated by freezing all the archival collection material, including

oversize maps and drawings. All were then moved into the Hale Malama

collections room, proceeding carefully to avoid contaminating the clean 

storage area. 

The park intends to refill the GS-11 journeyman curator position that will 

be left vacant by the retirement of the present curator in August of 2006. 

The park may be able to employ a curator who also has extensive 

knowledge of archival science. If not, the park may want to consider 

continuing archival work in the short term by relying on details to the park 

by archivists from other park units, or by contracts and cooperative 

agreements. 

For archival work to progress, the staff should consider consulting with a 

professional journeyman level archivist to continue the identification of 

projects, and prepare scopes of work and budgets for project statements. 

The archivist could assist the curator with overall planning for complex 

projects, create specific work plans, and identify the level of skill 

necessary for carrying out the various tasks in the plan. 

In the absence of any base increases to Cultural Resources at the park, a 

long-term strategy the park might consider is locating an archivist-ofrecord from within the NPS and formulating an agreement to fund a 

number of pay periods each year for the service. This relationship would 

provide continuity and a deeper understanding of ongoing issues, and 

would allow the two professional collections experts to coordinate work 

plans and long term goals.
50 Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan

Collection Access

NPS guidelines and KALA park planning documents (see Bibliography) 

provide collection goals in three major categories: The People, The Place,

and The Disease (Hansen’s Disease). In addition to collecting activities, 

the park’s goals are to use the collections to support education and 

interpretation activities, and to make the collections accessible for staff, 

academic, and public research. 

Until recently, the majority of the archival collection material has been 

physically and intellectually inaccessible. Research has relied on the 

personal knowledge of the collections by the curator to recommend or 

locate items they could use. The improved access to the content of 

collections along with the construction of the curatorial facility is bound to 

usher in a new era of potential collection users. “Build it and they will 

come,” even to a place as remote as Kalaupapa, is an adage proven true 

time and again. The issue for the park now is obtaining a skilled staff 

which can facilitate continuing archives work, collection access, and 

research requests by the staff, the community, and academic researchers.

The creation of access to the archival materials is accomplished by 

providing a physical space where they can be securely studied, and by 

creating intellectual access through finding aids, inventories, guides, 

databases, and indexes to their content. Archives require policies and 

protocols for collection handling and use because of their complexity, 

relational nature, and multiple formats. Since the archives had been 

inaccessible until the recent past, the curator has not yet created a 

standardized system for registering staff and researcher’s requests and 

tracking collections use. A helpful guide to creating forms and procedures 

for these processes can be found in Appendix A, Collection Access 

Policies. 

The sensitive nature of patient privacy creates a concern whether 

collection material that should be restricted will be identified clearly by 

the staff in advance of use. Restrictions may exist on access and/or use of 

some of the intellectual property in the collections. Of particular note are 

the oral history interviews with patients without releases, and protecting 
Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan 51

the rights of patients who are depicted in photographs documenting 

Hansen’s Disease. An effort should be made to identify more clearly such 

materials. Special labels or indicators should be used on boxes and folders 

containing these materials to alert staff when collections are requested. In 

addition, notes about the restrictions, whether they are for a period of time 

or whether access to the material requires a written request to the curator 

for permission, should be noted in accession files, catalog records, and in 

the finding aid. 

Library

The park had no organized or cataloged library prior to 2004. In the fall of 

that year the curator, with the help of the NPS Regional Library staff in 

Seattle, added over 500 titles to the NPS Voyager web-based library 

catalog. The curator consolidated and organized the books and park 

reports on shelves and in cabinets in the Cultural Resources corner of the 

Bay View Office. That office is not climate controlled or locked, so the 

library materials have been subject to pest damage (primarily gecko 

excrement, silverfish, and cockroach damage), extreme humidity, and 

possible loss. 

Magazine and journal articles with relevance to Kalaupapa were cataloged 

into the NPS supported Procite bibliographic database software. About

thirty articles, primarily on cultural topics, were entered in 2005. The 

reprint articles were placed in a vertical file, but the curator has not had an 

opportunity to continue this process because of the museum move. The 

Natural Resources staff has indicated they have many articles they would 

like to add to the collection. The curator should also work with the staff to 

enter bibliographic information for appropriate resource articles in the 

NPS NatureBib web catalog. Also, digitized documents can be uploaded 

to the NatureBib site, providing full content access. 

The library was moved to Hale Malama in June of 2006. Although this 

move greatly improves security and access to library materials, the lack of 

climate control and of procedures and operational guidelines needs to be 

addressed. Recommendations for protection of the library are discussed 
52 Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan

below. Suggested library operating policy guidelines can be found in 

Appendix B.

Records Management

National Park Service records provide official documentation of the 

physical and cultural resources of the park as well as the history of the 

park’s efforts to preserve and protect those resources. NPS-19 Records 

Disposition Schedule provides the park staff, the record creators, a means 

to classify and identify permanent records, and delineates which records 

an archivist should further review to determine their long-term value to the 

park. Park records require organization and protection by their creators

until they are inactive and ready for transfer to the archive, at which time 

they require some documentation.

In the process of interviewing staff in 2005, when offices were surveyed 

for the first accession of park records, the visiting archivist noted the 

staff’s lack of familiarity with NPS-19 and absence of knowledge about 

the life-cycle of permanent records destined for the archives. Although 

numerous staff members have committed themselves to the retention of 

management and resource records, much confusion and lack of direction

remain. The responsibilities of staff for identifying and submitting inactive 

records to the archives have not been established within the park. 

One way for the small staff at KALA to address ongoing submissions of 

inactive or retired records is to communicate the museum’s plan to acquire 

records at regular intervals, once every year or two years. Each program or 

office would be notified beforehand asking staff to consolidate their 

submissions. Appendix D, “Preparing Inactive Records for Transfer to 

Storage,” provides guidance for both the park staff and the curator to 

accomplish a well-documented transfer of appropriate materials to the 

archive. 

Records management training is available to NPS employees, on-line at 

www.mylearningmanager.com, through TEL classes, and in-person 

training inside and outside of the service. The NPS service-wide records 

officer can be contacted for more information about courses and reference 

material needed to perform records management activities. 
Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan 53

In addition, the museum program is just beginning to discuss procedures 

with the KALA Inventorying and Monitoring Program and the research 

permit coordinator. In the chapter on Natural Resources there is more indepth discussion of standardizing procedures of cooperative review and 

record keeping among the park staff, permit coordinator, and the curator. 

Inventories and permits may generate collections and/or records of 

specimens, objects, and related field notes, maps, reports, and subsequent 

published materials necessary for a complete record of scientific research 

activities in the park archives and library. Appendix E, “Transfer of 

Resource Management Field Records to Museum Archives,” outlines a 

more specific SOP for archeology and resource management field records. 

Within this SOP, the “Project Identification Sheet” (page 116) is useful for 

collecting the metadata about the records creators, the project, and it’s 

related materials.

Discussion

A critical task in the new facility is vigilant preservation because of

extreme environmental climate conditions at KALA, and past damage to 

objects and archives. The highest level of care should be undertaken 

during processing, housing, and storage of archival materials. All metal 

staples, clips, and folders or binders with metal fasteners should be 

removed. The use of mylar and plastics for encapsulating paper and 

photographic items should be kept to a minimum in this collection as they 

are quickly distorted by humidity and heat and interfere with the natural 

hygroscopic ability of paper to absorb and release moisture. All paper 

items should be stored in acid free boxes with lids or in drawers and 

cabinets, and examined routinely for pest infestations. Implementing 

vigorous environmental monitoring activities, maximizing climate 

regulation, and IPM monitoring will ensure that forces of deterioration are 

slowed or kept in check. 

Protecting Collections

As they fully evaluate all of the potential risks to collections inherent in 

the new building, the museum staff should make every effort to complete 

and implement the draft Housekeeping Plan. Since the middle portion of 
54 Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan

the building containing the offices, library, and reference area has only a 

screened open-window breezeway for air conditioning and it’s doors will 

be frequently open, it is critical that good housekeeping be established in 

that area. This will improve the odds that records, photographs, and 

historic document collections brought out to be worked on or used are

subject to minimal risk of re-introducing insects or other contaminants into 

the collection room. 

It would be possible to extend the zone of climate control into the office 

and reference room area. Although all of the rare books have been 

relocated to the temperature-controlled South Wing, the park should make 

it a priority to provide air conditioning to the reference and office room to 

better protect the library, museum files, and computers holding museum 

data. The extreme amount of corrosive salt in the air is very hard on metal. 

At KALA, a standard file cabinet in a room lacking air conditioning will 

rust through in a matter of a few years. As the information repository for 

the park, the information held in the library and museum computers should 

receive the highest level of protection possible. 

The South Wing collection storage area is equipped with an HVAC 

system that regulates temperature and humidity in that zone. The system 

has a back-up 200-gallon diesel generator that automatically starts within a 

minute of a power outage. The generator self-tests regularly and shuts 

down automatically when the power returns. Frequent power outages 

occur on the Peninsula and thus far the system has proven reliable, 

keeping the temperature in the collection room between 68-70 degrees and 

the relative humidity at an average of 55 per cent. As the staff acquire 

more monitoring data and become familiar with how the weather outside 

affects the temperature and Rh in the new building, they should strive for 

more ideal conditions in the collection room—less than 68 degrees and the 

humidity at 40-50%.

Preserving Magnetic and Electronic Media

Along with paper documents, various machine-readable records in the 

collections hold important archival data. These include magnetic media,

analog video and audio cassettes, and reel-to-reel tape. Electronic media 
Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan 55

hold digitally-formatted information: diskettes, CD-ROMS, DVDs, and 

digital audio and video. Their inherent vice and relatively short-term 

obsolescence puts these irreplaceable recordings among the most at-risk in 

the collections. 

These media are particularly sensitive to degradation and failure. Dust, 

heat, and high relative humidity are the enemies of machine-readable 

records along with sodium chloride interacting with their metallic layers. 

Dust scratches tape surfaces, obscuring information and clogging the 

magnetic heads used to read them. Heat may cause the plastic film of the 

tape to distort, changing the recorded pattern and scrambling information. 

Heat can also deform plastic parts inside a cassette, preventing the tape 

from moving from one reel to the other. High relative humidity can 

degrade the binder that holds the magnetic information particles on the 

tape and encourage mold to grow. Ideal long-term storage conditions for 

these items would be very cool and dry (50o F and 20% RH). While such 

conditions may not be realistic, temperatures should not exceed 70o F, and 

if possible, the relative humidity kept below 40%. Every effort should be 

made to keep temperature and relative humidity levels constant.

Accessing the content of these media is another issue. Most tapes, unless 

transcripts are available, are minimally labeled as to the subject content of 

their recording. The curator has identified over 200 audio cassettes and 

reel-to-reel tapes cataloged into the collection, with none to minimal 

description of their content. She has estimated that roughly half the tapes 

might contain music, conversations, interviews, or recordings of events 

generated within the Settlement. 

Backup copies are the best insurance for protecting valuable tapes. In the 

event of media aging or a natural disaster, a copy may be the only means 

available to retrieve information from a master that is no longer playable. 

To prevent the loss of information, a copy master should be created from 

the original tape. This copy master would be used only when making 

another use copy. A second set as back-up in the event of a local natural 

disaster should be sent off-site to PISO, the Oakland NPS Regional Office,

or the Seattle NPS Library. Tapes in particular have a short-term 

obsolescence. An effort should be made to request funding and to recruit 
56 Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan

interested volunteers to provide transcription services. This does not need 

to be done at the park, but could serve as an internship project or other 

community service. 

