bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Values of School Administration: Preferences, Ethics, and Conflicts
Authors: Begley Paul T. , Johanssqn Olof
Published: January 2019

This article reports the findings of two studies focussed on the personal and professional values of school administrators. Two themes were employed as general organizers for the research: the influence of personal preference and transrational principles on the problem solving actions of school administrators and the value conflicts that administrators experience in their work. One study was conducted in Umea (Sweden), the other in Toronto (Canada). The conceptual framework integrates Hodgkinson's (1991) values theory with information processing theory. Action research methods were adopted as a way of overcoming the special problems associated with conducting research on values. Findings suggest that administrators’ personal values are significant influences on problem solving. Specifically, the rational value types of consensus and consequences predominate in the valuation processes of school principals, personal preferences are infrequently articulated, and transrational principles are employed under particular circumstances.
The Postmodern Turn in Educational Administration: Apostrophic or Catastrophic Development?
Authors: English Fenwick W.
Published: January 2019

The impact of postmodernism on educational administration will be catastrophic, i.e., a radical overturning of established thought and practice. The field has been slow in recognizing the full impact of a turning away from the Cartesian mindset of modernistic science. The most significant challenges in educational administration posed by postmodernism are to the concept of a stable knowledge base upon which to determine best or reflective practices, the assumed legitimacy of departments of educational administration as sanctified places to prepare school leaders, and the decoupling of the concepts of leadership from management practice and organizational theory. The postmodern challenge is to move beyond Cartesian logic and modernist traditions to redefine practice.
Five Faces of Trust: An Empirical Confirmation in Urban Elementary Schools
Authors: Hoy Wayne K. , Tschannen-Moran Megan
Published: January 2019

After an extensive review of the literature on trust, a multi-faceted definition of faculty trust was developed at three organizational levels: trust in principal, trust in colleagues, and trust in clients. Along with a general willingness to risk vulnerability, five faces of trust emerged: benevolence, reliability, competence, honesty, and openness. This conceptual formulation of faculty trust was then subjected to empirical test, which supported the theoretical underpinnings of the construct. Finally, three trust scales with substantial validity and reliability are offered to researchers and practitioners to analyze antecedents and consequences of faculty trust in other schools.
Effect of the Visual Presentation of a Craniofacial Syndrome on Speech Intelligibility in Noise
Authors: Bressmann Tim , Eick Tamara , Pardo Jennifer
Published: January 2019

Objective:

Research has argued that a speaker’s facial appearance can result in an “intelligibility cost” for the listener. The study investigated whether such an intelligibility cost exists for a visible repaired cleft lip and nasal asymmetry.

Setting:

University department.

Participants:

Eight typical speakers provided speech samples. Twenty-eight naive listeners participated in a speech in noise experiment.

Interventions:

Listeners transcribed sentences in noise that were paired with faces of individuals with repaired cleft lip and nasal asymmetry or typical faces. They also rated speaker intelligibility and answered a questionnaire about their previous knowledge about cleft lip and palate.

Main Outcome Measures:

Percentage of words transcribed correctly and intelligibility ratings, compared by experimental condition (photo of typical face or face with repaired cleft lip and nasal asymmetry) and speaker gender.

Results:

There were no statistically significant differences between speech stimuli that were presented with faces with repaired cleft lip and nasal asymmetry or typical faces. The percentage of words transcribed correctly by the listeners was lower for female speakers ( F = 12.7, df = 1; P < .01). Speech intelligibility of female speakers was rated more poorly ( F = 10.5, df = 1; P < .01).

Conclusions:

Presence of a repaired cleft lip and nasal asymmetry did not result in an intelligibility cost for naive listeners. Future research should investigate possible effects of facial motion or previous knowledge.
Checklists: A Review of Their Origins, Benefits, and Current Uses as a Cognitive Aid in Medicine
Authors: Chaparro Alex , Keebler Joseph R. , Lazzara Elizabeth H. , Diamond Anastasia
Published: January 2019

Since its initial introduction in the 1930s, checklists have proven their worth in aviation and have been increasingly promoted in medicine as a cognitive aid that can improve patient outcomes. This article reviews the different types of checklists, how they aid user performance, the barriers to their adoption, and strategies for increasing user acceptance of checklists.
Prevalence of iatrogenic hypothyroidism in hyperthyroid cats treated with radioiodine using an individualised scoring system
Authors: Fernandez Yordan , Puig Jordi , Powell Roger , Seth Mayank
Published: January 2019

Objectives

The aim of this study was to report the prevalence of iatrogenic hypothyroidism, with or without azotaemia, based on the measurement of serum total thyroxine (T4), thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) and creatinine concentrations, in hyperthyroid cats undergoing radioiodine (131I) treatment where the 131I dose was calculated using a previously described scoring system. A secondary aim of the study was to determine the positive and negative predictive values of serum T4 and TSH concentrations obtained 19 days after treatment in order to predict the development of iatrogenic hypothyroidism 6–9 months after 131I treatment.

