New York Codes, Rules and Regulations › Title 8 - EDUCATION DEPARTMENT › Chapter I - Rules of the Board Of Regents › Part 3 - University Of The State Of New York; State Education Department › Incorporation › Section 3.27 - Chartering and registration of museums and historical societies with collections

Current through Register Vol. 46, No. 28, July 10, 2024
(a)
				  Definitions. Whenever used in this section, the following terms shall have the
				  meanings indicated:
(1) Museum means an
				  organized non-for-profit institution, including but not limited to halls of
				  fame, zoos, aquariums, botanical gardens and arboretums, that is essentially
				  educational or aesthetic in purpose, with professional staff, which ordinarily
				  owns, exhibits, maintains, and/or utilizes artifacts, art, and/or specimens,
				  including non-tangible electronic, video, digital and similar art, cares for
				  them, and exhibits them to the public on some regular schedule.
(2) Historical society with collections means
				  an organized not-for-profit institution, with purposes limited to a reasonable
				  and clearly defined geographical area or to one or more specific subjects of
				  interest, which gathers, preserves, advances or disseminates knowledge about
				  the past through research, collections acquisition and management, preservation
				  and/or interpretation, which carries on educational and public programs on a
				  regular schedule, which makes its programs and resources accessible to the
				  public, and which is appropriately and professionally staffed by paid and/or
				  volunteer personnel who possess sufficient training and knowledge to meet the
				  requirements of its mission and the needs of its collections.
(3) Institution means a museum or historical
				  society with collections formed by the Board of Regents or otherwise
				  incorporated as an education corporation under the laws of the State of New
				  York.
(4) Accessible means the
				  extent to which the institution ensures that its collections, interpretation,
				  public and educational programming, and physical plant are reasonably
				  convenient for the public to use, understand and enjoy.
(5) Accession means:
(i) adding an object to an institution's
				  collection, or
(ii) the act of
				  recording/processing an addition to an institution's collection.
(6) Catalogue means the systematic
				  classification of objects or specimens in the collection according to accepted
				  museological practice.
(7)
				  Collection means one or more original tangible objects, artifacts, records or
				  specimens, including art generated by video, computer or similar means of
				  projection and display, that have intrinsic historical, artistic, cultural,
				  scientific, natural history or other value that share like characteristics or a
				  common base of association and are accessioned; for purposes of this section,
				  historic structures owned by an institution shall be considered as part of a
				  collection when so designated by the institution.
(8) Collection care means the responsibility
				  and function of an institution that involves developing and implementing
				  policies and procedures to protect the long-term integrity of objects,
				  artifacts, records and specimens, as well as their associated data and
				  documentation, for use in research, education and exhibits.
(9) Collection management means the
				  responsibility and function of an institution, through its collections
				  managers, subject specialists, curators, and other institutional administrators
				  to foster the preservation, accessibility, and utility of the institution's,
				  collections and associated data, including recommending and implementing policy
				  with respect to: artifact, record or specimen acquisition, collection growth,
				  and deaccessioning; planning and establishing collection priorities; obtaining,
				  allocating, and managing resources; and coordinating collection processes with
				  the needs of curation, preservation, and collection use.
(10) Deaccession means:
(i) removing an object from an institution's
				  collection, or
(ii) the act of
				  recording/processing a removal from an institution's collection.
(11) Diversity means broadly
				  inclusive participation in every aspect of governance, staff, operations and
				  programs to represent the community and constituency served in terms of race,
				  ethnicity, gender, economic background and geography.
(12) Education/public programs and
				  exhibitions means the full range of mission-related educational activities in
				  which the institution engages, to promote understanding and appreciation of a
				  subject, and to support life-long learning.
(13) Hours of operation means publicly stated
				  and promoted regular hours during which the public has reasonably convenient
				  access to the institution's education/public programs and
				  exhibitions.
(14) Interpretation
				  means the ways that the institution uses its collections, exhibits, and
				  research to communicate meaning to the public.
(15) Mission statement means a statement
				  modeled on and derived from the institution's corporate purposes, as set forth
				  in its charter or certificate of incorporation, that identifies the benefits
				  derived from the institution's activities.
(16) Operating budget means the amount of
				  annual income or expenditures of the institution, excluding funds raised for
				  capital improvements, funds received or designated for addition to endowments
				  and funds raised or obtained from sale of collections.
(17) Professional staff means at least one
				  paid employee who commands an appropriate body of special knowledge in the area
				  for which he or she is employed, and the ability to reach museological
				  decisions consonant with the experience of his/her peers and apply accepted
				  standards of practice, and who also has access to and acquaintance with the
				  expertise, best practices, literature and scholarship of the field; provided,
				  however, that a museum with an operating budget of $100,000 or less shall be
				  appropriately and professionally staffed by paid and/or volunteer personnel who
				  possess sufficient training and knowledge to meet the requirements of its
				  mission and the needs of its collections.
(18) Public trust means the responsibility of
				  institutions to carry out activities and hold their assets in trust for the
				  public benefit.
(19) Research means
				  a studious inquiry conducted in support of an institution's stated purposes in
				  order to bring to light new facts or to confirm or revise accepted
				  conclusions.