The present condition of color film and other sensitive magnetic media 

should be evaluated by an archivist or conservator and considered for cold 

refrigerated storage to improve their longevity. This inspection of the 

media should determine their condition and whether they are still 

functional, to help prioritize preservation and reformatting options. 

Another issue concerning the tapes is protecting the privacy rights of those 

people interviewed. If individuals on audio tapes or video can be 

identified, the material can be reviewed with them and release forms might 

be obtained, even if time-sensitive conditions of restriction must be put on 

their use to protect living persons for a specific period of time. 

In 2005/2006, the archivist at the University of Hawai’i began dealing 

with Accession KALA-18, an example of the complexity of managing 

these material types. This collection is comprised of over 60 oral history 

interviews of patients conducted by Anwei Law in the 1980s, including 

tapes, bound volumes, and patients’ releases. Several sets of the interviews 

exist in different formats and the archivist, after some considerable effort,

was able to construct a run of the tapes that are considered “originals,”

although the set is incomplete. Currently, this media is being stored in the 

media safe and would be a primary candidate for the backup processes 

mentioned above. 

Reformatting to digital is another option, but the digital copy should be 

created for ease of access, not preservation. Digital formats are highly 

unstable and have a short life span; however, they can be easily 

duplicated. Tape is more stable than digital formats and provides a voice 

or picture that cannot be transmitted by transcription. But at the present 

time, transcription of the content printed on acid free paper and stored in a 

favorable environment will far outlast the both tape and digital media 

available.
Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan 57

Access to Documents and Photographs

In the past, because of sporadic collection management and the absence of 

a qualified archivist, images and documents in the collections were 

cataloged into ANCS+ using individual catalog numbers for each 

document or image. Some 900 individual prints, 50 negatives and 2,700 

slides have been cataloged in this manner along with over 3,000 

documents. This practice fragments the collection into parts making it 

more difficult to understand the context of the collection as a whole. 

Cataloged by various individuals, the descriptive content of each item 

varies in the record, and is not practicably searchable in the ANCS+ 

database. 

Finding aids, which can be generated from the ANCS+ archives module or 

other Word document templates provide such context with the inclusion of 

administrative and descriptive information about the collections origin, 

history, and the specifics of the material. They describe, in more detail, the 

collection as a whole at the collection, series, folder, or item level. The 

creation of finding aids for collections already cataloged individually, 

including several patients’ papers, the Kalaupapa Stamp Club, and the 

American Japanese Association would greatly improve intellectual access 

to their content and relate them to other objects and collections. The 

creation of these guides is critical to providing access to collection content 

for the purposes of research by staff and others.

The Procite database software is another access tool available for 

searching collections by subject or keyword terms across many records. 

Descriptive cataloging, describing what an image is and what it is about, 

provides the most useful indexing and keyword searching for retrieval of

content. For example, “This is a picture of James and Mary Smith in 

Holland. It is about the trip they took in the riverboat, Fair Lady, seen 

behind them, during their escape from the Nazis during WWII.” But it is 

also about the ship and buildings in the background, which no longer exist 

and the entire scene on the dock, including German soldiers in uniforms, 

which the photo also captures. Often secondary research values in 

photographs are the most helpful. Researchers can derive information, 

particularly if the photo date is reliable, of such as things as the existence 
58 Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan

of certain plant life, buildings, and other background aspects of photos 

which were originally created for an entirely different purpose. 

Several empty databases were created in Procite with appropriate fields for 

the purpose of describing individual photos or groups of images. The 

curator intends to populate this database for searching the content of 

photographs and another for descriptive information on oversize maps, 

plans, and drawings. Once this is begun, a guide to field entry should be 

created, using the Procite manual as a guide to standardize data entry 

among catalogers, creating rich and consistent records. 

Another method that other parks have used to provide browsing of 

historical photo collections is done by making good xerox copies of print 

images and arranging them by subjects in binders. These copies can be 

available in the library for general reference. Organizing the copies of 

images by subject brings together all the images on a specific topic where 

the originals are physically scattered in many smaller groups throughout 

the collections. This provides an opportunity to recognize where the 

collections are rich and in which areas they are lacking. 

Possible ways to organize the copies are by geography, places, structures, 

people, events, organizations, families, or other themes. Subcategories are 

also useful, arranged by date or other logical groupings. A catalog number 

can be penciled on the image verso to facilitate retrieving the original or 

accessing the record for more information. Volunteers and technicians can 

work at this duplication process over time, and new images can be added 

as part of the cataloging process. 

Potential Users 

There are several audiences of potential users of KALA archives. It has 

been difficult in the past for outside researchers to come to Kalaupapa, 

given the complex logistics of sponsorship, transportation, housing, and 

meal accommodations. Yet, the persistent have come despite those 

barriers. The archival collections contain many primary resources suitable 

for thesis/dissertation level research. The curator has reported that in just 

the past year, a half-dozen academic and private researchers have been 

excited to hear of the new facility and the potential for increased access to 
Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan 59

collections. Word spreads through academic communities. When they feel 

prepared, the museum staff should be supported by management to plan 

outreach activities informing the various user audiences about the 

resources and encourage their use. 

Two other user groups need not travel to gain access to the archives. The 

first, park staff, may soon wonder how they got along without the park 

archive and library. Books, articles, administrative and resource 

management reports and records, personal papers, clippings, photographs,

and reference materials are centralized and becoming more accessible 

through databases and finding aids. Staff and visiting partners/contractors 

and researchers in biology, geology, historic structures, archeology, 

anthropology, and so on will be able to take full advantage of the 

information resources available if the staff is able to accommodate them.

The Settlement’s patient-residents, their friends and family are the second 

audience which has shown great interest in the steps the park is taking to 

make the collections accessible. Understanding the standards of care to 

which the museum operations are dedicated always stimulates people to 

donate their items as well. The park benefits, as well as the patientresidents themselves, by having a centralized place in Hale Malama where 

their stories and memories can be shared and be protected yet accessible in 

perpetuity for others to discover. 

Information Management

The varied resources consolidated in the Hale Malama curatorial facility—

objects, specimens, documents, maps, resource and historic records, and 

library materials—are a rich storehouse of information. Cataloging and 

creating finding aids is a step in making them accessible. However, the 

museum staff is the contact point for entry to the portals of information. 

When a facility exists, staff and community will wander over to take a 

look. The staff might consider setting hours for reference, so they have 

blocks of time to work uninterrupted on other tasks.

Reference requests can require a considerable amount of staff time. This 

includes working with outside researchers as well as other staff to 

understand their requests and point them toward the best resources, 
60 Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan

according to their need. Requests vary from a staff member trying to find 

an old report referenced in another document, to filmmakers looking for 

historic still shots, to the dissertation student searching for new un-mined 

primary sources. Assistance in fulfilling these requests is the work of the 

museum staff, along with documenting the requests, registering the

researchers, retrieving and putting away materials requested, and 

recording the various items used. 

In addition, when key information is located, there is often a request for 

duplication through photocopying or scanning. In setting up a reference 

room, the staff will also need to address whether they can provide such 

services. The NPS Museum Handbook (Vol. III, Chapter 4) provides 

guidance on establishing duplication services, setting up cost recovery 

accounts, providing schedules of charges and accepting payments. The 

staff time for duplication, researching copyright, correspondence, and 

other steps are factored into charges and assist the museum with 

recovering costs incurred for providing these services. 

As more documents and images are digitized, the museum staff should 

create a systematic method of storing and retrieving these digital assets. 

They must also be managed as parallel collections. They should be stored 

where they are backed up on a server regularly or on an external hard 

drive, CD-ROM, or DVD. File naming conventions should be established 

and a record kept of which print images have been digitized. NPS 

standards for scanning can be found on the NPS Focus website 

(www.nps.focus.gov). Large numbers of high resolution scans also require 

computer space and their storage should be discussed with IT managers to 

determine where in the system they are best stored and protected with 

room to expand. An external hard drive connected to a museum computer 

is another option. 

Use the NPS Identity graphics brochure template to create a handout 

describing the resources available to researchers, as well as hours and 

terms under which research can be conducted. Post the same information 

on the park website.
Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan 61

Recommendations 

• Secure project funds to provide professional archival planning and 

oversight to archival projects. 

• Locate professional and graduate student archivists to prepare 

collection indexes, inventories, finding aids, and enhanced catalog 

records that will provide intellectual access to staff and other 

collection users.

• Design and inform resources managers and administration of a 

systematic approach for reviewing and submitting permanent records 

and reference materials into the archives and library on a regular 

schedule. 

• Prioritize the reformatting of multi-media materials for preservation 

and access.

• Establish an environmental monitoring program, regular 

housekeeping, and an IPM program to mitigate conditions in 

collections storage and maintain the best possible preservation 

standards for archival materials. 

• Develop standardized forms and procedures for recording research 

requests and providing duplication services.

• Explore the possibility of providing housing for a library internship or 

VIP to assist in keeping the library work updated and entering data 

into Procite and NatureBib. 

• Make available archival training courses and records management 

courses for curatorial staff.

• Request funding for transcription and duplication of oral history 

interviews.
62 Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan

Figure 4 General storage in the south wing of Hale Kalama

Figure 5 Hale Kalama, curatorial facility
Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan 63

Issue D—

Planning and Program 

Development

Issue Statement

A recognizable identity and strong programming will facilitate 

successful resource preservation and protection while stimulating 

enlightened use.

Background 

While Kalaupapa National Historical Park was authorized by Congress in 

1980, formal museum and archival collections were started only in 1987. 

For almost twenty years material was gathered and warehoused in the 

former community jail building, with curatorial services being comprised 

mostly of infrequent visits by the western regional curator and park 

curators from the mainland. Some collection items and related information 

was lost over the years because of the hostile natural environment and 

poor documentation. So a general perception arose among Kalaupapa 

patients that the National Park Service was unable to adequately care for 

the collections, and donations tapered off. In 1998, a Memorandum of 

Understanding was put into effect with the USS Arizona Memorial for 

curator-of-record services, which dramatically improved the storage 

conditions and documentation for the collections. A professional level 

(GS-1015/11) museum curator was hired in 2004, and a newly constructed 

curatorial facility was dedicated in 2005.

After languishing with relatively little care and attention for twenty years, 

the combination of a new curatorial facility and a professional level 

position in charge of the combined archives, museum collections, and 

library located in the park has abruptly reversed the dynamics associated 

with these resources. The collections have been moved into this new 

facility, and the processes of documentation and preservation are well 

under way. This provides the opportunity for the staff and the collections 
64 Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan

to change from a reactive to a proactive mode and to begin to provide the 

services expected of professionally documented and maintained resources.

Discussion

The processes for this transition involve establishing a recognizable 

identity; programming the necessary activities, plans, and staffing required 

to initiate and maintain desired services; and the development and 

maintenance of outreach programs.

Program Identity

The first step in establishing a recognizable identity came during the 

dedication of the curatorial facility structure in December, 2005. During 

the ceremony, the Hawaiian phrase “hale malama” (the first word means

“house” and the second word means “taking care” or “preserving”) was 

used. Since that time the phrase has come into general use among the park 

staff and community alike, so the structure is generally known as “Hale 

Malama” rather than “the curatorial facility.”

Use of the designation Hale Malama should be encouraged as a way of 

connecting the present day activities of the facility to the traditional 

Hawaiian concepts of care and preservation, and as a method of 

developing a unique identity for both the building and the program it 

houses. The staff should then enlarge upon that initial concept by the 

addition of a few descriptive words that would serve to identify the 

function of the facility to non-residents. Some examples might be “Hale 

Malama Reference Center” or “Hale Malama Resource Center” or “Hale 

Malama Heritage Center”. Whatever name is selected, the building should 

be signed with that identity as part of the scheduled site clean-up, 

restoration, and landscaping.