Methods

Serum T4, TSH and creatinine concentrations were measured 19 days and 6–9 months after 131I treatment. The prevalence of iatrogenic hypothyroidism was assessed with the results obtained 6–9 months after 131I treatment.

Results

The prevalence of overt and subclinical hypothyroidism 6–9 months after 131I treatment was 40.0% (22/55 cats) and 12.7% (7/55 cats). Overt hypothyroidism with azotaemia was diagnosed in 8/55 (14.5%) cats. The positive and negative predictive values for the prediction of the development of iatrogenic hypothyroidism 6–9 months after 131I treatment were 72.2% and 80.0%, respectively, for a low serum T4 concentration, and 75.0% and 44.6%, respectively, for an increased serum TSH concentration.

Conclusions and relevance

The use of an individualised scoring system is effective in determining the 131I dose for the treatment of hyperthyroid cats. However, the prevalence of overt hypothyroidism was higher in comparison with other studies using different dosing protocols. Further studies comparing the efficacy of individualised scoring systems and different fixed doses to determine which method is superior are warranted.
The Role of Mentoring on Hispanic Graduate Students’ Sense of Belonging and Academic Self-Efficacy
Authors: Holloway-Friesen Holly
Published: January 2019

This quantitative study examined the role of mentoring on 332 Hispanic graduate students’ sense of belonging and academic self-efficacy. The results found that mentored Hispanic graduate students reported significantly higher levels of sense of belonging and academic self-efficacy than unmentored students. A hierarchical regression found 24% of the variance in academic self-efficacy was accounted for by mentoring and sense of belonging. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.
Collecting Theories: Mexican American Archives at the University of Texas Benson Latin American Collection (1974–2004)
Authors: Gonzalez Maria E.
Published: January 2019

The Mexican American Library Program (MALP) of the Benson Latin American Collection at the University of Texas (UT) will celebrate its 30th anniversary during the fall of 2004. The staff is anticipating significant changes and evaluating the program's stated objectives and options for future directions. New and broader perspectives about ethnic identity are pressuring shifts in collection patterns for the Mexican American Library Program archives as well as in the documentation strategies for ethnic archives. The story of the Mexican American archives reflects student protests during the 1970s, the expanding historiography of Chicano and Latino Studies, and informs archival appraisal theory.
The Maverick Collector: The Method in the Madness of Peggy Guggenheim
Authors: Acker Emma
Published: January 2019

The twentieth-century matron, dealer, and gallery owner Peggy Guggenheim crafted both a highly public image and a personal identity through her writings, collecting, and exhibition practice. Through her outrageous social behavior, outspoken interviews with the press, and scandalous memoirs, Guggenheim presented herself as a bohemian libertine, with little or no serious intentions other than to live as brazen and unfettered a lifestyle as possible. However, by all accounts other than her own, Guggenheim was an avid learner and teacher, and her anti-intellectualism and playful irreverence belied her ultimate concern with garnering recognition as an important figure in the art world. Ultimately, Guggenheim's rejection of more conventional modes of collecting and display in favor of the role of social impresario and fashionable eccentric enabled her to produce and promote her own image as an iconic and pioneering figure in the history of patronage.
Museums and Copyright Ownership: Is Ignorance Really Bliss?
Authors: Burkhardt Blythe , Trimpe Pamela
Published: January 2019

Museums face intellectual property issues daily—particularly copyright concerns. While museums may have ownership of a particular work, they often do not know who owns the copyright and what rights that gives them. Copyright owners are given the exclusive rights to reproduce, adapt, distribute, publicly perform, and publicly display their works. U.S. Copyright law, with its origin in the U.S. Constitution, is governed by the Copyright Acts of 1909 and 1976. Under these acts copyright ownership is granted usually to the artist who creates the work, but may be extended to others when specific requirements are met. Iowa artist Grant Wood, founder of the Regionalist Art Movement, can be considered a poster child for copyright issues. The rights in many of his works are policed by a professional intellectual property licensing organization. Here we review three instances where Wood's work has been at the center of copyright ownership debates, in a public domain question, in a work for hire situation, and in a transfer of copyright ownership. These case studies serve as useful examples for museums confronting their own copyright ownership concerns.
The Process and Meaning of Collecting Ethnographic Textiles
Authors: Marcketti Sara B. , Yurchisin Jennifer , Torntore Susan J.
Published: January 2019

