You seem to have a god idea there but (always a but) permanent loans are not a great idea, they have blown in the face of a number of organizations.

you are asking a group to care for something they do not own. and at the same time you still own it and can not get any use out of it.

I would say try to get a trade or a purchase going with the two groups. That way everybody is clear on where is what with the artifact.

At the Western Railway Museum we just did a trade of much benifit to the two groups. The equipment has not moved yet but I am sure it will.

Good luck with the project!

Ted Miles

ted_miles@nps.gov

> I would say try to get a trade or a purchase
> going with the two groups. That way
> everybody is clear on where is what with the
> artifact.

YES - tranfer ownership.

> At the Western Railway Museum we just did a
> trade of much benifit to the two groups. The
> equipment has not moved yet but I am sure it
> will.

Congratulations - I hope we see alot more of this in the future between museums.

Jim

jim@sdrm.org

For anyone dealing with museum loans, required reading is A Legal Primer for Managing Museum Collections by Marie Malaro (Smithsonian Institution Press, 2nd ed., 1998). To manage loans responsibly is to have some knowledge of the law and the implications of situations like "permanent loans" (it is either a loan or it is not a loan). This book is usually required reading in many Museum Studies classes (it was required in the Collections Management course I took at the University of Delaware three years ago).

> YES - tranfer ownership.

> Congratulations - I hope we see alot more of
> this in the future between museums.

> Jim