Middleton Railway Trust Ltd. (MRT) Policy Directive

Reference: MUS/2 (9/14)

Subject: Museum Documentation Policies

For the attention of: All Council Members, All Shop Staff, All Museum Officers, The MRT’s Museum Mentor. For the information of: officers of the Arts Council concerned with museum accreditation.

This Directive does not form part of the Safety Management System.

Revision History

Previous versions of this Directive were as follows. Reference 11/09/1 was the initial version.

Reference 9/14/2 replaced it, to reflect the changes that had been made to the external requirements for accredited museums.

This version implemented the revised numbering scheme for directives, but made no other changes to the content.

Content Summary

This Directive contains the following sections: Introduction

Scope of the Museum Documentation Policies The Classification of Objects

Responsibility for Documentation The Object Entry Policy

The Acquisition Policy

The Location and Movement Control Policy The Cataloguing Policy

The Object Exit Policy The Inward Loans Policy The Outward Loans Policy

Introduction

1. This Directive specifies the policies governing the documentation of objects within the museum collection of the MRT, in order to support those documentation procedures that are identified as being primary procedures for an accredited museum. In what follows such objects are referred to as museum objects, where they need to be distinguished from objects that are part of the operational railway.

• This Directive is a revision of the MRT’s Policy Directive 11/09/1, and has been made primarily to reflect the changes in the requirements for accredited museums that have arisen following firstly the transfer of responsibility for the accreditation of museums from the former Museums Libraries and Archives Council to the Arts Council, and secondly the publication in October 2011 of a revised version of the Accreditation Standard for museums   and   galleries   in   the   United   Kingdom   (which   is   available   online   at

<http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/media/uploads/pdf/Accreditation_standard_print_friendly.pdf>, and is referred to as the Museum Accreditation Standard from now on). As such, this directive follows very closely the structure and wording of Policy Directive 11/09/1, since in principle the policies that it needs to define are essentially carried over from that previous Directive.

• In practice, though, there are also some very minor changes, for while both that Directive and this one are based on the requirements and guidelines for such policies that are published by the Collections Trust in the SPECTRUM standard for museum documentation, that standard has itself been revised. Consequently, whereas

the previous Directive was based on version 3.2 of that standard (published in 2009), this Directive is based on version 4.0 of the standard (available online at <http://www.collectionstrust.org.uk/spectrum/spectrum- homepage>, and published in March 2011). Because this Directive is written for the attention of MRT officers who may not be familiar with the SPECTRUM standard, and also for the attention of external organisations as well as officers of the MRT, it includes background material extracted from this standard, even though such material would not normally be considered necessary for inclusion in a Policy Directive.

• This Directive will be published in accordance with the MRT’s normal procedures for publishing Policy Directives, as set out in its Policy Directive GEN/1. In accordance with the procedures in that Directive it will be reviewed at least once every five years. This Directive and the policies that it defines are therefore next due for review in 2019, unless circumstances should arise that make it appropriate to review this Directive earlier than that.

Scope of the Museum Documentation Policies

• The policies that are specified in this directive therefore support the MRT’s versions of the following seven SPECTRUM procedures, which constitute the primary procedures for the maintenance of museum documentation that are required by the Museum Accreditation Standard. The detailed descriptions of each procedure constitute separate documents, which are created in accordance with the policies defined in this directive.
  • The Object Entry procedure ensures that when any potential or actual museum object first arrives on the MRT’s site its ownership is clearly established, along with the reason for it being there, and that the basic records for it are created through the completion of an object entry form.
  • The Acquisition procedure ensures that museum objects are only acquired if they are consistent with the MRT’s separate acquisitions and disposals policy.
  • The Location and Movement Control procedure ensures that correct records are maintained of where physically every museum object is located.
  • The Cataloguing procedure ensures that sufficient information is maintained about each museum object, and that the this information is adequately indexed, so that the resulting catalogue of museum objects will be useful for research.
  • The Object Exit procedure complements the Object Entry and Location and Movement Control procedures, and ensures that adequate information is recorded whenever a museum object leaves the MRT’s site.
  • The Inward Loans procedure (which SPECTRUM calls “Loans in”) provides the equivalent of the Acquisition procedure for museum objects that will be loaned to the MRT rather than owned by it.
  • The Outward Loans procedure (which SPECTRUM calls “Loans out”) complements the Inward Loans procedure for requests from other museums to borrow museum objects, and covers all the stages that would be involved in the MRT making such loans.

