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Acquisitions Policy

It is the Museum’s policy to acquire objects for the purpose of promoting its mission through gifts, bequests, transfers, purchases, and loans. The Museum Director, Museum staff, designated University Development Officers, the University of Illinois Foundation, Museum Board, and Museum Guild seek to promote and develop relationships with donors towards this goal. As per University regulations, the Foundation is the recipient of appraised gifts of significant value as determined by the Foundation.  For such gifts Foundation staff will correspond with donors, negotiate gift processing, and complete Deeds of Gift. The Museum staff may also receive gifts on behalf of the Museum or acquire items through purchase.  It is, however, the responsibility of the Registration staff, under the direction of the Registrar, to ensure that the appropriate acquisition policies and procedures are followed and documented for all objects acquired by the Museum from the time the Registration Section is informed of a potential or active acquisition. 

The Director is ultimately responsible for all acquisitions.  While Registration staff works together in assisting and supporting each other towards this goal, acquisition responsibilities are generally divided as follows.  The Registrar has the primary responsibility for presenting acquisitions to the Acquisition Committee, for legal compliance of acquisitions to all applicable local, state, and federal laws and regulations, and for all acquisition-related decisions.  The Assistant Registrar for Acquisitions plays a key role in acquisition processing including preparing information for the Acquisition Committee; implementing the Acquisition Committee’s decisions including corresponding with donors and completing all required paperwork; and cataloguing and physical processing of acquisitions to the Library Collection.  The Assistant Registrar for Collections plays a key role in the cataloguing and physical processing of acquisitions to the Museum’s Artifact, Teaching, Documentary Multimedia, and Props and Furnishings Collections.  Registration staff will work to complete acquisition processing and physical processing in a complete as well as expedient and efficient manner.

Glossary

Accession is the legal process used to accept title of objects into a museum’s collections by completing a Deed of Gift or Memorandum of Understanding and recording the object through the creation of an immediate and permanent record utilizing a unique identifier.

Acquisition is the addition of objects to any of a museum’s collections either permanently (such as purchase, gift, or transfer) or temporarily (such as loan).

Acquisition Processing refers to the steps required for a transfer transaction from the preparation of a potential acquisition for acquisition review through the transfer of ownership to the Museum and all associated paperwork or from the initiation of a loan through implementation of the loan and all associated paperwork.  If the object is declined, acquisition processing is completed when the object is returned to the owner and all associated paperwork and change of location is completed. 

This process includes preparing Acquisition Reports, corresponding with donors, distributing and filing Acquisition Committee Recommendations, recording the Acquisition Committee’s recommendations in the appropriate database records, implementing Deeds of Gift, reporting values to University Property Accounting, and initiating gift transmittal forms.  It does not include physical processing or cataloguing; see definition below.

The terms Physical Processing and Cataloguing refer to the steps used to assign an accession number and document an object.  This generally takes place when an object comes into the possession of the Museum and is assigned an incoming number for tracking purposes and when accessioning objects into a given collection as determined by the Acquisition Committee and after the signing of the Deed of Gift.

This process includes assigning either incoming numbers or accession numbers, registering objects in the appropriate ledgers, physically labeling objects, creating or editing database records for each object in the appropriate database, photographing, measuring and weighing, writing visual descriptions, and transferring any known information about the origins, source, acquisition, date, or other curatorial information about objects into the objects’ database records.  The process also includes recording the location of objects.

Types of Acquisitions

Gift is a voluntary transfer of property free of encumbrances that occurs while the donor is alive.  As per University regulations, the University of Illinois Foundation is the legal recipient of all appraised gifts of significant value as determined by the University of Illinois Foundation.  A Deed of Gift documents the transfer of title.

Bequest is a gift of personal property donated by the deceased under the terms of a will.

Deferred Gift is a gift of personal property in which the transfer of title is postponed to a date later than the physical transfer of property.  Property accepted into the Museum’s collections as deferred gifts shall be considered a loan that becomes a gift in the year the title is transferred. 

Deferred gifts may be formalized with a written agreement documenting the donor’s intention to transfer the property to the Museum at a future date.  The deferred gift may be made informally with the donor’s intentions indicated only through correspondence between Museum staff and the donor.