Consumption is one way individuals effectively deal with their feelings of anomie, or social instability resulting from a breakdown of standards and values, in contemporary, postmodern society. Through the purchase and use of particular products, consumed objects create or produce personal identities. A specialized form of consumption, collecting, in this case ethnographic textile collecting, plays a key role in the quest for self-authentication and community in contemporary Western culture. In this paper, twelve collectors of ethnographic textiles were interviewed to better understand the manners and meanings of collecting as a specialized form of consumption. The collectors of ethnographic textiles used their collections as a way to both express their personal identity and become part of a larger community of textile collectors. Arnould and Price's (2000) theoretical model of authenticating acts and authoritative performances guided the analysis of the spoken word of the collectors interviewed.
Archives or Museum—Does it Matter?
Authors: Everitt Sian
Published: January 2019

This paper presents the recent experience of UCE Birmingham Institute of Art and Design Archives in documenting and managing its diverse collections. The collections range in size from under 50 to over 40,000 items and cover the fields of art and design education, museology and public art. By their nature, these collections contain a richness and diversity of materials including bibliographic and photographic materials, paper records, artworks and artefacts. The challenge has been not so much that the collections are cross-domain, as between the domains, falling in the gaps. The paper evaluates the differences in collection management philosophies and practices between museums and archives in the United Kingdom. It describes the decisions faced by UCE Birmingham Institute of Art and Design Archives in negotiating a path through these complexities.
The Long Shadow: Legacy Collections in the National Air and Space Museum
Authors: Silbermann Paul
Published: January 2019

The Archives Division of the National Air and Space Museum maintains a number of document collections created by the Museum before the establishment of the Division. Because of their size and utility, these legacy collections continue to influence the operations of the Archives. The heavy use of information technology has allowed the NASM Archives to expand these legacy collections in a virtual sense, by adding information to genre databases while maintaining the actual documents within their fonds.
Videodisc to Virtual: The National Air and Space Museum Archives Division Image Database System
Authors: Keiser Melissa A. N.
Published: January 2019

The Archives Division of the National Air and Space Museum (NASM) holds one of the largest collections of photography at the Smithsonian Institution, and its holdings are used extensively by both the museum staff and the public. Over the last twenty years, the NASM Archives has slowly but steadily increased its usage of information technology to manage photography. The Archives’ image database has metamor-phosized from a small list of negative numbers into a large relational database system which draws on all aspects of photo archives operations: access, collections management, rights management, and order fulfillment. This period saw the rise and fall of videodisc technology, and the ongoing shift to digital image management. Over time, the NASM Archives’ image operations have had a positive effect on the unit's relationships with NASM curators and its perceived value within the Museum as a whole.
Visualism and the Authentification of the Object: Reflections on the Eliot Elisofon Collection at the National Museum of African Art
Authors: Staples Amy J.
Published: January 2019

Photographic resources are well known within museum contexts. However, these images are rarely considered in terms of how they enhance the historical value of museum objects, construct aesthetic and ethnographic meanings, and interpret museum collection practices. This paper examines the multi-media collections of Eliot Elisofon, an internationally known photographer and filmmaker who traveled in Africa from 1943-1972. The Elisofon collection at the National Museum of African Art contains both photographic materials and three-dimensional objects created and collected in the course of Elisofon's professional career. I explore the ways in which Elisofon's images have been used to illustrate objects in situ, represent cultural contexts of use and meaning, and create multiple layers of authentication for the objects (i.e., artistic, documentary, ethnographic). Attention is also given to the importance of photography as a collection practice in and of itself.
Thinking outside the Museum Box: Heritage Management of a “Laboratory Ecomuseum,” Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
Authors: Chung Yun Shun Susie
Published: January 2019

Museums and Heritage Management are two fields that focus on the governing institution's sustainable administration, preservation, research, and communication of heritage. Museums, however, have the tendency to turn to the level of discussion on acclimatized institutions. Heritage management encompasses the “white cube” museum institution, but incorporates all levels of institutions that conduct the functions of administration, preservation, research, and communication of heritage. Ecomuseums are one kind of institution that is a non-traditional type of museum institution. This kind of museum is also more inclusive in community involvement. In order to “think outside the museum box,” museum discussions should be more comprehensive of different kinds of heritage institutions that perform those functions. This paper examines a different kind of heritage institution as a case study laboratory ecomuseum, the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory.
Visual Artists Rights Act Analyzing the Moral Right of the Artist and the Public
Authors: Heineman Anna
Published: January 2019

