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Assets and accounting for archives



For the past several years, the Milwaukee Public
Museum's Finance Dept. has required me to budget for
the purchase of library books n the museum's capital
budget, rather than its operating budget.  This is due
to a change in accounting rules.  Since books have a
useful life of more than one year, and we don't buy
the same title over and over  - they are now treated
as capital assets rather than as expendables.  Were we
to purchase a manuscript or a collection of personal
papers for the Archives, we would be required to treat
it similarly.

Presumably some accountant in the Finance Dept. is
depreciating these assets, while simultaneously
creating a fund to offset this depreciation for
replacement purposes (as is done for computers and
other assets normally purchased with capital budget
funds.  Of course, we've no intention of getting rid
of the books or the hypothetical archival purchase I
mentioned above.  We don't even get rid of old
computers because we rarely have enough money to buy
new one.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has been
revising many of its rules for accounting for
non-profits and government agencies because of the
need to present a more accurate (well,  standardized)
financial picture of  organizations.   Foundations and
federal and state funding agencies require audits
which has increased the likelihood that non-profits
will comply with the rules.  Unorthodox accounting
procedures are a very good way to get a grant proposal
rejected.

When MPM changed its governance structure from a
governmental agency to a private, not-for-profit
organization, the accounting rules under which we
operated changed significantly.  What applied in the
government sector did not necessarily apply in the
private sector.

Judith Campbell Turner
Director, Libray and Archives
Milwaukee Public Museum



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