Deferred gifts with documentation of the donor’s intention to gift the objects are assigned an accession number in the year the objects are physically transferred to the Museum but the objects retain the loan status.  When title is transferred the status is changed to gift, and the object retains the same accession number.  If there is a possibility that the gift will not be completed, the Registrar may elect not to assign an accession number and to maintain the object under its incoming number only.

Loan In, or Incoming Loan, is the temporary physical transfer of property from a lender to the Museum according to the terms specified in a legally binding loan agreement.  It does not involve transfer of ownership.

Loan Out, or Outgoing Loan, is the temporary physical transfer of property from the Museum’s collections to a borrower according to the terms specified in a legally binding loan agreement.  It does not involve transfer of ownership.

Purchase is the transfer of property in exchange for monetary compensation.

Transfer is the transfer of property from one institution to another institution or from one University unit to another.  A Memorandum of Understanding or Record of Transfer Receipt is used to document the transfer of title.  The term ‘transfer’ is also used informally to refer to the movement of objects between collections in the Museum; such a move should be processed as a deaccession from one collection and an acquisition into the other collection.

Acquisition Review

The acquisition review process provides the opportunity to assess whether the objects should be acquired and to determine the collection for which they are appropriate. The acquisition review process is to be completed for all objects whether gift, deferred gift, bequest, purchase, or transfer to the Museum for acquisition into the Artifact, Documentary Multimedia, Teaching, Library, or Props and Furnishings collections.  Special review procedures will be applied to loans as specified in the Outgoing Loans Policy and Incoming Loans Policy in Part A, #4 and #5. Deaccessions will also be subject to review by the Acquisition Committee in the same manner and in the same documents as described below but will be specified in the Deaccessions Policy, Part A, #8.

The Acquisition Committee is responsible for reviewing new acquisitions and ensuring that objects meet the Criteria for Acquisitions (see below).  The Acquisition Committee consists of the Director, Registrar, Collections Manager, Director of Education, Director of Information Technology and Assistant to the Director (Business and Building Manager).  The Director may assign other staff members to the Committee as appropriate. The Assistant Registrar for Acquisitions attends all Acquisition Committee Meetings.

The Registrar, Assistant Registrar for Acquisitions, or Assistant Registrar for Collections is to be notified as soon as possible of any new potential acquisitions; see Receipt of Objects Policy, Part A, #2.  If the gift may be of significant monetary value, the Director, Registrar or the Assistant Registrar for Acquisitions notifies the University of Illinois Foundation.  The University of Illinois Foundation will determine whether the gift is of sufficient value for the Foundation to proceed with acquisition processing, whether Foundation and Museum staff will work jointly to complete the processing, or whether the Museum will proceed with processing.

The Assistant Registrar for Acquisitions under the direction of the Registrar is responsible for preparing relevant information in an acquisition report, usually titled Acquisition Committee Meeting Agenda, for the Acquisition Committee to review.  The Registrar is responsible for presenting new acquisitions to the Acquisition Committee and for leading the Committee meeting.  The Assistant Registrar for Acquisitions is responsible for serving as secretary at the Committee meeting and for recording the Committee’s decisions.  The information presented to the Committee is to include all relevant information required for the Committee to make an informed decision, including, but not limited to, basic descriptive and catalogue information on the objects, acquisition and provenance information, images of the objects, staff and curator recommendations, etc.  The Assistant Registrar for Acquisitions under the direction of the Registrar is responsible for implementing the Acquisition Committee decisions.

The Acquisition Committee reviews the information presented and critically evaluates whether the objects meet the Criteria for Acquisitions (see below).  The Committee may also recommend additional research if needed to reach a decision. The Committee agrees by consensus.  If a consensus cannot be reached, the Director hears all opinions and makes the final decision. 

All recommendations by the Committee are presented in a final document, Acquisition Committee Recommendations.  This document is prepared by the Assistant Registrar for Acquisitions, approved by the Registrar, and circulated to the Acquisition Committee and to all interested staff for review and feedback.  The Registrar is responsible for responding to any issues raised by the staff and for re-submitting any issue to the Committee for reconsideration if needed.  The Acquisition Committee reviews and approves the final form of the Acquisition Committee Recommendations document.  Ultimately, it is the Director who must give final approval before any recommendations are implemented.

