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.govhttp://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
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