C. Staff Responsibilities

1. The director is the final authority on all decisions affecting the collection. He shall delegate various authorities and responsibilities to the curators, collection manager, and registrar concerning the collection as deemed necessary.

2. The collection manager has decision-making authority and responsibilities vested by the director. The manager shall advise the director and the curators in decisions affecting the collection.

3. The registrar has decision-making authority and responsibilities vested by the director. The registrar shall advise the director and curators in decisions affecting the collection.

4. The curators have decision-making authority and responsibilities vested in them by the director. They shall serve in an advisory role to the director in decisions affecting the collection. They shall receive advice from the registrar and manager on matters concerning the collection.

5. A Collections Committee consisting of the director, curator of history and technology, curator of education, and the collection manager will: *approve objects for donation, *designate placement in the permanent or teaching collections, *advise as to methods of conservation of objects, *approve long-term loans to and from the museum.

6. The North Carolina Maritime Museum shall adhere to the Code of Ethics of the American Association of Museums (AAM) and the American Institute of the Conservation of Artistic and Historic Works (AIC).

II. ACQUISITION OF COLLECTION MATERIALS

A. Loans

1. Permanent or indefinite loans are not to be accepted. Current permanent or indefinite loans are to be further reduced by returning them to their owners or convincing their owners to donate them to the museum.

2. Loans to the museum can be made for a maximum of five years for exhibition or research purposes only and subject to Collections Committee and/or director approval.

3. The museum can take temporary custody of an object, artifact, or biological specimen for three months or less for research, study, identification, lecture, field trip, or exhibition purposes.

4. Outgoing loans may be made only to appropriate non-profit, educational institutions for research, educational, or exhibition purposes. That institution must bear all the costs of packing and shipping. Written application must be made 60 days in advance.
   a) Certain valuable artifacts, biological specimens, or large teaching collections can only be loaned to AAM-accredited museums meeting certain specific standards concerning conservation, security, insurance, shipping, and exhibition set forth by the director, curators, manager, and registrar. These can be loaned up to one year and request for renewal must be in writing 30 days in advance. Renewals are to be on the same basis as the original loan.

   b) Teaching collections and certain study artifacts, objects, or biological specimens can be loaned to any non-profit institution on approval by the director, the curators,and the manager. These can be loaned up to two months and renewed in writing on the same basis.

   c) No artifacts, objects, or biological specimens shall be loaned to any for-profit institutions or any individual.

5. Loan Procedures
   
   a) A "Loan Agreement Form" must be signed by the lender and the authorized museum personnel acknowledging the condition and terms of the loan.

   b) A permanent loan file shall be kept on every object in the collection.

   c) All rules and procedures shall be found and described in the registrar's manual and shall be enforced by the registrar, manager, and director.

B. Donations and Accessions

1. Accessioning is the process by which an object is acquired and added to the collection.

2. A "Donation Agreement Form" must be signed by the donor transferring title of ownership, establishing the donation as the outright and unconditional property of the museum, and must describe the object and condition fully. Authorized museum personnel must sign the form.

3. A permanent accession file shall be kept on every object in the collection as well as recorded on the collections computer program.

4. All rules and procedures concerning accessions shall be found and described in the registrar's manual and shall be enforced by the registrar, manager, and director.

C. Deaccessioning

1. Deaccessioning is the process by which an object, artifact, or biological specimen is permanently removed from the collection.

2. The criteria for deaccessioning is as follows:
   a) the object is no longer relevant and useful to the purposes and activities as set forth in the "Statement of Purpose."

   b) the museum can no longer properly take care of or preserve the object according to AAM or AIC standards.

   c) the object has deteriorated beyond usefulness

   d) there is a need or an opportunity to upgrade and replace an object in the collection.
   

3. The procedure for deaccessioning is as follows:
   
   a) the request for deaccessioning and disposal of any object must be reviewed by the Collections Committee which must make its recommendation to the director.

   b) following the committee's recommendation, the director must review and make the final decision.

   c) no staff member or their family, advisory board member or their family, for-profit institution, employee of the North Carolina Department Cultural Resources, or individual shall benefit, profit, or otherwise receive objects deaccessioned and disposed of by the museum.

III. CONSERVATION OF THE COLLECTION

It is the policy of the museum to adhere to a written preventive conservation policy. Preventive conservation stabilizes all objects, artifacts, and biological specimens within the collection by maintaining appropriate storage conditions. The Collections Committee shall oversee the enforcement of the policy and shall advise the director of the conservation of the collection periodically.  

IV. ACCESS TO THE COLLECTION