The following acquisitions are not subject to Acquisition Committee review (but are still subject to all other acquisition policies and procedures).

1. Books, VHS tapes, cassette tapes, CDs, DVDs, posters, and other media-type objects acquired by gift, deferred gift, bequest, purchase, or transfer for the Teaching Collection are not subject to Acquisition Committee review.  The Director of Education is responsible for verifying that any such objects meet the Criteria for Acquisitions (see below).
2. The purchase of objects for the Teaching Collection made by Education staff or Museum staff in consultation with the Education staff does not need to be reviewed by the Acquisition Committee. The Director of Education is responsible for verifying that any such objects meet the Criteria for Acquisitions (see below).
3. Objects for the Documentary Multimedia Collection acquired from internal or University sources (such as photographic images taken in-house or Museum documents from another campus unit) are exempt from Acquisition Committee review.  The Registrar is responsible for verifying that any such objects meets the Criteria for Acquisitions (see below).
4. Books acquired by gift, deferred gift, bequest, purchase, or transfer for the Library Collection are also exempt. The Registrar is responsible for verifying that any such objects meet the Criteria for Acquisitions (see below).  However, if the books are part of a group of gifted, bequested, purchased or transferred objects that includes objects other than books, if the books may be appropriate for either Teaching or Library Collection, or if the Registrar is unsure of the appropriateness of the books for the Library Collection, the books are subject to Acquisition Committee review.

Criteria for Acquisitions

All objects acquired into the Artifact, Documentary Multimedia, Teaching, Library, and Props and Furnishings Collections are subject to the following criteria:

1. Objects must be of value in promoting and supporting the objectives and purposes of the Spurlock Museum as set forth in the Museum’s Mission Statement;
   
2. Objects must be consistent with the Museum’s Collecting Plan or be a compelling, clearly articulated, and documented exception;
   
3. Objects must be authentic, or if an object is a reproduction, mass-produced object, or fake, it must have value for the Museum’s purposes as such;
   
4. The cost and expenditure of staff time and other resources in acquiring, researching, transporting, processing, and storing the objects must fit within the Museum’s available resources;
   
5. Condition of the objects must be such that the Spurlock Museum can adequately care for and preserve them, in keeping with current professional standards, to the best of its ability and within the standards appropriate to the type of collection;
   
6. Objects must be of an appropriate size and physical state for which the Spurlock Museum can provide adequate storage space and security;
   
7. Objects must be deemed to pose no health risk or other hazard for staff, visitors, the Museum building and grounds, or Museum collections that is beyond the ability of staff and facilities to contain;
   
8. Objects must be the legal property of the donor, seller, or lender and he/she/it must have legal authority to transfer ownership, sell, or lend the objects; 
   
9. Objects must have documentation of origin, provenance, previous ownership, and circumstances of acquisition by owner or adequate accounting of such as determined by the Acquisition Committee and Museum Director.  The objects will be accompanied by as much information as possible regarding history and cultural context;
   
10. The acquisition of objects must comply legally and ethically with:
    
1. United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export, and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property, November, 1970; Article 9 Convention under the Convention on Cultural Property Implementation Act (1983)
   
2. Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) Public Law 101-601; 25 U.S.C. 3001-13; 104 Stat. 3042
   
3. Treaty of Cooperation between the United States and Mexico for the Recovery and Return of Stolen Cultural Properties for Pre-Columbian Artifacts
   
4. Antiquities Act, Archaeological Resources Protection Act of 1979, Public Law 96-95; 16 U.S.C. 470aa-mm
   
5. Treaties, memoranda of understanding, or other legal agreements between the United States and other countries regulating importation of archaeological and ethnographic materials
   
6. Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), 1977
   
7. African Elephant Conservation Act 16 USCS 4203
   
8. Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918, 16 U.S.C. 703-712, Ch. 128; July 13, 1918; 40 Stat. 755 and subsequent amendments
   
