I asked our Department Accounting Officer to reply to your question. Here
is what Todd Hauber said:
I hope this helps.
Max J. Evans
Director, Utah State Historical Society (801) 533-3551 mevans@utah.gov http://history.utah.gov >>> HatcherRE <HatcherRE@CMOG.ORG> 4/23/02 11:41:10 AM >>> Hello, I know this topic has been discussed in general before, but I've searched the archives and found a limited number of relevant responses. The position of archivist is new at my institution, and until my arrival, donations of archival materials were appraised for monetary value by the library's technical processing staff. This value was entered into the acquisitions system for inclusion in the museum's annual report, but NOT used for tax or insurance purposes. Since my arrival, this task has been passed to me, but I'm uncomfortable with it (and haven't done it yet), in part because I am not a manuscript appraiser, but more importantly because it seems unethical and potentially illegal to appraise one's own material, even if taxes and insurance are not involved. I have tried to end the practice, but have not yet succeeded. So, my question are: Do any of you ever assign a monetary value to a collection for internal or departmental reasons? If so, how do you determine value? (I've already found the messages in the listserv archives which list values for different kinds of items--manuscripts, newspapers, pamphlets, etc, or per page of a collection. Does anyone use a different method?) If not, has it ever been considered? Why was it rejected? (I'd love to convince the director that I shouldn't have to do this either.) Do your annual reports include the value of that year's acquisitions, and how do you arrive at that figure? Thanks so much for your help. I'll summarize helpful responses for the list. Rebecca Rebecca Hatcher, Archivist Rakow Research Library of The Corning Museum of Glass 5 Museum Way Corning, NY 14830 (607) 974-8099 HatcherRE@cmog.org A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List! To subscribe or unsubscribe, send e-mail to listserv@listserv.muohio.edu In body of message: SUB ARCHIVES firstname lastname *or*: UNSUB ARCHIVES To post a message, send e-mail to archives@listserv.muohio.edu Or to do *anything* (and enjoy doing it!), use the web interface at http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/archives.html Problems? Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <rschmidt@lib.muohio.edu> |