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Policies and Procedures

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Collection Acceptance Policies and Procedures


Collection Assessment Guidelines

Physical Data

The MBMG will consider the following guidelines when acquiring, retaining, or disposing new physical data for its collections. The materials must:

  1. pertain to the state of Montana;
  2. not be already available in the collections;
  3. not be available from the other libraries or archives;
  4. add to the body of knowledge encompassed by the collections;
  5. revise or correct early versions of the materials in the collections;
  6. be in better physical condition than existing identical materials;
  7. represent rare, historically significant, unique, or Montana-specific specimens or material pertaining to those areas of Montana geology.

Digital Data

Digital materials are subject to the same acquisition guidelines as physical collections received by the MBMG. Additionally, acceptance of digital collections will be subject to:

  1. Media condition—media that has been damaged and is illegible will not be accepted;
  2. Availability of technology to access the digital data—the MBMG will make a good faith effort to locate the technological means to access data on media considered out of date or obsolete. If the technology cannot be located or no longer exists, the MBMG reserves the right to refuse the acceptance of outdated media.
  3. Availability of technology to transfer the data to current digital storage media;
  4. Cost feasibility of accessing and transferring data to current storage media—the nature and content of the data must be irreplaceable, unique, and contribute significantly to the collection to justify the cost for access and transference to current storage media.
  5. Before the MBMG assesses and/or accepts private or public donations of materials for the collections, the prospective donor will supply a detailed and complete inventory of the prospective donation. The MBMG reserves the right to review the inventory and select those items it deems appropriate for acceptance (see guidelines above). If the prospective donor plans to use the donation as a tax deduction, the donor will be responsible for securing an appraisal of the donated items. The MBMG will not conduct appraisals of prospective collection materials.

Collection Assessment Procedures

Preliminary Appraisal/Donation Suitability

  1. The Archives Manager, through prospective donor discussions and existing repository review, assesses each prospective donation for its suitability as part of the MBMG Archives repository using the Preliminary Collection Assessment Worksheet.
  2. The Archives Manager will complete the assessment, summarizing key benefits and concerns with the prospective collection’s acceptance, and review the preliminary appraisal with the MBMG Director. The Director may authorize the collection’s acceptance, direct the Archives manager to conduct an onsite evaluation of the collection, or decline the collection donation.

Onsite Collection Assessment

If directed by the MBMG Director, the Archives Program Manager will conduct an onsite collection assessment to determine if the collection is an acceptable and appropriate addition to the Archives.

Preliminary Onsite Assessment

Acquisition Procedures

Collection Acceptance and Accession

The Mining Archives department accepts collections at the Bureau offices or from the donor at the collection site. Accession is the process of recording the actual transfer of the collection’s physical materials, its ownership, and all legal rights pertaining to the collection from the donor to the MBMG.

Donor-Delivered Collections

  • If the collection's donor packages and delivers the collection to the Mining Archives department, complete the appropriate MBMG Deed of Gift form, noting the type and number of containers in which the collection is stored.
  • The donor will provide a written collection inventory, sign the MBMG Deed of Gift form, and receive a copy of the signed Deed of Gift form.
  • MBMG Archives staff will complete the Montana Tech Gift in Kind forms and route the form and an acknowledgement letter to the MBMG Director for signature. The Archives manager will place a copy of the signed letter and all completed donation forms in a donor-specific file in the Mining Archives office.

MBMG-Retrieved Collections

  • When MBMG staff packages and retrieves the collection at the collection’s site, the donor must be present. The donor must review the contents of each box or container of collection materials and initial each container before securing it in MBMG transport vehicles.
  • The donor will sign two completed copies of the MBMG Deed of Gift form, noting the type and number of containers transported from the collection site to the MBMG Mining Archives department. The donor will retain one copy of the form and the MBMG will retain the second copy.
  • Archival staff will complete Montana Tech Gift in Kind forms and route the form and an acknowledgement letter to the MBMG Director for signature. The Archives manager will place a copy of the signed letter and all completed donation forms in a donor-specific file in the Mining Archives office.

Donor Files

The Archives Program Manager maintains alphabetical, donation-specific administration files containing a historical record about each donation. The files include:

  • Copy of the completed and signed Deed of Gift form
  • A copy of the completed and signed Montana Tech Gift in Kind form
  • A detailed collection or donation inventory
  • An acknowledgement letter from the MBMG Director, thanking the donor
  • All internal memorandums relevant to the collection's acquisition
  • Correspondence (hard copy and/or printed pdfs of electronic communications) with donors
  • Correspondence with researchers using the collections
  • Donor contact information

Deed of Gift Accession Number assignment:

Each donation has a unique accession number. If the donation is a special collection, it will be formatted as:
Special Collection = SC
Creator's or donor's initials
8-digit collection receipt date
Example: The John W. Taber Collection accession number is: SCJWT08132015
SC (special collection)
JWT (John W. Taber's initials)
08132015

For donations not categorized as a special collection, the Accession numbering process is the same, with the exception that the SC prefix is not used.