• The Museum Accreditation Standard also requires the implementation of the eighth SPECTRUM primary procedure, namely the one dealing with retrospective documentation. Some aspects of the implementation of this are specified in this directive, but the main part of this is defined in the MRT’s documentation backlog plan, which is a separate document.

• Many of the provisions of this directive are expressed in terms of actions that have been taken or will be taken or will not taken by the MRT. Except where the responsibility for such actions is assigned to individuals who have been appointed to specific roles, these provisions should be understood as placing obligations on what the Museum Accreditation Standard defines as the MRT’s “governing body”, namely its Council.

The Classification of Objects

• For the purposes of these museum documentation policies, objects are classified in two different ways, one way relating to the kinds of objects that are held in the collections, and the other relating to the sizes of objects.

• For the purposes of allocating responsibility for its documentation, any object will be assigned to one of the following different classes, based on the kind of object that it is:
  • an item of railway rolling stock;
  • a component of some item of railway rolling stock (for instance, one that has been removed from some item of rolling stock in the course of maintenance or restoration), or some other physical object that is directly related to an item of rolling stock, except for any pattern for making castings;
  • any pattern for a casting, whether that casting would be a component of an item of railway rolling stock or for some other railway use;
  • any audio-visual material, such as photographs, sets of photographs or other images, film or video images, or sound recordings;
  • a document or set of documents, that is to be treated as a part of an archive, with the exception of any archive copies of the “Old Run” or related newsletters, since the photographs in these overlap with objects in the audio-visual category;
  • any archive copy of the “Old Run” or related newsletters;
  • any other kind of physical object.

1. For purposes that are related to assessing the amount of storage or display space that is required for any object, it will be classified into one of two sizes, large or small, as follows.
   1. Any object that is a document or a photograph, as defined in clause 9 above, is classified as a small object.
   1. Any object of any of the other kinds identified in clause 9 is classified as a small object if it measures less than approximately one foot (30 cm) in all three dimensions, or if it measures up to approximately one foot six inches (45 cm) in one dimension and has an area of less than approximately 50 square inches (315 square cm) in the other two dimensions.
   1. Any object of any of the other kinds identified in clause 9 is classified as a small object if it measures more than approximately one foot six inches (45 cm) in any one dimension, or measures more than approximately one foot in one dimension and has an area of more than approximately 50 square inches (315 square cm) in the other two dimensions, or measures more than approximately one foot (30 cm) in either two or three dimensions.

1. For the purposes of recording its physical condition, any object will be assigned to one of the following classes:
   1. Excellent, meaning that its condition is effectively as new;
   1. Good, meaning that it has a few blemishes or slight deterioration, damage etc;
   1. Fair, meaning that there is some deterioration, damage or blemishing;
   1. Poor, meaning that it is badly deteriorated, broken, damaged or blemished (eg it has suffered discolouration, or foxing on paper objects.

Responsibility for Documentation

1. For each of the kinds of object identified in clause 9 above the Council will appoint an individual as a Museum Officer, who will be responsible for maintaining the museum documentation for all objects of that kind, and for operating the related procedures. In certain cases, as described in the policies below, these Museum Officers may also deputise for each other in respect of managing the documentation or operating the procedures for other kinds of objects besides the one(s) for which they have specific responsibility.

The Object Entry Policy

1. The SPECTRUM requirements for the policies governing object entry are that they should cover the following:
   1. the circumstances in which deposits will be accepted, including an indication of the persons who are authorised to do this;
   1. the conditions which the museum will apply to the return of deposits;
   1. how long, and in what form, enquiry information is held; and
   1. how the museum should deal with objects that have not been collected or returned to depositors.

1. As part of this, SPECTRUM also requires that a museum should have standard terms and conditions for deposited objects, which should include the following:
   1. a statement of the care and responsibility that will be taken by the museum;
   1. a disclaimer of liability;
   1. a declaration of the right to dispose of objects not collected by the depositor by an agreed date;
   1. a disclaimer concerning opinions on objects;
   1. a refusal to give valuations;
   1. for a proposed acquisition, a statement about the ownership status of the object(s);
   1. for a loan in, the steps that the organisation will take to return the object(s);
   1. in all cases, a timescale for any action; and
   1. the definition of which party is liable to costs incurred by the deposit e.g. transport costs.

1. This policy is concerned with the situation where an object that could be of interest to the MRT, either because of possible historical relevance to the MRT’s collections or as a possible museum exhibit, is deposited with the MRT by some individual or group of individuals (referred to in this policy as the depositor), but without prior arrangement having been made for such deposit.