Richard Serra's Tilted Arc, a controversial piece of public art, was inconspicuously taken down by the United States General Services Administration. The Cor-ten steel arc was dismantled and placed in a storage warehouse in Brooklyn, New York. A year and a half later, the United States Congress passed the Visual Artists Rights Act (VARA), protecting artists and their work from public destruction. Because an artist's identity is associated with the work itself, the destruction or modification of work in public spaces is now protected by law. The question is posed, would Richard Serra's Tilted Arc, have been protected if the controversy began after the enactment of the Visual Artists Rights Act? This paper will look at both sides of the enacted law, and whether the law is beneficial to public as well as the artist.
Forming an Urban Public Art Collection a Case Study of the Fairmount Park Art Association
Authors: Griffith Laura S.
Published: January 2019

Chartered in 1872 as the nation's first public art organization, the Fairmount Park Art Association can be used as a case study for how urban public art collections form and evolve over time. From acquisitions, purchases and donations, to new commissions and involvement with monuments and memorials, the Art Association has helped build Philadelphia's collection of cultural treasures. Programs such as Form and Function and New•Land•Marks have changed the approach to the commission process, resulting in artworks that are integrated with the site and connected to the community. Over the years the Art Association's related public art activities have included planning projects, establishing an ongoing conservation maintenance program, advocacy, documentation, and interpretation. These efforts combined with those of other entities and individuals have established Philadelphia as a public art destination with the largest collection of outdoor sculpture in the United States—an attraction for tourists that contributes to the quality of life in the city.
Producing La Grande Vitesse Civic Symbolism, Vernacular Archives, and Public Sculpture in Grand Rapids, Michigan
Authors: Mikulay Jennifer Geigel
Published: January 2019

La Grande Vitesse (1969) by Alexander Calder has adorned the civic center in Grand Rapids, Michigan for nearly forty years. What does this sculpture mean to its publics? Drawing upon interdisciplinary insights from visual culture studies, this article argues that official archives combined with collections of vernacular imagery may assist with research into the meanings, values, and uses that citizens ascribe to public art. Understanding the local significance of public sculpture requires investigating how diverse publics creatively produce individual understandings, which are often expressed visually. As people produce logos, miniatures, and artistic responses to La Grande Vitesse, they contribute counter-images that elaborate their relationships to the original sculpture. These counter-images both produce and problematize established accounts of the sculpture's relevance to local publics.
Airport Art Revisited Site Responsive Lessons from the Acconci Studio's Flying Floors for Ticketing Pavilion
Authors: Tinti Mary M.
Published: January 2019

Located in Terminal B/C of Philadelphia International Airport, the Acconci Studio's 1998 Flying Floors for Ticketing Pavilion is a provocative, disquieting testament to the one-of-a-kind pulse of an airport. Mirroring all the exhilaration, disorientation, thrills, and fears associated with this unique contemporary public space, Flying Floors is proof that artworks commissioned for airport collections do not have to be watered down or cliché but instead can be site-responsive, evocative, and roguish. They can explore facets of the contemporary condition better understood at the airport than anywhere else; legitimize the often surreal goings on within this singular contemporary public venue; and enmesh themselves within the physical and philosophical schema of this extraordinary site. By doing all of that and then some, F/y/ng F/oors is both a perfect marriage of sculpture and site and a suggestive model for the kind of installations we should be unafraid to commission for airport collections.
Danger! One Prick Can Cause Instant Death the Results of Chemical Testing for Pharmacological Activity in Ethnobotanical Objects
Authors: Kubiatowicz Rose
Published: January 2019

Pharmacologically active natural products including toxins can survive in ethnobotanical objects stored long-term and can remain stable in quantities great enough to represent a potential hazard to museum personnel. In April 2006, twenty-one samples from suspected hazardous ethnobotanical objects identified by the Science Museum of Minnesota's Oh No! Ethnobotany program (Kubiatowicz and Benson 2003), ranging in age from twenty-five to one-hundred-fourteen-years old, underwent organic residue analysis using gas and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. Samples were taken from the following objects: curare-tipped darts, poison-tipped arrows, barbasco vine, ayahuasca branches, yoco vine, opium pipe, kava roots, tobacco cigar, tobacco plug, clavo huasca vine, quinine branch, Precatory pea seed, Ceylon drug bundles and a Tibetan altar bottle. Pharmacologically active natural products were identified in twelve of twenty samples tested (60%). The toxin tubocurarine was identified in four of six curare samples in quantities great enough to represent a potential hazard to museum personnel.
Fuller's Laboratory Notebook
Authors: Chu Hsiao-Yun
Published: January 2019