An intellectual framework for Hale Malama should also be developed and 

documented to identify and codify the basic operational concepts and 

methodologies to be used. These may include:

Mission Statement – succinctly stating the overarching reasons and 

purposes for creating the center.
Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan 65

Program Goals – defining the products, outcomes, and benefits that are 

expected to result for operations.

Functions – outlining what work tasks, jobs, and activities will be 

required for each program goal to be successful.

Identification and Roles of Primary Partners – defining how joint 

needs will be identified, and how joint decisions will be made, and any 

legal responsibilities, restrictions, and liabilities.

Service to Clients – identifying the expected clientele and the expected 

needs of each, and any limitations on the number or type of clients, and 

what constitutes good service to each.

Standard Operating Procedures – defining the methods and processes 

that will be used to accomplish the necessary tasks and work, including 

opening and closing procedures; security; emergency operations; 

preventative maintenance; how any tours are to be conducted and services 

rendered; how incoming materials are to be processed; and so on.

Programming

This basic documentation will outline the ideological parameters of Hale 

Malama, and provide the internal structure necessary for its acceptance 

and recognition, as well as the internal structure necessary for effective 

operations. Using this basic documentation, the park staff will be able to 

further identify operational components that would be necessary for Hale 

Malama to become functional at different performance levels. These levels 

will generally be limited by available space, available staff, available 

funding, or some combination of these factors.

Since the availability of resources in terms of space, staff, and funding will 

limit the performance level of the facility at any given point in time, these 

factors become the basis for the planning documents and funding requests 

necessary to increase those resources. This documentation may include:

Strategic Plan – defining current performance limitations and providing a 

methodology for bringing Hale Malama to the next desired level.
66 Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan

Assessment of Needs with Partner Organizations – providing avenues 

for sharing the vision with other organizations that may be able to help 

with staff, expertise, joint funding, or by providing actual resources to 

accomplish joint objectives.

Operations Formulation System (OFS) Request – identifying the park 

staffing needs and increased base funding needs.

Project Management Information System (PMIS) Requests –

necessary for identifying both short-term and continuing-project needs.

Figure 6 Processing area, south wing of Hale Kalama

Specific Project Planning 

At the time this plan was developed, the park was listing thirteen Project 

Management Information System (PMIS) statements relative to the overall 

Museum Management Program at the park. About half of these project 

statements document a continuing approach to reducing the catalog

backlog at the park. No substantive changes are suggested here, but just a 

reminder that the annual request for Backlog Catalog funds needs to agree 

with the Collection Management Report for the same year.
Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan 67

The remaining half of the PMIS statements document the work required to 

complete and furnish the new curatorial facility, along with a few 

statements specific to necessary planning needs. These are pointed toward

the second Museum Management Program specific funding source, the 

Museum Collection Protection & Preservation Program (MCPPP). To a 

certain extent, these PMIS statements lack overall program direction, and 

are functioning mostly as place-savers in the park and regional multi-year 

program. Rather than create a laundry list of suggested program request 

titles, the park is referred to the existing list in the Automated Checklist on 

the Automated National Catalog System, and/or the list of projects in the 

NPS Museum Handbook.

It is unfortunate that the funding sources within the NPS that are available 

for museum collections are so few in number. The two museum programs 

mentioned above (MCPPP and BAC-CAT) are tightly defined, and parks 

are limited to a single request per year in each funding source. The 

Cultural Resource Preservation Program (CRPP) is open to all requests 

dealing with cultural resources; however, parks are also limited to one 

funded request per year from this source. Each park is also allowed one 

multi-park project in addition to park-specific projects, so such 

cooperative joint projects might be a way to pull extra projects into the 

network.

Each of the specific cultural resource disciplines has funding components 

in the combined NPS multi-year call for projects. Each discipline should 

be considered a funding source for Hale Malama project needs. Knowing

the responsible program managers in the regional office on a first name 

basis can be useful; ask for advice concerning funding possibilities.

Other options are also available. For additional staffing, one NPS option is 

the intake program, which seeks to diversify the service employee base by 

providing professional training and work experience. The funds for this 

program come from a separate non-park based account during the term of 

the training plan. The program brings on staff at the GS-5 level, and at the 

end of two years training program they are expected to be qualified for 

vacant positions at the GS-9 level in the series for which they have been 

trained. Both the GS-1015 (curator) and GS-1016 (technician) series 
68 Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan

would be good for this program since the park has a full journeyman level 

professional to mentor the training. 

In addition, a number of graduate programs may provide interns to do 

professional-level museum project work under the direction of on-site 

professionals. These include the University of Hawai’i and the University 

of Washington (museum study programs), Western Washington 

University in Bellingham (specific to archives), the John F. Kennedy 

University in San Francisco, and library programs at San Jose State 

University and the University of Washington. The University of Nevada at 

Las Vegas has a public history program which is developing internships 

that might also provide students. The NPS has a cooperative agreement in 

effect with the National Council for Professional Education. There are also 

two distance and/or on-line museum masters programs available through 

George Washington University and the University of Oklahoma. In 

addition, the American Institute for Conservation maintains a current list 

of conservation training programs that could also be a source for intern 

project work.

The park may wish to explore some non-traditional sources of funding for 

the museum programs. The Save American’s Treasures program (see 

www.cr.nps.gov/hps/treasures) provides grants “...for preservation and/or 

conservation work on nationally significant intellectual and cultural 

artifacts, and nationally significant historic structures, and sites. 

Intellectual and cultural artifacts include artifacts, collections, documents,

sculpture, and works of art.” This program requires matching grants for all 

projects, which may be in cash or donated services at the start of the grant. 

A good partner for grants of this type would be the Arizona Memorial 

Museum Association (AMMA).

The National Endowment for the Humanities (www.neh.fed.us), the 

National Endowment for the Arts (www.nea.fed.us), the Institute for 

Museum and Library Services (www.imls.gov), as well as other granting 

agencies (such as the Getty Foundation) might also be interested in 

providing funding for various cultural projects, particularly considering 

the location, theme, and history of the park. While the park might not be 

able to receive grants directly from some of these agencies, these grants 
Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan 69

open the possibilities of partnerships with various non-governmental 

organizations.

Development of Outreach Programs:

In formulating a successful strategy for the identification, codification, and 

development of Hale Malama, the staff should be aware that a holistic 

view of current and future needs, coupled with a consolidation of 

resources in logical ways, is required to present the unified approach that 

is required in these times of limited resources.

The concept of outreach programs to Hale Malama may be either internal 

(within the park, within the region, within NPS) or external (includes all 

other agencies and individuals). In either case, these cooperative programs 

are necessary to the realization of Hale Malama objectives, and these 

programs must be presented to the prospective partner as avenues to 

accomplish both separate and joint objectives. Several scenarios have been

discussed with the current staff, and the following are presented as 

examples:

Shared staff with other park divisions – ONPS/program/project funds 

are often insufficient for the employment of term and permanent staff for 

specific duties. The inventive park staff should be alert to the possibility of 

hiring for joint duties, and be willing to describe and fund joint positions. 

One example would be the employment of a biological technician with the

skills to also catalog herbarium specimens and/or see to the identification 

and maintenance of spirit-preserved marine collections. A second example

might be the employment of a maintenance technician for grounds work 

who could also do cleaning and basic preservation of historic furniture.

Preservation Loans – This method of providing security and preservation 

for important informational collections is already in use at the park. It 

involves the acceptance of such collections to protect them from 

accidental or environmental destruction. One of the possible trade-offs that 

should be discussed with a potential lender might be permission to copy 

historic photographs and documents for immediate or future inclusion in 

the Hale Malama collections.
70 Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan

Resource Sharing – An example of this might be the inclusion of the park 

library catalog and listing of archival holdings (finding aids) with the 

county and/or state library system. This will increase the recognition of 

park collections as research adjuncts to these other collections. With 

enough interest in these materials, joint funding for micro or electronic 

duplication could be found.

Professional Associations – The KALA curator is one of the few NPS 

professional positions in this series in the Pacific Islands. The 

corresponding non-NPS professional community is also fairly small, but 

the basic professional organizations and support groups are in place. 

There is a role in these associations for NPS professionals in the 

promotion of common support and funding requests commonly not 

available to NPS operations.

Training and Work Study – Educational programs through the State of 

Hawai’i higher education system that relate to anthropology, history, 

museum management, and the biological sciences have potential for 

cooperative programs with Hale Malama. These might include practicum 

work with the object collections and archives; archeological survey; 

interview and recording of patient and other resident recollections of 

Kalaupapa life ways; or the location and research of deceased patient 

manuscript and photo collections in private hands or other collections 

within the islands.

Recommendations

• Establish a program identity through selection of a facility name and 

development of the intellectual framework for the Hale Malama

concept as an integral part of park operations.

• Establish a Strategic Plan for the Hale Malama concept to provide 

guidance for the development of programs over the next five years.

• Tie the programs in the Strategic Plan to specific needs for staff, 

equipment, planning, and project needs, and document these on the 

proper OFS or PMIS format for funding consideration.
Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan 71

• Identify other funding and/or staffing sources (such as Save America’s 

Treasures, and the Intake Program) to assist in filling funding and 

staffing shortfalls.

• Develop outreach programs within the park, the region and the NPS, 

and also with outside partners.

• Do more with those efforts that work, and stop working on those 

efforts that produce no results.
72 Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan

Figure 7 Archival boxes in general storage
Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan 73

Appendix A—

 Suggested Collections 

Access Policies 

National Park Service policy dictates that park-specific cultural and 

natural collections be available for educational and scholarly purposes. 

The NPS is also charged to manage these resources for optimum 

preservation. To minimize the potential impact on the archives and 

museum collections and to ensure basic security and preservation 

conditions, access must be documented, restricted, and monitored. The 

guidelines in this appendix are followed at [name of park] in order to 

provide supervised management of park-specific resources.

Levels of Access to the Archives and Museum 

Collections

All serious research—regardless of educational level—is encouraged.

Providing different levels of access to collections is a standard curatorial 

philosophy underlying the policies of most major museums. Based on the 

information provided on the research application (included in this 

appendix), individuals will be provided access to different types of 

collections information or material depending on their needs and available 

staff time. 

Conditions for Access

• The research application must be completed; it will be used as a basis 

for determining the level of access necessary, and to maintain a record 

of use for statistical purposes.

• Level of access will be determined by the chief of natural and cultural 

resource management and/or the collections manager(s). Prior to 

allowing direct access to the archives and collections, alternatives such 

as access to exhibits, publications, photographs, and catalog data will 

be considered.
74 Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan

• Access will be made with the assistance of the curatorial staff, during 

regular staff working hours. A fee to cover the cost of staff overtime 

may be required for access outside of the normal working hours.

• Individuals provided access to archives and collections in nonpublic 

areas are required to sign in and out using the guest register.

• The “Guidelines for the Use of Archival and Museum Collections”

will be followed by all individuals with access to the collections. 

• While no user fee will be required for access to the archives or 

museum collections, the chief of natural and cultural resource 

management and the curatorial staff will determine what services may 

be reasonably offered and what charges may be required for services 

such as staff overtime, photography of specimens, or reproduction of 

documents. 

• All photography of specimens and duplication of documents will take 

place on-site using the “Guidelines for Photography of Museum 

Collections and Duplication of Historic Documents.”

• A limited amount of space is available for researcher use of archives 

and museum collections. Researchers are required to check in all 

collections and remove all personal possessions each evening.

• [Name of park] reserves the right to request copies of notes made by 

researchers, and requires copies of research papers or publications 

resulting in whole or part from use of the collections.

