Deaccessioning

By Sandra Hudson

Communications Consultant

Who Decides What Stays in the Museum Collection?

D EACCESSIONING

The walrus (Odobenus rosmarus) lives in Arctic waters— well outside the museum’s regional mandate. This specimen will go to the Beaty Biodiversity Museum at UBC. W ith more than seven million items in the Royal BC Museum collections and 27 linear kilometres of records in the BC Archives, the collections are both an enviable historical resource and a massive undertaking to properly steward.

One vital element of managing the museum and archives collections is deaccessioning: the formal process of removing an object, material or specimen from the collections. Managing the collections is a dynamic process, as the composition of museum collections is ever changing.

Deaccessioning is an ongoing process, but it is never done hastily or without robust conversation. The process is strictly guided by museum policy, as well as the guidance of Royal BC Museum curators, archivists and collections managers, who have immense knowledge of the collection. In managing the collections, one of the major concerns is whether materials have provincial significance or help further our understanding of BC’s human or natural history. If they don’t, they are considered for deaccession. (It’s important to note that the repatriation of Indigenous cultural belongings, ancestral remains and burial belongings in the museum’s care is a separate, unrelated process. The disposal of government records in the BC Archives is also a separate process, governed by BC’s Information Management Act.)

(left) This hooded merganser (Lophodytes cucullatus) is contaminated with arsenic and will be destroyed.

(right) Australian specimens like this platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus) will go to the Beaty Biodiversity Museum at the University of British Columbia, supporting their efforts to preserve global biodiversity.

ACCESSIONING

Staff members also flag objects that may be better cared for at other institutions. The museum recognizes that some material in the collections may have greater significance for regional museums, galleries, libraries or archives. In the museum’s view, there is great value in supporting other institutions across the province grow their own collections and share items with their communities.

Material that has deteriorated or is damaged beyond repair, including preserved natural history specimens, is also subject to scrutiny and potential deaccessioning. Duplicates (or objects that are very similar to others in the collection) are often also considered for deaccession. Finally, natural history specimens without data— most importantly, where and when they were collected—have little scientific value and are candidates for deaccessioning.

Once it’s decided that something should be deaccessioned, exchanging, transferring, donating or selling the materials to other museums, galleries, libraries or archives is the museum’s first preference. When this isn’t possible, the collections policy directs the museum to consider sale at public auction.

The decision to deaccession is never made lightly by anyone in the museum and archives. Curators, archivists and collections managers are usually the first to identify objects that they recommend for deaccessioning. The advice of registrars, conservators and others in the Royal BC Museum community is essential when considering the composition of the collections. In every case, deaccessioning decisions are fully documented by staff, as is the recommended destination.

Ultimately, the Royal BC Museum Collections Committee makes the final decision about the deaccessioning of objects from the collections and submits their recommendations to the museum’s board of directors.

The museum’s approach to deaccessioning is consistent with the best practices in the field. The museum has developed its policies in compliance with guidelines from the Canadian Museums Association and the International Council of Museums. According to the CMA, “deaccessioning is a necessary and appropriate tool in collections management for any museum or gallery. Curatorially motivated disposal is an integral part of collection management and a way for a museum or gallery to refine its collection.”