1. Such a situation could arise through a request from a depositor to undertake research on an object. However, the MRT does not normally have the resources or expertise necessary to undertake research on objects that are not part of its own collections, and so if such a request were to arise without prior warning the MRT will not be able to accept the request to deposit the object with it. Consequently, the only circumstances under which the MRT will accept the deposit of any object for the purposes of conducting research on it will be if it has previously been established that there is an individual member of the MRT who is interested in that research and is willing to undertake it within an agreed period, and if the proposal for this individual to undertake this research on behalf of the MRT within this period has been approved by the Council. Under these circumstances clause 20 below will apply to the deposit of the object, and clause 23 below will apply to its removal from the MRT’s site at the end of the agreed period.

1. The MRT does not have the expertise necessary to give valuations of objects, and is not willing to accept the liabilities that could potentially result from the provision of a valuation that subsequently proved to be inaccurate. Hence, the MRT will not under any circumstances accept the deposit with it of objects for the purpose of providing valuations of them.

1. The MRT is from time to time offered items of equipment for use in the operation of the railway, rather than for possible display in its museum collections, and the deposit of such items with the MRT is in principle outside the scope of this policy, although in practice some of the provisions of this and the acquisition policy below may well also apply to such items.

1. Where the acquisition of an object for the museum collection has been approved by the Council prior to that object having been deposited with the MRT, the MRT’s Object Entry procedure will need to be operated when the object arrives at the MRT’s site, but the issues that are covered by this policy will already have been considered by the Council in making the decision to acquire the object, and so the arrival of such an object is outside the scope of this policy.

• Hence, apart from the circumstances described in clause 16 above, the only circumstances in which the MRT will accept the deposit with it of an object of the kind described in clause 15 above is where the MRT is being asked by the depositor to consider the object for inclusion in its collection, either by inward loan, donation or purchase. For any such object the MRT’s Object Entry procedure must be operated, and in particular the completion of a copy of the MRT’s Object Entry form, so as to obtain the information necessary to enable the MRT Council to make a decision as to whether the object should be borrowed or acquired. The provisions of clauses 21 to 24 below will then apply to the object.

• For any object which the MRT is asked to consider for inward loan or acquisition, the decision as to whether to accept the object must in principle be made by the MRT Council, but for certain categories of objects the Council may delegate this to an individual Museum Officer, as described in clause 27 below. The Council will normally aim to make such a decision within one month of the object being deposited, and if no such decision has been made within two months of the date of the object being deposited then it will be taken that the MRT does not wish to accept the object. The MRT will then notify the depositor of the decision regarding acceptance.

• If an object is being accepted, then either the MRT’s Inward Loan procedure or its Acquisition procedure must be operated, as appropriate, by the appropriate Museum Officer. Otherwise, where an object is not being accepted, the depositor must be asked to collect the object and remove it from the MRT’s site.

• If a depositor fails to remove an object from the MRT’s site within three months of a request to remove it being sent, the MRT must make all reasonable efforts to contact the depositor and arrange for the removal of the object. If, despite such efforts, the depositor has failed to remove it from the site within one calendar year of the object being deposited, then the MRT may take such steps as it thinks fit to dispose of the object.

• As part of the MRT’s Object Entry procedure, the depositor must be given a copy of the MRT’s standard terms and conditions for the deposit of objects, which amongst other things will specify the following aspects:
  • that the MRT will take all reasonable care of the object for the period of the deposit, but that it can not accept any liability for any loss of the object or damage to it;
  • if the object is being deposited for research, the agreed time period for conducting that research;
  • if the object is being deposited to be considered for acceptance for loan or acquisition, the timescales on which the decision about acceptance will be made, as specified in clause 21 above;
  • that unless specifically agreed, the MRT will not accept any responsibility for any costs associated with the deposit of the object, including any costs associated with returning it to the depositor and the depositor removing it from the MRT’s site;
  • that if the depositor is asked to collect the object but fails to do so, then the object may be disposed of in accordance with the provisions of clause 23 above;
  • that the MRT will not provide any valuations of objects (as specified in clause 17 above), and can not accept any liability for any use that may be made of the results of any research into any object, or for possible inaccuracies that may subsequently be found in the results of such research;
  • that if the object is to be considered for acquisition, the MRT will require the current owner to provide satisfactory proof of their title to the object; and
  • that if the object is to be considered for an inward loan, arrangements must be made that are satisfactory to the MRT for agreeing the period of the loan, and for returning the object to the depositor at the end of the loan.