• There may be legal considerations (such as the Native American 

Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, 1991) which allow or limit 

access to part of the archives and museum collections.

Access Policy Administration

This statement of policies and procedures is public information, and is 

available upon request from the following:

Superintendent

[Name of park]

[Address of park]

Implementation of these policies and procedures has been delegated to the 

collections manager(s); however, the superintendent has the final authority 

to grant access to the archives and museum collections. 
Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan 75

The evaluation of requests should consider the motives of the researcher, 

the projected length of the project, the demands upon the available space, 

staff, and collections, and the possible benefits of the research project. 

Access may be denied if thought not to be in the best interests of the 

resources, the park, or the National Park Service. Presumably, the chief of 

natural and cultural resources management will make these decisions in 

consultation with the collections manager(s).

With increased attention and use, the archives and collections will require 

increased monitoring to provide security, to detect developing 

preservation problems, and to facilitate prompt treatment. Regular 

inventory of the most heavily used portions of the archives and museum 

collections will be required to ascertain object location and condition.
76 Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan

Research Application for Museum Collections and 

Historic Documents

[Name of Park]

Name ___________________________ Telephone Number (_______)________________

Institution/Organization ______________________________________________________

Address __________________________________________________________________

Date you wish to visit _______________________________________________________

(An alternate date might be necessary due to staffing limitations.)

Have you previously conducted research in the park’s museum collection? Yes No_____

Research topic and materials you wish to see 

__________________________________________________________________________

Indicate which activities you wish to do 

® Consult catalog cards ® Consult archeological records

® View objects in storage ® Study objects in storage 

® Draw objects ® Consult historic documents 

® Other __________________________________________________________________

Purpose of your research 

® Book ® Article 

® Lecture/conference paper ® Term paper 

® Thesis ® Dissertation 

® Exhibit ® Project 

® Identify/compare with other material

® Other commercial use or distribution __________________________________________

® Other __________________________________________________________________

I have read the Museum Collection Access and Use/Research Policies and Procedures and 

agree to abide by it and all rules and regulations of [name of park]. I agree to exercise all due 

care in handling any object in the museum collection and assume full responsibility for any 

damage, accidental or otherwise, which I might inflict upon any museum property. Violation 

of National Park Service rules and regulations may forfeit research privileges.

Signature _________________________________________________________________

Date _____________________________________________________________________ 

Please return to: Curator, [Name of park], National Park Service, [Address of park]

(reverse side: Research Application)
Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan 77

National Park Service Use Only

Identification (provide at least one)

Institutional ID _________________________________

Driver’s License Number _________________________

Research Topic

___________________________________________________

___________________________________________________

Location of Research (check one)

® Curatorial Office

® Storage

® Exhibit Area

® Others ___________________________________________________ 
78 Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan

Museum Objects Reviewed by the Researcher

 [Name of Park]

Park Catalog Object 

Name

Location Accession Acronym Number

Approved by:

Name _____________________________________

Title ______________________________________

Date ______________________________________
Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan 79

Guidelines for the Use of Archival and Museum 

Collections

[Name of Park]

The guidelines provided here are followed at [name of park]regarding use 

of the park's museum collections and archives. It should be noted that 

these resources are separate from the park's library, which is managed by 

[insert name].

It is the policy of the National Park Service that its museum collections 

and archival resources be available for educational and scholarly purposes. 

The NPS is also charged with managing these resources for optimum 

preservation. To minimize impact on these collections, it is necessary to 

regulate access to the materials.

Copies of the research application and the full text of the “Guidelines for 

the Use of Archival and Museum Collections” are available to the public, 

upon request from:

Superintendent, 

[Name of park]

[Address of park]

Availability

The museum collections and archives are open Monday through Friday, 

from 8:00 A.M. to 4:30 P.M. Park staff should contact the park collections 

manager(s) for assistance with access. The museum collections and 

archives are "non-lending," and the materials will remain in the building. 

Non-staff users must complete a research application (included in this 

appendix) prior to accessing information or materials to ensure that 

assistance is available upon arrival. Access will not normally be granted 

on weekends. All materials must stay within the study areas provided 

within the collection management facility. The size and location of these 

areas may vary according to the time of year, requests from other 
80 Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan

researchers, and staff available. The researcher may bring only those 

materials needed for research into the assigned study area. 

Registration

The Guest Register, used to record access to museum and archival 

collections, must be signed when the collections are used by staff or nonstaff members. Non-staff researchers are required to complete a Research 

Application (included with this policy). These forms will be retained 

indefinitely for statistical analysis and as a permanent record of collections 

use. A new application is required for each research project, and must be 

renewed each calendar year.

As part of the registration process, the researcher will be given a copy of 

these procedures to review and sign, thereby indicating his/her agreement 

to abide by them.

Use of Archival Records and Manuscripts

Many of the park administrative records, archeological records, and other 

historic reference material have been copied onto microfiche, and a 

reader/printer is available for limited research use by the public. Where 

microfiche is available, it will be used for research requests. Only in the 

most extraordinary circumstances will original documents be used when 

microfiche is available.

When microfiche is not available, the archives user should follow these 

procedures to ensure careful handling of all materials:

• Remove only one folder from a box at a time. Do not remove or alter 

the arrangement of materials in the folders. 

• Maintain the exact order of materials in a folder, as well as folders 

within a box. If a mistake in arrangement is discovered, please bring it 

to the attention of museum staff. Do not rearrange material yourself.

• Do not erase existing marks on documents and do not add any 

additional marks. 

• Do not lean on, write on, trace, fold, or handle materials in any way 

that may damage them.
Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan 81

• Use only pencils for note-taking. The use of pens of any kind is 

prohibited. Typewriters and computers may be used for note-taking if 

provided by the researcher.

Duplication

The park will consider requests for limited reproduction of materials when 

it can be done without injury to the records and when it does not violate 

donor agreements or copyright restrictions. Depending on the number of 

copies requested, there may be a charge for photocopying. Fragile 

documents and bound volumes will not be photocopied. All photocopying 

of archival material is to be done by the museum staff.

Copyrights and Citations

The revised copyright law, which took effect in 1978, provides protection 

for unpublished material for the life of the author, plus 70 years. In 

addition, all unpublished material created prior to 1978, except that in the 

public domain, is protected at least through the year 2002. Permission to 

duplicate does not constitute permission to publish. The researcher accepts 

full legal responsibility for observing the copyright law, as well as the 

laws of defamation, privacy, and publicity rights.

Information obtained from the park museum collections and archives must 

be properly cited, in both publications and unpublished papers. The 

citation should read: 

“(Object name and catalog #) in the collection of [name of park]. 

Photograph courtesy of the National Park Service."

Restrictions on Use

The use of certain materials may be restricted by statute, by the creator, or 

by the donor. For the protection of its collections, the park also reserves 

the right to restrict access to material that is not fully processed, or is 

exceptionally valuable or fragile, and to information that may be restricted 

or confidential in nature.
82 Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan

Responding to Off-Site Reference Inquiries

It is the responsibility of the park curatorial staff to attempt to answer 

inquiries received by letter or telephone within at least 20 days from the 

date of receipt. Clearly, the extent to which this reference service is 

undertaken will depend upon availability of staff time and the nature of the 

question. The receipt of written inquiries will be acknowledged by 

telephone if a full response cannot be provided promptly. The staff must 

set time limits for answering research questions, so researchers are 

encouraged to use the collections in person.

A record of all research inquiries will be maintained. Such a record is 

useful for security and for compiling statistics on research use of the 

collection. Use of the collections by park staff will be included in these 

statistics.
Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan 83

Guidelines for Handling Museum Collections

Handling museum collections may be hazardous. Follow the 

guidelines provided here to ensure safe handling.

Archeological collections can contain broken glass and rusty metal objects 

with sharp edges. Historic material may retain chemical or biological 

contamination. Natural history collections contain chemical preservatives 

and possible biological contamination. Archival collections may be 

contaminated with mold, insects, and vermin droppings, or may contain 

asbestos or cellulose nitrate film. 

• Use caution in handling collections, and wear gloves when requested 

to do so.

• Curatorial personnel will retrieve and replace material for anyone 

using the collections. Direct access to material may be restricted if the 

object is very fragile.

• Do not remove materials from storage packaging without the 

permission and assistance of the curatorial staff. The packaging is 

necessary to prevent damage and deterioration of the specimen, and to 

protect the researcher from potential injury.

• Always handle objects with clean hands. Use white cotton gloves 

when handling metal, photographs, paper, and leather objects; washed 

white duck gardener's gloves may be required for heavy objects.

• Do not use white cotton gloves when handling glass or other objects 

with slippery surfaces, very heavy objects, or items with friable or 

brittle surfaces.

• Do not pick up anything before you have a place to put it down and 

your path to this place is clear.

• Look over an artifact before lifting it to see how it is stored and to 

observe any peculiarities of its construction, fragility, etc. If an object 

is made in separable sections, take it apart before moving it. Do not 

attempt to carry heavy or awkward objects alone. Never carry more 

than one object at a time, and be particularly careful with long objects.

• Except for small items, always grasp an object with two hands, and 

grasp the largest part or body of the object. Slide one hand under 

fragile items as you lift them.
84 Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan

• If an artifact has a weak or damaged area, place or store it with that 

area visible.

Special Objects

• Mounted herbarium specimens should be laid on a flat surface and the 

folder cover and specimens handled gently, taking care not to bend the 

sheets or touch the actual specimen.

• Pinned insect specimens should be handled as little as possible, and 

then handled by the pin. Avoid bumping and strong drafts when 

handling these specimens.

• Skulls and skeletons should be kept in their jars or containers while 

examining.

• Ceramics and baskets should be supported from the bottom, never 

lifted by the rim or handles.

• Photographs, transparencies and negatives should be handled by the 

edges, and should remain in protective mylar sleeves whenever 

possible. White gloves should always be used when handling 

photographs.

• Unrolled textiles should be broadly supported from underneath rather 

than by holding from the edge.

Reporting Damage

Please report any damage you observe or cause to specimens.

Behavior 

• Food, beverages, smoking, and pets are not allowed in the storage or 

study areas.

• Staff members are responsible for the behavior of any person 

accompanying them into the collections.

• Children under six years of age must be accompanied by an adult and 

physically controlled at all times. Other minors must be under the 

direct supervision of an accompanying adult at all times.

I have read and understand the above policy.

Name ____________________________________Date_____________ 
Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan 85

Guidelines for Photography of Collections and 

Duplication of Historic Documents

[NAME OF PARK]

This policy documents appropriate procedures for providing photographs 

of [name of park] National Park museum collections, and for duplicating 

original historic photographs and documents. The policy is intended to 

prevent damage or loss through mishandling or exposure to detrimental 

environmental conditions.

Duplicate Photographs of Museum Collections

There are many possible uses for photographs of the items in museum 

collections, the most common being exhibits, publication, and research. It 

is the policy of the National Park Service to encourage the use of NPS 

collections in these legitimate ventures and to make photographs of 

museum collections available within reasonable limitations.

Photography involves exposing often fragile museum objects to potential 

damage or loss from handling and exposure to heat and light. The NPS 

minimizes this potential damage by photographing items as few times as 

possible. To accomplish this, the park will develop a reference collection 

of object photographs that will be available for public use. A minimal fee 

may be required for copies of the photographs.

In order to provide this service, and to build the necessary reference 

collection, the following procedures will be followed:

• Requests for photographs of items in the museum collections will be 

submitted to the park curator, who will establish any necessary priority 

for the work. Requests should be made on copies of the attached form.

• Requested items that do not have copy negatives will be photographed 

based on these priorities. A cost recovery charge for photography and 

processing may be required.