Over the course of his life, R. Buckminster Fuller (1895–1983) amassed an enormous collection of personal and professional correspondence, manuscripts, architectural models, newspaper clippings, and audiovisual recordings. By the time of his death in 1983, Fuller's archive contained over 1400 linear feet of papers and 1700 hours of recordings, and weighed an estimated 45 tons. Fuller thought of this collection as a detailed “laboratory notebook,” in which his every project and encounter would be faithfully and accurately recorded. This article describes the collection itself, discusses some of the unique organizational strategies that Fuller devised, and describes how the collection was acquired and subsequently processed. This article also comments on the value of the archive as a research collection. Because of its comprehensivity, the archive not only illuminates the work of R. Buckminster Fuller, but also affords sweeping views of the twentieth century at large through his eyes.
Identifying and Collecting Intangible Heritage through Community Heritage Planning Projects
Authors: Chung Yun Shun Susie
Published: January 2019

There is no single literature that gives an account of the many different heritage plans in academia and the field. Community heritage planning projects of intangible heritage conducted by the Museum of Texas Tech University's Center for Advanced Study of Museum Science and Heritage Management (CFAS) will be discussed. These case studies will address the intangible heritage of a community and the connection of past, present, and future cultures through community heritage planning. Special focal points of this paper are historical events and organizations as a part of intangible heritage.
Russel Wright and Handicraft Transnational Collecting Practices
Authors: Way Jennifer
Published: January 2019

This essay surveys the understudied collecting practices of Russel Wright (1903–1976) in and in relation to Southeast Asia during the mid twentieth century, with emphasis on Vietnam. On behalf of the American State Department, from November 1955 to February 1956 Wright travelled throughout Taiwan, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, and Hong Kong to assess the region's potential to produce handicraft for export to the United States for domestic consumption. Wright toured sites of handicraft production and collected examples that upon his return to the States he displayed in commercial contexts and about which he published an essay in Interiors. Wright promoted the purchase of Southeast Asian handicraft items and championed an aesthetic that rendered them especially suitable for middle class American homes. Through Russel Wright Associates, in Southeast Asia he established centers to foster the production of handicraft and display and sell the results. Wright's collecting practices relating to Southeast Asia broaden the basis on which traditionally we have valued Wright's significance for American culture while they also alert us to transnational dimensions of historical relationships of American diplomacy and culture.
KE EMu and the Future for Natural History Collections
Authors: Sendino María Consuelo
Published: January 2019

This paper describes the current status and the future outlook for KE EMu, a system for museum collection documentation and management that is capable of monitoring collections and exporting data to websites. Although KE EMu is a collections management system for all museums and collections, it has great potential for natural history collections, especially geological collections that have been relatively neglected. KE EMu Software has been active in supporting efforts to standardize documentation, encompassing all kinds of information (e.g., images, bibliography, exhibition history) that are associated with the item and its management.
Express Processing Students Making Access a Priority
Authors: Marlin Robert O. , Selley Mikaela
Published: January 2019

This paper outlines a new approach used by the University of Houston Libraries to process a major manuscript collection. This method enabled the department to reduce the completion time by twenty-two months in addition to reducing the labor cost from $246.86 to only $8.23 per linear foot.1 While many archivists using this method employ the term “Minimal Processing” or “The Golden Minimum,” the student processors decided against using these terms because they felt that “minimum” carried a slightly negative connotation. So, they proposed a new one, “Express Processing.” Whatever the term, this method allowed the Special Collections Department at the University of Houston Libraries to provide more primary source material to researchers in one year than in the previous seven years combined.
A Nineteenth-century Shao Bridal Fabric Art as a Metaphor for Starting a Successful Marital Life Journey
Authors: Akinwumi Tunde M. , Oha Obododimma
Published: January 2019

The article explores the cultural and semiotic elements of aso alaro, a Yoruba bridal fabric that features interesting animal and domestic object motifs. Generally spectacular bridal aso alaro were stored away after the wedding event and they became treasures that many people beheld later in life particularly because of the design motifs. This paper demonstrates how the iconographic features of the focused bridal fabric could be defined and interpreted by means of verbal arts and in terms of Yoruba cultural values, and attempts to establish that, although this type of cloth design/tradition has eclipsed in the context of modernity, its meanings are significant enough to engage intellectual attention as through which a society tried to articulate its understandings of social and cultural experience.
A Study of the Deterioration of Story-Book Graphic Art on Plastics at Emporia State University
Authors: Wade Heather A.
Published: January 2019

This paper examines the long-term effects of the printing processes and uncontrolled storage climate on a series of original children's book illustrations that were executed on sheets of cellulose acetate and vinyl during the 1930s-1960s. Unintended at creation for permanent retention, the art-on-plastic posed intrinsic preservation challenges even as it was accepted into Emporia State University's collections in 1972; however, an unstable climate in the collections storage facility has expedited the deterioration of the acetates. Art on vinyl has not yet shown signs of deterioration. This paper will explain the process that seven artists who worked with acetates used to replicate children's book illustrations on acetate and vinyl during the 1930s-1960s; it will explore the problems inherent in preserving acetates and vinyl; and it will examine the impact of the loss of this art-on-plastic to the study of the history of children's book publishing.
Selling the Collections: Internal Marketing in Archives and Records Management
Authors: Wiles Bradley J.
Published: January 2019