9. Endangered Species Act of 1973 16 U.S.C. 1531-1544, 87 Stat. 884 and subsequent amendments
   
10. Bald Eagle Protection Act of 1943, 16 U.S.C. 668-668d, 54 Stat. 250 and subsequent amendments
    
11. USFW and USDA regulations relating to biological material imported from outside the U.S.
    
12. Lacey Act Amendments of 1981 relating to biological material, Public Law 97-79, 16 U.S.C. 3371-3373
    
13. Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972, 16 U.S.C. 1361-1407, P.L. 92-522 and subsequent amendments
    
14. All other applicable local, state, federal and international laws and regulations
    
11. Objects consisting of human remains and sacred materials will not be acquired if it is known by curatorial staff and Acquisition Committee members at the time of acquisition that their presence and use in Museum collections, programs, and/or exhibits is considered to be offensive or inappropriate by the relevant cultural group, whether or not they are governed by public law;
    
12. Objects subject to copyright must be accompanied by documentation of the transfer of named copyrights or by documentation identifying copyright status as long as such status is acceptable for the Museum’s purposes in acquisition;
    
13. An object cannot be accepted if the object is required to remain in the collection or on exhibit for any period of time or for perpetuity;
    
14. Objects must be free of any restrictions or conditions, and exceptions to this criterion will be made only in extraordinary circumstances and in consultation with University Legal Counsel; and
    
15. Objects must be in compliance with the Spurlock Museum Guidelines for Professional Practices, University of Illinois’ Policy on Conflicts of Commitment, American Association of Museum’s Code of Ethics, and the International Council of Museums Code of Professional Ethics.
    

Acquisition Processing

The Director, Registrar or the Assistant Registrar for Acquisitions under the direction of Registrar is responsible for notifying the donor of the Acquisition Committee’s decision.  The Assistant Registrar for Acquisitions facilitates the signing of the Deed of Gift Form or Memorandum of Understanding indicating transfer of title and documentation of transfer of copyrights.  If objects have not been previously received, the Assistant Registrar for Acquisitions facilitates the physical transfer of the objects to the Museum prior to the completion of the Deed of Gift Form or Memorandum of Understanding; also see Receipt of Objects Policy, Part A, #2, Integrated Pest Management Policy, Part B, #3, and Packing and Shipping Policy, Part B, #5.

Although the donor is not required to do so, the Director, Registrar, or Assistant Registrar for Acquisitions will request an appraisal or documentation of value for each gift if possible.  If the appraisal is only verbal, all available information regarding the value provided by the donor and the context of the appraisal will be noted.

The Assistant Registrar for Collections is responsible for the cataloguing and physical processing of objects.  Each object is catalogued into a Collection only after a Deed of Gift or Memorandum of Understanding is signed.  However, deferred gifts will be assigned an accession number despite the fact that their status will remain as incoming.  The registration and cataloguing of each object should be completed as soon as possible after transfer of title or loan agreement for a deferred gift is completed.   The object is registered by the assignment of an accession number recorded in the appropriate ledger and/or database; see Museum Collections and Collections-Related Numbering Systems Policy, Part A, #1.  Objects are physically numbered, photographed, weighed, measured and documented as completely as possible.  Objects are then transferred to the appropriate storage areas.

After a Deed of Gift or Memorandum of Understanding is signed, the gift is reported to the University of Illinois Foundation Gift Processing and Stewardship Services Office.  If a value was provided by the donor or by an appraisal, the amount is included.  If the value of the gift is unknown, it is recorded as $1.00.  According to federal law, Museum staff may not assign a value or in any way be involved in identifying a value that may be used as an appraisal or for tax purposes.

After the Deed of Gift is signed, the Assistant Registrar for Acquisitions reports the appraised value of the acquisition to the Artifact Collection to the University of Illinois Property Accounting Office.  If the value is not known the Registrar, or the Assistant Registrar for Acquisitions under the direction of the Registrar, will develop an estimated value for the gift.  The estimated value provided by the Registrar or Assistant Registrar for Acquisitions is for internal purposes only; see Appraisal Policy, Part A, # 9.