The Acquisition Policy

• The SPECTRUM requirements for the policies and guidelines governing acquisition are that they should cover the following:
  • the authorisation policy for agreeing acquisitions;
  • a statement of the terms and conditions under which objects will normally be acquired;
  • guidelines on what due diligence checks a museum will carry out in order to establish that a potential acquisition was not involved in illicit trade or spoliation, or is protected natural material;
  • guidelines for additional storage, transport and conservation costs which will normally be considered for an acquisition;
  • a statement of the reproduction rights that the museum hopes to acquire with an object and the efforts that are to be made to establish who owns the rights;
  • the maximum time that should be permitted to elapse between the entry of an object and the completion of the accessioning procedure;
  • the standard format for numbering systems; and
  • the preferred marking and labelling methods (which as far as possible should avoid the need for marks or labels to be put on objects in ways that might damage them).

• This policy is additional to the MRT’s Museum Collection Development Policy (which in the SPECTRUM standard is referred to simply as a collections policy), as that is specified in the MRT’s policy directive MUS/1. Hence, this policy specifies additional details relating to the acquisition process. Other details, such as the checks that must be made to ensure that the MRT does not acquire objects that would contravene its Museum Collection Development Policy, are specified in the MRT’s Acquisition procedure.

• Where an object is being offered to the MRT for possible acquisition free of charge and free of associated costs (eg for transport or conservation work), so that there are no financial implications to the acquisition, and where the object being offered is a small one, so that there are no significant implications for the use of storage or display space, then any of the Museum Officers is authorised to make a decision on behalf of the Council as to whether or not that object should be acquired, although wherever possible such a decision should be made by the Museum Officer with particular responsibility for that kind of object.

• Where an object that is being offered to the MRT for possible acquisition at a cost, or where there would be associated costs (eg for transport, additional storage or conservation), or where the object is a large one, so that there may be implications for the use of storage or display space, then the decision as to whether or not to acquire the object must be made by the Council.

• In general, the MRT would expect that when it acquires an object for one of its collections then it should also acquire all possible rights to reproduction of the object itself or of images of it. Where the acquisition of rights needs to be negotiated then this would normally be the responsibility of the relevant Museum Officer for that kind of object, but in unusual cases the Council may allocate the responsibility for negotiating the acquisition of such rights to some other individual instead.

• If an object that would be eligible to become part of one of the MRT’s collections is bequeathed to the MRT, then the bequest must be reported to the Council, and while there would be a presumption in favour of accepting the bequeathed object, the decision as to whether to do so must be made by the Council, having regard to the terms of the bequest. If the Council determines that the bequeathed object can not be accepted for the museum collection, and providing that it is empowered to do so under the terms of the bequest, then it will arrange to dispose of the object in accordance with the provisions of the MRT’s Museum Collection Development Policy, and the Council must notify the executors of the estate from which the bequest has been made of the course of action that it will follow in respect of the bequeathed object.

• The documentation procedures that will need to operate in respect of a bequeathed object will depend on whether the object had already been deposited with the MRT prior to the decision being made about acceptance of the bequest, as follows.
  • If the object had already been deposited, then the MRT’s Object Entry procedure will have been operated at the time of the deposit, and so either the MRT’s Acquisition and Cataloguing procedures must be operated once the bequeathed object has been accepted, or the MRT’s Object Exit procedure must be operated when the object is finally disposed of and leaves the MRT’s site.
  • If the object had not already been deposited, then if it is not accepted no documentation procedures need to be operated, beyond notifying the executors that the bequeathed object can not be accepted, as required by clause 30 above. If the bequeathed object is accepted, then when it arrives on the MRT’s site the MRT’s Object Entry, Acquisition and Cataloguing procedures must all be operated in sequence.

• At the time of approval of this Directive the MRT still had a substantial backlog of objects requiring cataloguing and accession. The cataloguing and accessioning of new objects should take priority over clearing this backlog, so as to avoid a situation where the backlog might continue to increase in size. Hence, where an object has been acquired for its collections the MRT would aim to have completed the process of cataloguing and accessioning it within three months from whichever is the later event out of the Council deciding to acquire the object and the object arriving on the MRT’s site.

• The MRT will allocate every object an entry number (or catalogue number), irrespective of whether or not the object is accessioned, and which will have three components, as follows:
  • a letter indicating the kind of object that it is, as these kinds are defined in clause 9 above, where the letters used for each class are as follows:
    • R for an item of railway rolling stock, or for a component of some item of railway rolling stock,
    • P for any pattern for a casting,
    • A for any audio-visual material,
    • D for any document or set of documents,
    • N for any copy of the “Old Run” or other newsletter, or
    • M for any other kind of object;
  • an integer (allocated serially from one upwards) that identifies the object within the type specified by the first component; and

• where the object is a set of items, such that all the items in the set have some obvious relationship to each other and it is therefore appropriate to treat the set as a single object, a second integer (allocated serially from one upwards) that identifies the individual item within the set.