• Photography will be done at the park, under park control, to preclude 

the possibility of artifact damage or loss. The resulting photographic 

negatives and their copyrights belong to the National Park Service.
86 Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan

• Once an object has been photographed, the negative will be 

maintained at the park to fill future requests for photographs of that 

objects. A minimal cost recovery charge through the Park Association 

maybe required for prints.

Duplication of Historic Photographs and 

Documents

All historic photographic processes and document types are subject to 

rapid deterioration from exposure to visible light and are very susceptible 

to damage from handling. Handling is often disastrous to these materials 

and causes damage such as tears, cracks, abrasions, fingerprints and stains. 

Handling also subjects historic photographs and documents to frequent 

fluctuations in temperature and humidity.

To prevent further deterioration, copies will be made of all historic 

photographs and documents, with the copy replacing the originals as the 

primary item for research and use. The original material will remain in 

storage, for the most part, as primary source material. 

Increased requests for access to and copies of historic photographs and 

documents will require the following procedures to establish priorities for 

the duplication work:

• Requests for duplicate historic photographs and documents are 

submitted to the park collections manager who will establish any 

necessary priority for copy work. 

• Requested items that do not presently have copy negatives will be 

duplicated based on these priorities. The originals must be accessioned 

and cataloged into the park collection. A cost recovery charge for 

duplication may be requested. 

• Duplication will be done at the park, or under park control, to preclude 

possibilities of loss or damage of the originals.

• Once the photographs have been duplicated, copy prints and modern 

negatives of the originals will be maintained and used for intellectual 

access and for further duplication. Microfiche copies of historic 

documents will also be maintained and will be available for use. A 

cost recovery charge may be required for copy prints.
Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan 87

The park will provide the sufficient quality duplication necessary to fulfill 

all the normal requirements for suitable reproduction. Outside individuals 

or organizations that request use of the images will be required to use only 

those copies provided by the park; and they will be obligated to 

acknowledge NPS credit if the photographs are published or exhibited to 

the public. By law, users must also credit the photographer, if known.
88 Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan

Request for Photographs of Items from the 

Museum Collections

[Name of Park]

Catalog # Object Name B&W/Color Size Finish

The undersigned agrees to provide the following credit statement for all 

publication use:

"(object name and catalog #) in the collection of [name of park]. Photograph 

courtesy of the National Park Service." 

Signature ___________________________________________________

Date ______________________
Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan 89

Appendix B—

 Suggested Library 

Operating Policy

Introduction

The libraries at [name of park] are an essential resource that enables staff 

to carry out the park's mandate. The operating policies establish guidelines 

and standards for developing and operating the libraries, and provide 

stability, continuity, and efficiency in their operation. The policies are 

intended to guide and support decisions of the library manager and to 

inform park staff and other users of the library's objectives. Operating 

policies will be reviewed and updated by park staff every two years and be 

approved by the superintendent, unless policy changes require action 

sooner.

Objective

The primary objective of the [name of park] libraries is to select, preserve, 

and make available material that assists park staff and site-related 

researchers in their work. Primary emphasis will be the support of 

interpretive services to park visitors.

Responsibility

Implementation of this policy is the responsibility of the library manager. 

This person will be designated by the superintendent and will be 

responsible for compiling a list of desired acquisitions, promptly adding 

new library items to the collection, shelving materials, ensuring that 

material is returned in proper condition, accounting for the collection, and 

maintaining catalog materials in computerized and physical form.

Scope of Collection

The collection consists of books, periodicals, microfilm, videotape, maps, 

photographs, and a vertical research file. These materials cover [emphasis 

of the park], park mandate and development, and NPS material.
90 Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan

Materials in the library will pertain to the following:

[List areas of interest to the park, including cultural and natural resource 

management, law enforcement, maintenance, administration, and 

interpretation].

Selection Guidelines and Procedures

The Division of Interpretation and Education and the Division of Natural 

and Cultural Resources will use the following criteria in selecting 

materials for the library:

• Importance of the subject matter to the collection

• Authenticity and accuracy

• Permanent value and/or historic potential

• Author’s reputation

• Publisher's reputation and standards

• Readability

• Price

• Availability in nearby libraries

The library manager will compile a list of desired acquisitions in August 

of each year. Input from all staff will be considered. Copies will be 

forwarded to the superintendent and team leaders for budget and reference 

purposes.

Microfilm

The microfilm collection will include materials unavailable or 

prohibitively expensive in their original form.

Periodicals

In addition to general library selection criteria, periodical selections will 

consider the following:

• Periodicals must supplement the collection as an additional and current 

source of information.
Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan 91

• Periodicals must occasionally or regularly publish popular articles, or 

historic articles of use or interest to the park staff.

Operating Guidelines

Loan Privileges

Borrowing privileges are extended to all NPS employees and volunteers at 

the park. There is a 30-day limit on individual loans. The 30-day loan 

period can be extended at the discretion of the park library manager. The 

library manager is responsible for reviewing the card files no less than 

once a month and contacting staff with overdue materials. No more than 

three items may be checked out at one time.

At the discretion of the park library manager or the chief of natural and 

cultural resources management, library privileges may be extended to the 

following:

• NPS employees from other areas.

• Contractors conducting research in the park.

• Researchers with valid research needs at all levels.

• Other users who will benefit the park and not interfere with normal 

operations.

• Non-NPS library use will be restricted to on-site use. The 

superintendent may make exceptions. Use of the library by non-park 

staff will be by appointment with the park library manager. Use will be 

supervised; users will sign in and check out. The library will maintain 

an attendance log of non-park users.

• Returned materials are to be placed in the “Return” box. The park 

library manager is responsible for re-shelving and re-filing materials. 

No other person should re-shelve books. Materials should be reshelved at least on a biweekly basis.

Damage and Loss Policy

Borrowers will replace lost or seriously damaged materials and, if 

materials are not immediately available, reimburse the park with the cost 

of replacement. If materials are not replaced or compensated for within a 
92 Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan

period of 90 days, a bill of collection will be issued for the estimated 

market value of the materials.

Abuse of library materials and privileges will result in the loss of library 

privileges.

Vertical File

The library will maintain a vertical file. This file contains information 

about the park, photocopied material not suitable for cataloging into the 

regular collection, pamphlets, articles, and personal accounts from diaries, 

journals, letters, and newspaper clippings. Materials in this file will be 

cataloged into a vertical file index, which the park library manager will 

maintain. This file will be updated yearly in January.

Paperbacks

Paperbacks will be acquired for the following reasons:

• Title is not available in hardcover.

• Substantial price difference exists.

• Subject is estimated to be of current interest only.

Duplicates

Duplicate copies of heavily used materials will be acquired when needed.

Replacement

After all reasonable efforts have been made to recover lost or stolen 

books, replacement will be attempted if there is a demand and/or the item 

meets selection criteria. If possible, a replacement should be purchased by 

the individual to whom the lost book was loaned.

Gifts

Gifts of materials that meet the selection criteria may be accepted with the 

understanding that:

• The park retains the right to keep, use, or dispose of them as deemed 

appropriate by the superintendent.

• The materials will be integrated into the regular collection.
Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan 93

• Park staff will give no appraisals for tax purposes, but the park library 

manager may assist in the following ways:

• Suggest sources of such information, such as dealers’ catalogs 

• Provide a receipt describing the donated items but not assigning a 

value to them.

Controlled Access Collection

A locked cabinet will be maintained in the library with rare and fragile 

materials. Items will be considered for inclusion in this cabinet if they:

• are virtually irreplaceable.

• have a monetary value over seventy-five ($75.00) dollars.

• have particular historic interest to the park.

• have unusual attractiveness or interest.

• are in fragile or delicate condition.

Materials from this collection will be loaned only at the discretion of the 

superintendent. Titles will be noted in the catalog as being in the cabinet. 

A separate list of these materials will be maintained in the cabinet.

Exhibited Materials

The library manager will compile and maintain a list of all books, 

periodicals, and maps that are used as furnishings and are not part of the 

library. The list will be kept in the controlled access area.

Interlibrary Loan

Interlibrary loans will be made only through the [name of regional library 

or support office]. Loans will be made of non-sensitive materials only, and 

the concurrence of the park library manager is required. The log of loaned 

materials will be kept.

Vertical File Policy

Items in the vertical file may be checked out in the same manner as books 

unless they are specifically marked to the contrary. When borrowing a 

vertical file, the entire folder must be taken and all materials returned to 

the re-shelving area.
94 Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan

Photocopying

Photocopying of materials is permitted except in the following situations:

• Materials could be damaged due to flattening the binding or exposure 

to light.

• Materials are marked “Do Not Copy.”

Material photocopied for use outside the park must be labeled as follows:

NOTICE:

Copyright law found in Title 17, U.S. Code

may protect this material.

Adding New Publications

The Library of Congress Cataloging System (LCS) is used at [name of 

park]. The following steps will be taken when new publications are added 

to the system:

1. The Administration Office will receive new books and attend to all 

invoice matters.

2. The new books will then go to the library manager.

3. The library manager will photocopy the title page and the reverse page, 

and forward the copy to the [name of regional library or support office]. 

The library staff will catalog the book, add it to the card catalog, and 

prepare labels for the book.

4. The library manager will prepare an accession record for the book 

consisting of date received, cost, source of acquisition, and condition.

5. While books are being added to the catalog, they will be placed in the 

controlled access area; they can be used in the library only with the 

permission of the library manager.

6. The library manager will prepare a monthly memo for the park staff, 

listing the new additions and providing the title, author, and a short 

summary.

7. When cataloging is completed and labels arrive, the library manager 

will affix labels, pocket, and checkout card to the publication.
Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan 95

8. Books will then be shelved according to their LCS number.

9. Every four months the library manager will update the park's 

computerized catalog with the most current copy from the [name of 

regional library or support office] library. At this time, hard copies of the 

author, title, and subject listings will be added to the library reference area.

Excluded Publications

With the exception of the categories listed below, all books purchased 

with NPS or cooperating association funds will be accessioned and 

cataloged into the park library in a timely manner. Excepted categories 

include the following:

• Dictionaries, thesauruses, word finders, usage guides, or similar 

reference guides

• Other books regularly needed by employees to carry out their day-today duties, such as safety manuals, fire codes, regulations, laws, 

museum manuals, and public health manuals

• Annual publications, such as almanacs, price books, catalogs, and zip 

code guides

• Publications purchased as part of an approved training program

Books in the excepted category may be included in the collection at the 

discretion of the library manager.

Inventories

The library will be inventoried annually in October. An up-to-date shelf 

list will be acquired from the [name of regional library or support office]; 

the library manager will match the shelf list with current holdings and 

account for all missing books. Books that cannot be found will be listed on 

a memorandum, which will be circulated to staff for input. If this process 

produces no results, the list will be forwarded to the [name of regional 

library or support office] for deletion from the catalog.

By the end of each fiscal year, the park library manager will compile a list 

of acquisitions of the past year, noting source and cost. The list will be 

forwarded to the [name of position].
96 Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan

Binding

Unbound or paperback material will be bound at the recommendation of 

the library manager when value, condition, or frequency of use justifies 

this step.

Weeding 

The removal of material from the collection judged to be of no use for 

research or documentary purposes will occur on a yearly basis in October. 

Weeding will take place at the time of the annual inventory, and library 

managers will use the same criteria used in the selection of new materials. 

Items considered for de-accession should exhibit the following 

characteristics:

• Information outside of the scope of collection

• Outdated information

• Inaccurate information

• Irreparably damaged or worn materials

All items, including those that exhibit the above characteristics, should be 

carefully considered for possible historic value.

