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Re: taking inventory of artwork



I really like the idea of barcoding, but have you checked with any colleagues from the museum world?  Sometimes the frames are almost as valuable as the paintings themselves, and then what about furniture, carpets, etc.  Small objects can be boxed, and barcodes placed on the box, but I always hesitate to attach sticky things directly on objects.
 

Rebecca Fitzgerald, CA
Mt. St. Mary's Archives & Dept. of Special Collections
Mt. St. Mary's College & Seminary
Emmitsburg, MD 21727
301/447-5397
301/447-6868 (fax)
rfitzger@msmary.edu
http://www.msmary.edu/studentsandstaff/library/archives.htm

-----Original Message-----
From: Barbara Mathe [mailto:mathe@AMNH.ORG]
Sent: Friday, May 31, 2002 1:44 PM
To: ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU
Subject: Re: taking inventory of artwork

Laurie,
I would agree with Steve Johnson's suggestions. 
We too had an inventory of our art work done--in 1993.  No provision was made for updating the locations of the material so we now know what we have (and where it was in 1993) but we can't be sure whether the works are still in the same location.  Barcoding is the solution that we'll use the next time around and--as a library--we have the option of running the items through the circulation system.  The plan is to "check out" the art to individuals in the various Museum departments.  It is Museum policy that when a person leaves the institution's employ that all library items be returned.  This goes along with handing in keys etc. before one receives their last paycheck.  In this way, we hope to avoid the swapping, trading--"oh I'll take that painting for my office if you don't want it" scenarios of the past.   We'll supplement this with a yearly memo to each Museum Department and an annual Museum wide e-mail reminding staff that they are personally responsible for these items just as they are for library books.  Once established it would also be relatively easy to run a check through the circulation system to confirm that the items are still in place.  Presumably a similar system could be created with a conventional database in an institution without a library circulation system.
Good luck with it.

Barbara

Barbara Mathé
Museum Archivist and Head of Library Special Collections

American Museum of Natural History
Central Park West at 79 Street
New York, New York 10024
(212) 769-5419
mathe@amnh.org