This article examines the concept of internal marketing in both records management programs and historic archival collections. Records programs and collections have long been viewed as important operational components for businesses and organizations of all types. However, these programs usually exist somewhere in the mid-level of operations, often in a support capacity, and as such must continually justify their cost and assert their value. The records management field has a better track record of marketing itself to internal stakeholders, while historic archives have often found it difficult to provide and demonstrate the value they add to an organization. From the records professional's perspective, records programs and collections are essential, not only to immediate business needs, but also to the long-term historical record. However, this value has often remained unarticulated, increasing the vulnerability of records programs and collections to shifts in organizational priorities.
An Archival Approach to Digitization and Web Accessibility at the Archives of American Art
Authors: Weiss Karen B.
Published: January 2019

The Archives of American Art, an archival unit of the Smithsonian Institution, with generous support from the Terra Foundation for American Art, has developed a digitization methodology to provide Web access to the papers of artists, dealers, critics, historians and art world figures that have been scanned in their entirety. The Archives’ unique role as an aggregator and distributor of primary resources through microfilm beginning in 1954, and adoption of the tools designed by and for archivists, including the USMARC AMC format in the 1980s, and particularly Encoded Archival Description (EAD) in the late 1990s, provided the operational infrastructure, capacity, and conducive environment that led to its ability to fully digitize and provide access to entire collections. The scalable infrastructure and workflow put in place where digitization and Web presentation seamlessly follow the fundamental archival work of arrangement and description demonstrate that a digitization methodology for archival collections need not be dictated by mismatched technology and approaches at the item or object level practiced by libraries and museums.
Collecting Experiences: The Very Idea
Authors: Tamen Miguel
Published: January 2019

This essay puts forth an argument against the notion that we collect things. It probes the notion of collecting experiences though it refrains from developing any theory of experience. It claims that nothing, no thing, is intrinsically collectible. Some attention is paid to the notion of intangible collecting and to the connection between collection and catalogue. The essay recommends that collections should be understood as we understand human actions, that is, bearing in mind the reasons, motives, and intentions of collectors, and concludes by defining collection as a practice following from the belief that certain voluntary acts can induce experiences in other people. It also suggests that this is all the theory about collections that we will ever need.
What Once Saved Life May Now Take It: Identification, Protection, and Mitigation of Health and Safety Hazards in Medical History Collections
Authors: Fleischer S. Victor
Published: January 2019

Many collecting institutions including museums, historical societies, libraries, and archives house medical history artifacts, which are one of the most precarious categories of hazardous collections. Some medical artifacts are not only a hazard to the health and safety of staff and visitors, but are also harmful to the environment and to other collection materials. This article intends to raise awareness among museum, library, and archives professionals of hazards present in medical history collections. It provides guidance on identification of hazardous materials and the risks associated with them. It also identifies proper protection and mitigation measures to help museum professionals protect themselves and others from these threats in order to prevent accidents and injuries and to safeguard institutions against unnecessary risks and liabilities. Finally, the article presents ways to balance the protection of human life against the preservation of the artifact.
The Re-housing and Return of the Louisiana State Museum's Collections
Authors: McCloskey Allison
Published: January 2019

A team led by conservators from Williamstown Art Conservation Center prepared and moved collections from the Louisiana State Museum that had previously been evacuated to an off-site storage facility following Hurricane Katrina. From December 2007 through June 2008, team members documented, assessed, stabilized, and packed a wide variety of collections objects. These included musical instruments, records, archives from the Louisiana History Center, decorative arts, and science and technology artifacts. Housings that served for both transport and storage were made to reduce handling where possible. Modular systems including rolling carts and trays sized to be compatible with the storage shelving were implemented for efficiency. Cost-effective commercially available materials made of archivally sound materials were used where appropriate. Over 200,000 objects in all were moved into the improved storage areas.
Moving Collections and Moving on at the Norwalk Historical Society
Authors: Macaluso Laura A.
Published: January 2019

This essay describes the results of a recent collections moving project at a small historical society in Connecticut. While a daunting task for a small board and even smaller professional staff, the effort directed towards the move ended up spilling out into other areas of historic site development, resulting in new ideas and new partnerships across the city. Though the final product was much different than was originally anticipated, the flexibility and enthusiasm of the board members allowed for plans to evolve out of the initial collections move project, which will sustain the direction of the organization for years to come.
Soapbox for the Automobile: Bumper Sticker History, Identification, and Preservation
Authors: Baker Whitney
Published: January 2019