Weeding Procedure

• Items are removed from the collection following the above criteria.

• Selected material is included in a memo and circulated to park staff. 

Final approval of weeding is made by the chief of natural and cultural 

resources management.

• A Report of Survey (DI-103) is prepared and circulated.

• Library records will be updated.

• Cataloged items are offered to the following:

a) [Name of regional library or support office]

b) [Name of region] Region Units

c) Harpers Ferry

d) Department of the Interior Library

e) Library of Congress
Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan 97

Materials may be disposed of to other institutions at the discretion of the 

park library manager with the concurrence of the [name of position]. The 

library will be weeded in October.

The staff at the [name of regional library or support office library] may be 

contacted with questions concerning library management or operations not 

specific to the parks, at [phone number].

Approved by:

Superintendent ___________________________________ Date _______

 

Team Leader ____________________________________ Date _______

Library Manager _________________________________ Date _______
98 Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan

Figure 8 Oversize archives, general storage
Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan 99

Appendix C—

NPS Records Management

The underpinning philosophy and paradigm of records management within 

the National Park Service is being rethought in light of NPS best practices 

and continuing technological impacts on communications. The 

Department of the Interior (DOI) and NPS have identified the need for 

continuing management of park cultural and natural resources in two 

concepts: “Mission Critical Records,” as presented in Director’s Order 19 

(DO#19) and “Resource Management Records,” as presented in the DOI 

and National Park Service museum management policies.

DO#19 specifically identifies mission critical records as having the 

highest priority in records management activities. Mission critical records 

are all records documenting natural and cultural resources and their 

previous management. These records contain information crucial for the 

future management of the resources and include “general management 

plans and other major planning documents that record basic management 

and philosophies and policies, or that direct park management and 

activities for long periods of time.” Other examples of mission critical 

records include records that directly support the specific mission of a park 

unit and the overall mission of the National Park Service. These records 

are permanent records that will eventually become archival records. 

Therefore, DO#19 dictates that these records should receive archival care 

as soon as practical in their life cycle. 

Similar to that of mission critical records is the concept of “resource 

management records.” The DOI manual’s definition says that resource 

management records are “made or acquired by the federal government to 

record information on cultural and natural resources.” As described in the 

Cultural Resource Management Guideline (NPS-28), resource 

management records document park resources and serve as key 

information for their continuing management. Accordingly, they are 

classified as “library and museum materials made or acquired and 
100 Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan

preserved solely for reference or exhibition purposes.” Therefore, these 

materials are excluded from the National Archives’ definition of records.

However, in the last few years, the definition of resource management 

records has broadened beyond reference or exhibition materials. Many 

official records have also been designated as important for the long-term 

management of park cultural and natural resources. In the past, official 

records could not be added to a park’s museum or library collection. But

records generated by the planning process and compliance review actions 

of resource management are important official records that never reach an 

inactive status.

The past system of records management and disposition as promulgated in 

NPS-19 focused on “official records” and “unofficial records.” Official 

records were original documents created or received by a park in the 

course of performing the daily business of the NPS. Unofficial records 

encompassed duplicate copies of official records and documents generated 

in association with a resource management project (e.g., archeological 

field notes). Non-official records were materials not created by a 

government agency, and included donated manuscripts (e.g., letters 

written by an eminent figure associated with the creation of a park), 

collections of personal papers, organizational records of non-governmental 

entities such as businesses or civic groups, and collections accrued by

private individuals. 

Only unofficial and non-official records could be placed in a park’s 

museum collection, after evaluation against the park’s Scope of Collection 

Statement (SOCS) for retention, if appropriate. By law NARA has been 

responsible for the official records of the federal government, once the 

records are no longer actively needed and have reached their disposition 

date. Non-official records, such as manuscript collections, were not 

governed by the NPS Records Disposition Schedule and NARA and

included in a park’s museum collection based upon its SOCS.

Under the new methodology, instead of a record’s importance being 

primarily dictated by its form (a signed original or a copy), a record’s 

primary importance is to be determined by the actual information it 
Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan 101

carries. This philosophy divides records into “permanent” and 

“temporary;” copies are to be considered just copies and so are not 

addressed. Permanent records have continuing value to resource 

management. Temporary records have a limited use life in the operations 

of a park (or support office). There is also discussion of the notion of 

“permanently active” records, those materials needed for the long-term, 

ongoing management of park resources for the NPS to fulfill its agency 

mandate. The criteria for permanent and temporary also take into account 

the office of creation—a permanent record for one office, such as a 

regional office, may be temporary for a park because it is a distributed 

copy for general reference only. Temporary records are to be retained as 

long as indicated by the revised Records Retention Schedule. After their 

allotted retention time, temporary records may be disposed of by parks or 

retained longer if still needed. 

Many of the disposition time frames outlined in NPS-19 have been 

retained in the new DO#19 retention schedule. This applies in particular to 

fiscal, routine administrative, law enforcement, forms covered under 

NARA General Records Schedule 20, and other daily operational 

materials. Permanent records may also be retained as long as actively 

needed for use and reference. Under the new DO#19, permanent records 

are to include land acquisition records, park planning documents, 

documents pertaining to cultural and resource management decisions and 

projects, and documents pertaining to the history of the administration and 

interpretation of a park. 

The concept of resource management records has been broadened in 

DO#19 from definitions in NPS-19 that classified only associated project 

records as permanent, such as archeological field notes and natural history 

project data. Currently, the National Park Service Records Advisory 

Council (RAC) has suspended disposition of certain official records that 

may be important for parks to retain on-site. The new, broadened concept 

classifies as permanent a wide array of documents previously considered 

temporary (such as construction reports) because the subject of the 

document is a park resource or substantially impacts a park resource. 

Thus, for example, previously all contracts were considered temporary, 
102 Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan

whereas the broadened definition of resource management records 

considers contracts on cultural resources (e.g., a historic building on the 

National Register of Historic Places) permanent. 

Under the new NARA protocol, parks will have three avenues to choose 

among to provide accessibility to their inactive (no longer actively needed 

or in use) records before the records are permanently destroyed or retired 

to the National Archives. Under the new proposal, parks may still send 

inactive records to a NARA Federal Records Center for public access and 

storage following the current procedure, but now a fee will be charged by 

the Office of Management and Budget ($3.28 per cubic foot as of Oct. 

2000). This charge is currently being paid by WASO for all parks. 

Parks can now arrange for storage at an off-site commercial repository, or 

to retain their own records on site. In both cases, professional archival 

parameters of preservation and access set by NARA must be met. These 

archival parameters include security, fire protection, appropriate storage 

techniques, climate controlled environment, and widely disseminated 

collection finding aids. Once the inactive records have reached their 

disposition date, records are to be destroyed or transferred to the National 

Archives for permanent storage. These new changes in records definitions 

and storage procedures will not be reflected in DO#28 Cultural Resources 

Management Guideline and the NPS Museum Handbook, Part II, 

Appendix D, “Museum Archives and Manuscript Collections,” until these 

documents are revised. 

Records managers recommend parks establish comprehensive, stand-alone 

project files for resource management, major special events, park 

infrastructure and research projects, and that these project files not be 

assigned NPS file codes. These files should contain copies of finalized 

contract documents including substantive change orders and 

specifications, DI-1’s, “as-builts” for finished construction projects, 

related project planning documents, and all documents illustrating all 

decisions made and why. 

For research projects, project files should also include copies of all 

researcher field notes, laboratory notes and results, a copy of the final 
Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan 103

report and report drafts, and any other materials generated by the project 

in question. Thus, staff are assured that a full set of documents covering an 

entire project are gathered, in order of creation and project evolution, in 

one place. It also averts problems when some fiscal records are filed 

separately from other project materials, thus potentially loosing critical 

data from a project’s life history. These project files, upon completion of 

the project, should then be retired to the park’s museum archives for longterm reference. The separation of routine administrative records from 

project records is recommended practice in the General Records Schedules 

as well. NARA expects that routine administrative records are temporary 

with short retention spans before destruction. Project records, on the other 

hand, are expected to have long retention periods, be permanent, and have 

potential (if not anticipated) archival value.

The Museum Handbook, Part II, Appendix D, “Museum Archives and 

Manuscript Collections,” governing the creation and management of park 

archives and manuscript collections, does not reflect this paradigm shift. It 

reflects the guidelines of NPS-19, and states that non-official records, or 

only “associated project records,” are eligible to be retained by a park for 

its museum collection archives. The new paradigm is also not reflected in 

DO#28, Cultural Resources Management Guideline. Both Appendix D 

and DO#28 will be revised to reflect the changes in NARA policy and 

NPS records management upon their finalization.
104 Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan

Figure 9 Unfinished storage area in north wing of Hale Malama
Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan 105

Appendix D—

 Preparing Inactive Records 

for Transfer to Storage

The records management program is able to assist park divisions, 

branches, and offices to professionally and legally manage the records 

created and received in the course of performing the park's business. This 

program can provide legal and technical advice regarding the management 

of records in offices as well as in park retention storage locations housing 

inactive records. Retention periods for National Park Service records are 

specified either in the General Records Schedule (GRS), the Federal 

Government’s guideline on retention/disposition of records common to all 

government agencies, and NPS-19, Records Management Guideline, 

Appendix B, Records Retention Schedule.

It is the responsibility of each park office wishing to retire inactive records to 

fully prepare them to the specifications that follow before they may be 

transferred to the park museum collection. Once this is done, the park curator 

or his/her representative will visit the office to verify the preparation and 

physically transfer the records to the museum collection. Of course, park 

museum staff will be happy to provide assistance in the interpretation of 

these instructions at any time during the preparation of records for transfer.

• No records are to be dropped off at the curator’s office without full prior 

preparation and approval of the Curator. 

• Records received unannounced or unprepared will be returned to the 

owning office.

ALL files pertaining to agency business are government property, not the 

property of the individual employee.

Preparing Records for Transfer

• Use only approved GSA Records Storage Boxes, NSN 8115-00-117-

8249, or approved archival boxes. These boxes can be ordered through 
106 Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan

GSA for large quantities of records, or the park museum may be able to 

provide boxes if only a few are required. 

• Remove all files from hanging folders and three-ring binders. Place in 

appropriately sized (legal or letter) folders that fully contain the records 

without folding. Any file exceeding one inch in thickness, such as thick 

files contained in binders, must be split between multiple folders (place 

in two or more folders). This rule does not apply to Contracting Project 

files, which are self-contained packages and may be thicker. Number 

multiple folders "F1/2, F2/2", etc.

• Make certain EVERY folder has a clear label, typed or neatly 

handwritten, indicating a clear, descriptive title of the contents, the date 

or date range of the file and, preferably, a file code and retention period. 

NPS file codes are not mandatory, but they make records review and 

disposition actions must faster and simpler and provide a common 

scheme for filing of related documents. File codes are not necessarily 

appropriate for project files as they may contain a large variety of 

materials that do not fit within a file code.

• Remove all personal materials and multiple copies of documents (keep 

no more than two). Remove all blank forms. 

• Remove all office supplies and computer materials such as desk 

supplies, computer manuals, miscellaneous diskettes, etc.

• Consult with Records Management staff for assistance with odd-size 

and unusual format materials such as engineering drawings, 

photographs, audio and videotapes, etc. Do not combine these materials 

in boxes with standard-sized records in folders, unless they are an 

integral part of a particular file. NEVER fold oversize materials to fit 

into record storage boxes.

