CECOMM Conference 2010

Janneke Hermans Ph.D.

Curator Telecommunication Technologies

Museum voor Communicatie, The Hague, The Netherlands

15 November 2010

Deaccession and Disposal of Museum Objects

- Deaccession procedures in the Netherlands;

- Case of deaccession telephones in Museum voor Communicatie.

Content

- Improvement quality collection;- Not museum quality;- Change in collection policy;- Usage;- Isolation;- Lack of interest;- Decreasing administrative burdens;- Duplicate objects;

- Overrepresentation;- Broken;- Health/environmental risks;- Collection mobility and visibility;- Nation of origin/original context;- Treatment is finished;- Substitution;- Knowledge incomplete;- Replaceability.

Why Deaccession?

• Preparation• Selection• Relocation• Rounding off project

4 phases of Deaccession

Tools selection criteria

- Use collection plan;- Deltaplan criteria (1990):

> A: Irreplaceable and indispensable objects or sub-collections:verification value, linkage value, symbolic value;> B: Objects and sub-collections with high presentation/attraction value,

genealogical value, ensemble value and documentation value;

> C: Objects or sub-collections that fit the museums mission statement but do not meet the A and B criteria;> D: Objects or sub-collections that never

should haven been inventoried.

Tools for disposal

- www.herplaatsingsdatabase.nl

Relocation database set up by Dutch Institute for Cultural Heritage

- www.haaleenstukjemuseuminhuis.nl

eBay, ‘obtain a piece of a museum’

- Auction House

Deaccession telephones

- 1975: Legacy mr. H.G. Broos

- Containing around 1700 objects, mostly telephones.

- Most was inventoried.

- Around 450 telephones not inventoried.

Physically brought together

- Homogeneous group of objects, no known contextual information;

- Do we already have it?- If not: is it a valuable addition to our

collection (rare type, used in the Netherlands)

- If yes: could we use a second specimen or a better equipped one?

Selection criteria

• Description and tagging of 471 telephones• Auction House• Various telephones per lot• Exception for rare telephones

Disposal