First produced in the late 1940s, the bumper sticker quickly gained prominence in the early 1950s and over the years has served a wide range of purposes—from advertising tourist attractions and promoting public safety to political campaigning. As a result, many bumper stickers holding value as historical, cultural, or aesthetic artifacts have been collected by archives, museums, and libraries. Due to their potentially unstable composition, however, bumper stickers often present challenging preservation issues. In order to identify the types of bumper stickers currently held by U.S. cultural institutions and assess their preservation needs, a survey of over two-thousand bumper stickers was conducted. This paper documents the survey findings and provides guidance for dating and preserving bumper stickers.
Jorge Von Hauenschild
Authors: Lindskoug Henrik B.
Published: January 2019

The von Hauenschild collection was one of the founding collections of the Museo de Antropología, a university museum at the Facultad de Filosofía y Humanidades, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, located in Cordoba Capital, central Argentina. The collection is one of the largest at the museum with over 4000 objects from the nearby province of Santiago del Estero, a place almost unexamined by Argentinean archaeologists since the early works initiated by the Wagner brothers in the 1920s. Santiago has been seen as a marginal place in the national Argentinean history and perceived as an impoverished and remote place, but during part of the early 20th century, Santiago was thriving, especially at the time of the large railroad constructions in the country Santiago was also the home of the German-born engineer, Jorge von Hauenschild for 30 years. He formed the “von Hauenschild Collection” by excavating pre-historical tombs in the province in his quest for archaeological treasures. The collection has been almost untouched since the death of von Hauenschild in 1951. Research on the history of the collection shows the trajectory of von Hauenschild from a mere amateur to a professional archaeologist. Beginning as a collector of curious things, he transitioned into a modern archaeologist performing systematic archaeological investigations.
The Deaccessioning and Disposal Practices of Small Museums in Kentucky and Indiana
Authors: Corder Gwen
Published: January 2019

A survey conducted in 2008 for a graduate degree examined the methods that small museums use to deaccession and dispose of permanent collection items and compared findings against AAM and ICOM standards. An instrument was mailed to 200 large, medium, and small museums. Fifty-seven museums agreed to participate, 33 of which were small museums. Follow-up telephone interviews were conducted with six small museums. Some findings indicate that: small museums use untrained volunteers; small museum administrators do not have in-depth professional museum-training or education themselves; and small museums use money from the sale of collection items to finance operating and facilities’ costs. From these findings and fourteen years of personal experiences, it appears that small museums staff, board members, and volunteers need in-depth education and training in museum and collections management so that they can make better decisions about their collections.
Distinguishing between the Map and the Territory
Authors: Taylor Joel
Published: January 2019

This paper reviews the use of “agents” of deterioration or change in heritage risk assessment and examines the implications of using an agent-based approach to characterising risk. The paper highlights some problems connected to risk assessment that stem from using “agents,” including the need to represent synergistic action between agents, a hierarchy amongst agents where some have direct and indirect impact upon exposure to other agents and the lack of effective representation of inherent deterioration. The paper briefly discusses various approaches that might mitigate the problems identified. These include changing the way in which risk is viewed to a more conceptually integrated approach, adding more techniques to risk assessment and risk management, such as dependency modelling, and using more advanced statistical approaches, such as principal component analysis.
PRISM: Software for Risk Assessment and Decision-Making in Libraries
Authors: Ogden Barclay W.
Published: January 2019

PRISM is a software instrument developed by the University of California to enable UC libraries to analyze and manage risks of damage and loss to their collections. PRISM is designed to use a database of quantitative evidence, i.e., statistical data collected by public agencies, claims reported by insurance companies nationwide, and compiled expert opinion, to inform and guide its users.
Risk Level Assessment of the Seaside Architecture of Oeiras, Portugal
Authors: de Carvalho Antunes Alexandra
Published: January 2019

The Seaside Architecture Inventory of Oeiras includes fifty single-family houses, built for sea vacation, between 1860 and 1925, in the territory of the current Oeiras’ municipality and still existent. This study involves, in a multidisciplinary approach, the systematization and the description of the buildings and also the assessment of its risk level. The research was constituted through field work, supported by documentary and bibliographical research. This paper presents the method used to the assessment of this buildings’ physical risk.
A Case Study in Dealing with Old Loans from the Kentucky Historical Society
Authors: Van Horn Deborah Rose
Published: January 2019