Electronic Records

Many word-processed and other types of documents are now received in 

electronic format and are used that way in park offices. The preservation 

of records in electronic format is a very problematic issue, one which 

much larger agencies are having difficulty grappling with. The park 

curator advises all park departments that preserving records in electronic 

format is not possible at this time, as neither the hardware nor software 

capability to do so is available.
Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan 107

Make sure to print hard copy of critical and important records and interfile 

them with the related paper records. Hard copy records have a proven 

history of preservation capability. The curator will be happy to discuss the 

management of databases in electronic form for long-term storage and 

preservation. All electronic mail and word processing documents that must 

be retained for either temporary legal purposes or are permanently 

valuable as archival materials MUST be printed and transferred to records 

storage in hard copy format.

Records Series and Records Disposition

In archives and records management terminology, records are dealt with in 

groupings called “series.” A series is a group of records which may be 

defined either by format or conditions of creation or use. A more formal 

definition may be “file units or documents arranged according to a filing 

system or kept together because they relate to a particular subject or 

function, result from the same activity, document a specific kind of 

transaction, take a particular physical form, or have some other relationship 

arising out of their creation, receipt, or use, such as restrictions on access and 

use.” A records series is generally handled as a unit for disposition 

purposes.

1

 

Examples of series in National Park Service records include: contract 

project files; time and attendance records; alphabetical subject files; purchase 

orders; and press releases. Records are handled in series because these 

categories may be designated within the National Park Service Records 

Disposition Schedule for authorized legal periods of retention. Some series 

(such as budget, human resources, and contracting) records may be 

destroyed after keeping for a certain period for legal purposes. Other types of 

records, generally all records dealing with management of resources and 

administrative decision process, etc., have permanent value and are retained 

as archives collections. For this reason, the museum staff asks that records be 

managed and retired in identifiable series to increase the ease of handling 

 

1 Definitions provided in this paragraph are taken from Appendix D: Glossary, 

Disposition of Federal Records: A Records Management Handbook, Washington, DC: 

National Archives and Records Administration, 1992.
108 Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan

when assigning retention periods and, later, in destroying or transferring 

records to appropriate locations.

“Disposition” in records management is defined as “the actions taken 

regarding records no longer needed for current government business.” These 

actions can include transfer to storage facilities, destruction, or transfer to 

archives. In this instance, “disposition” does not automatically mean 

destruction.

Packing Records for Transfer

Try to place only one record series with one disposition date in a box. 

Records will later be disposed of by box, not by removing individual files 

from boxes. Example: Place all retiring DI-1s in a group of boxes. This is 

one ‘series’ of records, all one document type with all the same destruction 

date. If a single series doesn’t fill a box, different series may be combined in 

a box for space economy, as long as they are clearly labeled. 

Pack the files in the same sequence in the cartons as they are arranged in the 

file drawer, using the same filing system as that used in the office. Place 

folders with labels facing the front of the box (label area), or facing to the 

right of front if the folders are legal sized.

Do not over pack boxes. One must be able to slip a hand easily between 

folders and get into the hand-holds. If this is not possible, the box is too full.

Label each box as it is filled. Label only in PENCIL! Labeling should 

consist of the following: the owning office symbol plus fiscal year in the 

upper left hand corner label area and the sequential number in the upper right 

hand corner. Number sequentially, e.g., 1/12, 2/12, etc. If it is unknown how 

many boxes there will be, just enter the sequence number, then add the 

whole number to all boxes after completion of the packing job, e.g., 1/ , 2/ , 

3/ , 4/, then go back and add in the total box count at the end: 1/4, 2/4, 3/4, 

4/4. The office may contact the museum staff for assigning a unique 

accession number prior to ascertaining boxes are fully identifiable, especially 

if multiple groupings of records, or series, will be retired at the same time. 

Each series group will be assigned a unique number by the museum staff for 
Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan 109

control purposes and to facilitate later destruction or other action. A fully 

labeled box may resemble this example:

ACP-99-2 BPA Records Box 1⁄2

This example identifies the second group of records (the "2" is assigned by 

the Records Center) retired from the Contracting & Procurement Office in 

Fiscal Year 99, which consists of BPA Records and is the first of two boxes 

in this grouping to be prepared and retired to the Records Center.

For security, as well as neatness, do not identify the contents of the box on 

the outside, beyond the simple title shown in the example above. The 

detailed contents will be outlined in the inventory document.

When packing records, do not stack boxes over four high, any higher tends 

to begin crushing the boxes. A stack of four boxes can easily be loaded on a 

hand truck for transport without additional handling.

Preparing Records Inventory or Transfer List

Prepare a records transfer document consisting of a general list of the 

contents and boxes. A detailed listing of folders is not needed because this 

information will be entered into the master database at the park museum. If 

everything is well labeled, this database input can occur very quickly at the 

museum, and a printed copy of the inventory will be returned to the office 

for incorporation into the Department’s Inactive Records Binder. This is a 

good chance to double-check to ensure that adequate and consistent labeling 

has been applied to ALL folders in the box. The general listing may provide 

the name of the records series, the date range of the records, the number of 

boxes in the group to be retired, and disposition information if known, also 

any information that may assist the museum staff in preparing or managing 

the files during their retirement period.

Where there are multiple folders of a single records title and date range, they 

will be listed in the database inventory as a group as shown below rather 

than individually for space and time efficiency. Please ensure that related 

groupings are appropriately marked with sequential folder numbers, e.g. 1/3, 

2/3, 3/3. The inventory listing will appear as:
110 Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan

 "BPA File - Ace Hardware - 3 folders

Some types of documents have their own unique number sequences, such as 

contract files, purchase order files, and time and attendance files by pay 

period. These types of documents may continue to be in folders as they were 

in the department (e.g., accordion folders containing all time sheets for a 

single pay period, etc.). The complete number range of such documents 

should be correctly listed on the folders, so when the folder headings are 

used to create the inventory, the information is complete and correct. When 

preparing the inventory, list the documents in their normal numbering 

sequence. Consult with records management staff for assistance.

Transferring Prepared Records to the Park Museum

After all above steps have been completed, contact the curator to request 

physical transfer of the records. The curator or a member of the records staff 

will come to review the preparations and physically transfer the records to 

the park museum.

The records always should be physically transferred by museum staff, to 

protect against damage or loss to the records or personal injury during 

moving.

An appointment will be scheduled to complete the physical transfer to the 

park museum. Depending on the current demand, pick-ups may be delayed 

because of other records intake actions in progress which may be occupying 

the limited workspace. Records will be picked up as quickly as possible. 

PLEASE do not move the records to a dangerous storage environment while 

waiting for pick-up! This includes any basement or unheated building in the 

park.

After-Transfer Actions

Museum staff will review records boxes and transfer documentation, and 

make any necessary corrections. Museum staff will perform database entry 

of the individual file folders in the records accession. Finalized copies of the 

inventories and transfer forms will be placed on file in the park museum with 

a tickler system for later action on the records. The staff will send a printout 
Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan 111

of the completed inventory back to the office, along with a revised Table of 

Contents for the Department Inactive Records Binder including the newly 

accessioned and processed material. Please follow the instructions with the 

inventory and in the Records Binder to incorporate this new material into 

your department’s binder.

Records that are retired by park offices to the park museum remain the 

property of the office. They will not be available for research to anyone 

except that office's personnel without the express written permission of the 

office head.

Records that need to be recalled by the office should be referred to by the 

accession number, the box number, and the folder title as listed on the 

records inventory in your department’s Inactive Records Binder.

Office staff may request the return of records for a period of 30 days, 

renewable, or a photocopy of the records. This is to ensure that retrieved 

records do not become lost and unavailable for further review as needed. 

One office employee must sign for the records to ensure accountability 

during the time they are removed from storage.

As scheduled review dates for the records come up, the museum staff will 

communicate with the owning office regarding the ongoing value of the 

records for government business. Reviews should occur approximately every 

two years. These reviews form the basis for further records actions which are 

normal in the life cycle of records. Many financial and human resources 

records may be destroyed within a certain period of years. The Records 

Action Form will initiate further actions, such as a decision to retain records 

in the park museum for additional time, for destruction, or for transfer of 

permanently valuable records to the park’s archives.
112 Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan
Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan 113

Appendix E—

Transfer of Resource 

Management Field Records 

to Museum Archives

Suggested Standard Operating Procedure

The purpose of this SOP is to aid park staff in accomplishing their 

responsibilities according to DO#77 (Natural Resources Management 

Guideline), DO#28 (Cultural Resources Management Guideline), DM 411 

(DOI Property Management Regulations), DO#19 (Records Management 

Guideline), 36 CFR 2.9, and legislation associated with archiving resource 

management records. 

The [name of park’s] Museum Management Plan documents the need for 

guidelines on the management of archival material. Recommendations 

include retention of reports of archeological, historical, architectural, and 

other scientific research conducted within and for the park. 

The parks' archives include many unique information resources that need 

professional organization and arrangement to promote their most efficient 

use. Park resource management staffs generate records on a daily basis 

that should be considered for inclusion in the park archives. Staff is 

creating data sets, photographs, maps, and field notebooks that future 

generations will need to access to research the history of cultural and 

natural resource projects at the parks. 

Park staff are involved in capturing fire monitoring data, plant collections, 

air quality research, and a host of ethnographic and archeological research. 

Preserving the corporate knowledge of each of these individual activities 

depends ultimately upon the archival process. The organizing thread, then, 

should be the project itself.
114 Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan

Archeological Records

Government-wide regulations for the curation and care of federal 

archeological collections required by the National Historic Preservation 

Act (NHPA), the Reservoir Salvage Act, and the Archeological Resources 

Protection Act (ARPA) were issued in 1990 as "Curation of Federally 

Owned and Administered Archeological Collections" (36 CFR 79). These 

regulations establish procedures and guidelines to manage and preserve 

collections. They also include terms and conditions for federal agencies to 

include in contracts and cooperative agreements with non-federal 

repositories. This document covers excavations done under the authority 

or in connection with federal agencies, laws, and permits (Antiquities Act, 

Reservoir Salvage Act, Section 110 of NHPA, ARPA). It also applies to 

the collections and the generated data, or associated records and is 

applicable to both new and preexisting collections

Associated records are defined as "Original records (or copies thereof) that 

are prepared, assembled and document efforts to locate, evaluate, record, 

study, preserve or recover a prehistoric or historic resource. Some records 

such as field notes, artifact inventories, and oral histories may be originals 

that are prepared as a result of the fieldwork, analysis and report 

preparation. Other records such as deeds, survey plats, historical maps, 

and diaries may be copies of original public or archival documents that are 

assembled and studied as a result of historical research (36 CFR Part 

79.4.a.2)."

These guidelines are provided so future materials can be processed and 

included in the collection in a systematic fashion. Staff may also use this 

procedure for materials already in their possession in preparation for the 

materials being accessioned or registered by the archivist under the park 

museum collection accountability system, the National Park Service 

Automated National Cataloging System (ANCS+). Accessioning is the 

preliminary step in identifying collections that will later be cataloged and 

processed to NPS archival standards. Eventually, finding aids are created 

to enable staff and researchers to easily access information in the 

collection archives. 
Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan 115

Staff cooperation in carrying out this SOP will greatly accelerate the rate 

at which materials are processed. Subject matter specialists involved in the 

creation of these materials carry the greater knowledge about these 

collections. The quality of the final product will depend upon the quality 

of staff involvement in the process of identifying the exact nature of 

archival materials. 

Checklist for Preparing Field Documentation

1) Obtain an accession number from the park curator at the 

commencement of all new field projects.

2) Label ALL materials with the project accession number. Use a soft lead 

pencil for marking documents or files and a Mylar marking pen for Mylar 

enclosures such as slide, print or negative sleeves.

3) Materials must be arranged by material type such as field notes, reports, 

maps, correspondence, photographs, etc. Each group of materials should 

be stored in individual folders or acceptable archival enclosures.

4) Resource management staff is responsible for turning over all project 

documentation to the park curator upon completion of a project. In the 

interest of preserving institutional knowledge, leave collections in their 

original order. Original order means the organization system created by 

the originator of a document collection. Resist the urge to take important 

documents from these collections. If something is needed for future use, 

copy it or request that the curator make a copy. After copying, replace the 

document or photo where it was found. Much information about past 

projects has been lost because collections has been picked apart. 

Remember these materials will always be available. That is the whole 

point behind establishing archives.

5) When the archival documentation is transferred to the park museum, the 

form below should be provided. This form includes the project title, 

principal investigator, date of project and a history of the project. The 

name of the individual who obtained the accession number should also be 

listed. The type and quantity of documentation would be included as well, 

such as maps (13), field notes (4 notebooks), Correspondence (3 files).
116 Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan

Project Identification Sheet (Use one sheet for each project)

Accession No: _______________________________(Assigned only by Curator)

Your name, title, office: _______________________________________________________

Project Title_________________________________________________________________

Principle Investigator and position during project. Please list staff who might have aided in the 

project implementation. 

___________________________________________________________________________

Researcher's office location and extension, or current address, occupation, and employer or 

contact number. 

__________________________________________________________________________

Type and quantity of materials in collection(s) (specimens, papers, files, reports, data, maps, 

photo prints/negatives/slides, computer media - format/software?) Condition. (i.e. infested, torn, 

broken, good) Attach additional paper if necessary.

___________________________________________________________________________

Scope of Project:

Is this collection part of an ongoing project to be updated annually? Yes ____ No____

Research goals or project purpose and published or in-house reports to which collection relates 

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

Abstract of collection content. Keywords referring to geographical locations, processes, data 

types, associated projects. Indicate whether specimens/objects were collected. Attach additional 

paper if necessary. 

____________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________
Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan 117

Planning for the Curation of Resource 

Management Records

Records in the Field

Anticipate the kinds of documents that will be needed in the field to record 

data and use archival materials to produce them (e.g., field excavation 

forms, field notes, photographic logs, transit data, maps, level records, and 

videotape). Use archival quality materials in the field. This can reduce the 

cost of copying information onto archival quality media later. Remember 

that documentation on electronic media alone is not sufficient because of 

the lack of long-term stability of these media and their contents.

The records created in the field, as well as in the lab, are vulnerable to 

insects, vermin, mold, humidity, light, temperature changes, and 

mishandling. They are also vulnerable to a variety of environmental 

threats, such as roof leaks, flooding, fire, and asbestos problems, and to 

theft or other malicious action. The following are a number of general 

recommendations to follow in the field and lab in order to promote the 

long-term preservation and viability of the great variety of records created:

• Use appropriate long-lived media for all record types.

• Use permanent and archival stock in paper, ink, lead pencil, folders, 

and boxes.

• Inspect and redo damaged or inadequate records.

• Label everything, or their containers.

• Use appropriate storage for all media in the field in order to protect 

them from poor environmental conditions and threat of fire or theft.

• Carefully consider existing guidelines and equipment for digital and 

audiovisual media, make sure backup copies and hard copy printouts 

exist, and migrate data to updated software on a regular schedule. 

• Ensure that project information and data is captured by appropriately 

knowledgeable staff. 

• Paper records 

A number of conservation principles should also be considered for each of 

the primary types of media used for associated records.
118 Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan

• Use high alpha cellulose, lignin free, acid-free paper, especially for 

field notebooks, and standardized forms. 

• Record information using archival (permanent carbon) inks or #4 (HH) 

pencils. 

• Protect paper from water and humidity, and minimize its exposure to 

light. 

• Try not to fold or roll paper. 

• Store papers in archival folders in polyethylene boxes. 

Photographs 

• Protect all photographic materials (e.g., film, prints, slides, negatives, 

and transparencies) from heat, rain, and wind. Store them in archival 

folders in polyethylene boxes. 

• Maintain a log of all photographic images. 

• Only handle photos along their edges. Do not touch the image with 

bare fingers. 

• Do not use paper or plastic clips, rubber bands, pressure sensitive tape, 

adhesive or pressure sensitive labels, or Post-it® notes directly on 

photographs. 

• Do not put photographic materials, except unused film, in cold storage 

without reformatting them for access and duplication. 

Magnetic Records 

• Protect all magnetic materials (e.g., audio tapes, video tapes) from 

heat, dust, and dirt. 

• Consider the equipment required to play the audiovisual material and 

the longevity of that equipment. 

• Label all records in a permanent, carbon-based ink. 

• Store the records in their cases in polyethylene boxes. 

Cartographic and Oversized Records 

• Oversized records should be stored flat in folders, preferably in map 

cases. Do not roll or fold. 

• Protect paper from water and minimize its exposure to light. 
Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan 119

• During storage and use, protect oversized records from tears and rips. 

Do not use tape to repair tears. 

• Label the oversized folders in permanent, carbon-based ink. 

Digital Records and Data 

• Produce your master records in uncompressed TIF format, if possible. 

Avoid using proprietary file formats or lossy compression. 

• Protect all digital records from heat, dust, dirt, and ultraviolet 

radiation. 

• Choose a storage medium that is considered a standard and research its 

longevity. 

• Keep digital records away from magnetic or electric fields that are 

created by old telephones, static, and field and lab equipment such as 

magnetometers and 12-volt transformers. Computer diskettes can be 

partially or completely erased by such exposure. 

• Label the records in permanent, carbon-based ink. 
120 Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan

Attachment A: Five Phases of Managing Archival 

Collections

(From “Museum Archives and Manuscript Collections,” NPS Museum 

Handbook, Part II, Appendix D)

Phase 1: Gain Preliminary Control over the Park Records

Survey and describe collections; identify official/non-official records; 

appraise collections and check them against the Scope of Collection 

Statement (SOCS); accession collections; order supplies.

Phase 2: Preserve the Park Collections

Conduct the Collection Condition Survey; write treatment or reformatting 

recommendations; contract to conserve or reformat; re-house; prepare 

storage, work, and reading room spaces.

Phase 3: Arrange and Describe the Park Collections

Arrange collections; create folder lists; edit and index folder lists; update 

collection-level survey description; produce finding aids; catalog 

collections into the Automated National Catalog System (ANCS+).

Phase 4: Refine the Archival Processing

Locate resources; prepare processing plan and documentation strategy; 

develop a guide to collections; publicize collections.

Phase 5: Provide Access to Park Collections

Review restrictions; write access and usage policies; provide reference 

service.
Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan 121

Attachment B: Sample Archival and Manuscript 

Collections Survey Form

(From “Museum Archives and Manuscript Collections,” NPS Museum 

Handbook, Part II, Appendix D), US Department of the Interior, National 

Park Service

COLLECTION TITLE (Creator / Format / Alternate 

Names/Accession/Catalog #s): Asa Thomas Papers DRTO-00008

DATES (Inclusive & Bulk): 1850-1925; bulk 1860-69

PROVENANCE (Creator / Function / Ownership and Usage 

History/Related Collections/Language): Asa Thomas (1830-1930) an 

American engineer, inventor, and explorer specializing in hydraulics 

created this collection as a record of his life, family, and employment 

history. Captions on some photos are in Spanish. Note: Must locate a 

biography of Thomas for the Collection-Level Survey Description. Check 

the Who’s Who in Science. This collection was given by Thomas’s third 

wife, Eva Bebernicht Thomas, to their son, Martin Thomas in 1930. 

Martin Thomas left it to his only daughter Susan Brabb, who gave it to the 

park in 1976.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION (Linear feet / Item count / Processes /

Formats / Genres):45 linear feet of papers including 15 diaries (1850-

1925), 63 albums and scrapbooks, 10 lf of correspondence, and 2,000 

blueprints. 

SUBJECTS (Personal / Group / Taxonomic / Place Names / Eras / 

Activities / Events / Objects / Structures / Genres): This collection 

documents the life, family, inventions, instructions, and professional 

activities of Asa Thomas including engineering projects in the Dry 

Tortugas, the 1873 world tour, and hydraulic pump inventions.

ARRANGEMENT (Series/Principle of Arrangement / Finding Aid): Into 

four series by type of document: correspondence, diaries, albums and 

scrapbooks, and blueprints.
122 Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan

RESTRICTIONS (Check and Describe) Donor _____ 

Privacy/Publicity _____ Copyright __X__ Libel _____ No Release Forms 

_____ Archeological, Cave, or Well Site _____ Endangered Species Site 

_____ Sensitive _____ Classified _____ 

Fragile _____ Health Hazard _____ Other _____ The donor, A. Thomas’s 

son Marvin, did not donate all copyrights. The papers are unpublished. 

Some inventions are patented. 

LOCATIONS Building(s), Room(s), Walls(s), Shelf Unit(s), Position(s), 

Box(es): B6 R5 W2 S1-3, B1-40

EVALUATION (Check and Describe Status) Official Records ____ 

Non-Official Records ____ Fits Park SOCS _____ Outside SOCS _____ 

(Rate Collection Value: 1=Low; 3=Average; 6=High) Informational 

__6__ Artifactual __6__ Associational __6__ Evidential __3__ 

Administrative __3__ Monetary __1__ 

CONDITION (Check and Describe) Excellent ____ Good __X__ 

Fair ____ Poor ____ Mold ____ Rodents ____ Insects ____ Nitrate ____ 

Asbestos ____ Water Damage __X_ Other 

OTHER (Please Describe)

____________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________
Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan 123

Appendix F—

Suggested Workload Analysis

This appendix provides an example of a system for analyzing the museum 

management program work elements for KALA. By completing this chart 

the total staffing needs will be documented.

Core Work Elements Current 

(Hours)

Current 

(FTE)

Needed 

(Hours)

Needed 

(FTE)

NonPers. $

Acquisition of Collections

Plan strategy for acquisition

Identify sources of collections

Survey for inclusion in park collections

Appraisal and evaluation of proposed 

acquisitions

Manage acquisition committee

Manage park records

Acquire rights and permission

Subtotal

Documentation of collections

Accession new acquisitions within two 

(2) weeks

Process archival collections including 

completion of ANCS+ catalog records

Catalog museum objects

Catalog library materials
124 Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan

Photograph museum collections

Maintain museum documentation

Manage databases/knowledge systems

Maintain documentation of treatment, 

use, etc.

Maintain NAGPRA information

Subtotal

Preservation and protection of 

collections

Maintain facility

Provide for physical and operation 

security

Ensure fire protection

Monitor environment

Monitor pests

Ensure disaster preparedness

Conduct housekeeping

Ensure proper storage, including 

organization, equipment, and housing

Conduct conservation program by 

assessing collection condition

Treat items in need

Subtotal

Access and use of collections

Provide for public and park access 

including reference services
Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan 125

Develop and maintain exhibits

Participate in curriculum-based 

education programs

Conduct public program

Produce publications

Conduct research and obtain legal 

rights and permissions 

Loan collections for appropriate use by 

other institutions

Develop and maintain internet/intranet 

access and website(s)

Participate in NPS planning and 

compliance

Conduct research

Support appropriate reproduction of 

collections

Subtotal

Program administration and 

management

Maintain up-to-date scope of collection 

statement

Complete annual reporting: Collection 

Management Report; Annual Inventory; 

ANCS+ Database

Manage annual budget

Provide for future programming: PMIS 

and OFS

Supervise paid and unpaid staff

Develop and maintain up-to-date 

museum plans and policies

Manage contracts
126 Kalaupapa National Historical Park Museum Management Plan

Maintain information 

technology/management

Provide administrative support

Participate in park management and 

administrative issues

Subtotal

Total