Recently, the Kentucky Historical Society (KHS) went through a database migration that created unforeseen data problems. During the migration, many of the accession records were lost or “merged” due to the existence of a double numbering system. This numbering system was created when the Kentucky Military History Museum (KMHM) and its collections were treated as a separate museum from the 1970s–1990s. Due to these data problems, KHS has undertaken a project to process the files, record by record, and to re-enter the accession information for accuracy purposes. During this process, several old loans were discovered. This article will focus on the double numbering issue and the old loans discovered in the KHS and KMHM accession files. The KHS is currently employing several means to resolve these issues, including contacting the owners, attempting to contact any potential heirs, and trying to obtain ownership through the Kentucky laws regarding old loans in museums. As evidenced in the case studies presented here, it's possible to find the problem records in accession/loan files and solve them!
Canadian Conservation Institute
Authors: Inch Jeanne E.
Published: January 2019

The Canadian Conservation Institute (CCI) celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2012. As an agency of the Department of Canadian Heritage, CCI has a mandate to serve heritage institutions in every region of Canada, preserving the objects and collections that are evidence of the history of Canada. The work of the Institute over the years is a reflection of Canada's people, cultural heritage, geography and environment. This article describes how CCI's work in conservation science, treatment and preventive conservation have evolved as the needs of Canadian museums and archives, and their collections, have changed. A recent independent evaluation of CCI found that the Institute has a unique organizational model that brings economies of scale to the preservation of Canada's heritage, and that CCI meets the needs of its clients in Canada through expert services, training, information and advice.
Seeing beyond the House
Authors: Fitzpatrick Siobhan
Published: January 2019

This essay examines five historic structures two mills, a library, a custom house and a retirement community that have been converted to serve as museums. Each case study looks at the building location, building ownership and interpretation of the structure.
Princes, Dukes, and Counts
Authors: Yeide Nancy H.
Published: January 2019

In 2010 the Samuel H. Kress Foundation supported a grant for centralized provenance research on the Kress collection of Old Master paintings donated by the Foundation to repositories across the United States. The grant supports museum best practices in the field of provenance research and transparency in museum collection information—as promoted by the American Alliance of Museums and the Association of Art Museum Directors—and also advances the Samuel H. Kress Foundation's mission to serve the field of art history as practiced in American art museums. The project is based at the National Gallery of Art, which has taken a leadership role in the field of provenance research, facilitated by its location in Washington in close proximity to the United States National Archives, the Archives of American Art, and its own outstanding art historical research resources. The project is centered on a systematic approach to research that provides methodological efficiencies, economies of scale and a consistency in research standards that would not be capitalized upon if conducted independently by Kress repositories or on a case by case basis. The current article is a preliminary report on the project.
The Eugene Garbáty Collection of European Art
Authors: Reed Victoria
Published: January 2019

Little has been written about the art collection of Eugene Garbáty, a Jewish industrialist from Berlin who fled Germany and settled in the United States in the late 1930s. Yet, many American museum collections include works of art that belonged to Garbáty, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA) is no exception; between the 1940s and the 1960s, the MFA acquired thirty-four works of European painting, sculpture, and decorative art from him. Based on a study of the provenance of these objects, this article offers preliminary observations on the formation of Garbáty's collection, its fate during World War II, and its dispersal within the United States.
Nazi Era Claims and Art Museums
Authors: Clark Stephen W.
Published: January 2019

This paper will review the response of American art museums to the possibility of possessing art that was—or might have been—lost, stolen or taken under duress during the period 1933–45 in Europe. Nearly all World War ll-related claims to objects in U.S. art museums have been amicably resolved. Only a handful of claims have been litigated, and museums have been uniformly successful in the rare instances where a court has reached a decision.
Cultural Treasures or Cash Cows?
Authors: White Pamela J. , Wasmund Sadie
Published: January 2019

Throughout history, the value of art collections has often been too great an enticement to avoid their commodification. Nonetheless, museum advocates must fight to retain their collections even amidst pressure from forces that hold financial control and ultimate decision-making power over them. A case could be made that some view collections as cultural treasures while others view them as cash cows. For instance, the city of Detroit's bankruptcy, due to the national economic downturn and the decline of the city's economic strength, has fostered discussions of selling the Detroit Institute of Arts’ collection. That city's financial—and cultural—crisis parallels situations faced by some museums that are nested in colleges and universities. The sagas of four museums nested in institutions of higher education are explored and compared: The Maier Museum at Randolph College; The Rose Museum at Brandeis University; Fisk University; and The University of Iowa. In a final analysis of these case studies and broader concerns, the authors advocate for nested museums to take a strong stance of financial self-sufficiency by creating cooperative ownership networks with other museums. Such a model aims to keep art collections safe from sale by continually keeping them on display at different museum locations while protecting their status as works kept for the public in perpetuity.