As illustrations, if the first audio-visual material catalogued was a set of photographs, then the second photograph in the set would be given the number A1/2, while the third pattern catalogued would be given the number P3.

• For each of the kinds of object identified in clause 9 the relevant Museum Officer must make arrangements for specifying the next entry numbers that are to be allocated to objects of that kind in the course of operation of the MRT’s Object Entry procedure. As a general rule these arrangements will be defined in terms of the facilities provided by the software used for maintaining the museum catalogue.

• When objects are accessioned, they will also be allocated an accession number, which will have three parts. The first part will only be used for external reference, and will be MRT’s MDA code, which is “LEEMR”. The second part will be the year in which the item is accessioned, and the third part will be an integer allocated serially from one upwards, with the series restarting at one each year. Thus, the first item accessioned in 2010 will be allocated the full accession number LEEMR:2010:1, irrespective of how many items might have been accessioned in 2009, but for internal use this could be abbreviated to 2010:1. Where the object is a set of items, as defined in clause 33(iii) above, then the whole set should be accessioned as a single object and allocated a single accession number, rather than each item being accessioned separately and given separate accession numbers. Consequently, accession numbers will only be used to identify the corresponding entries in the accessions register, and these will then use the entry numbers to identify the information about the objects. The Museum Officers must make arrangements for the allocation of accession numbers to objects.

• Where objects are sufficiently large or distinctive that they could easily be identified without needing to use the accession number, and particularly if they already carry other identifying numbers, then they will not be marked with their accession numbers. Also, objects that are not being accessioned because of their operational roles, such as items of rolling stock (which will normally carry other identifying numbers anyway), will not be marked with either accession numbers (because these will not be allocated to them) or entry numbers. For all other objects the accession numbers will be marked on them as unobtrusively as possible, using the full external form. Wherever practical these numbers will be painted on using a paint that could if necessary be removed without risk of damaging the object.

The Location and Movement Control Policy

• The SPECTRUM requirements for the policies governing object location and movement are that they should cover the following:
  • a requirement to maintain an up-to-date location record for all objects for which the museum has responsibility;
  • the identification of the persons with authority to access location and movement records;
  • the identification of persons with authority to edit location records (where for security reasons these persons may need to be named);
  • the identification of persons with authority to request and approve object movements;
  • the identification of persons with authority to move objects and under what circumstances;
  • a statement of the physical security required by locations; and
  • the conditions for the storage and display of objects (that is, the conditions that need to be associated with each different location).

• The locations where objects that form part of any of the MRT’s collections may be stored within the MRT’s site are as follows:
  • the area outside the front of the Engine House building, surrounding the car park;
  • the first floor archive store in the Engine House, in which each shelf will be given a number;
  • the introductory gallery on the ground floor of the Engine House;
  • the main display hall of the Engine House, which will be divided into bays, numbered from 1 (at the introductory gallery end) to 11 (at the platform end), and where each bay will be divided into an east side (outside the left-hand track as one faces the platform), a centre section (between the two tracks) and a west side (outside the right-hand track as one faces the platform);
  • the platform and the outside area surrounding it;

• the pattern store in the workshop, in which each shelf will be given a separate number.

• Since items of rolling stock may need to be moved around the tracks in the Engine House or the various sidings or other tracks for operational purposes, as required by either the Traffic Manager or the Mechanical Engineer, no attempts will be made to keep detailed location or movement records for them, irrespective of whether they are in the indexed or the accessioned collection. For all other objects in either of these two collections the relevant Museum Officers will maintain records of their locations, will attempt to minimise the number of occasions on which any object needs to be moved, and when an object does need to be moved will ensure that the corresponding location record is kept up to date.

• For each kind of object (as defined in clause 9 above) there will be particular requirements for the physical security and environmental conditions under which objects of that kind can be stored or displayed, and so the Council will issue instructions to specify which kinds of objects can be stored in which locations. Also, in order to ensure the most effective display of objects, the Council may from time to time issue instructions to specify that certain objects must be displayed in certain locations. Hence, any significant re-arrangement of the locations of objects within the MRT’s site must be approved by the Council.

• For each kind of object (as defined in clause 9 above) the relevant Museum Officer will be responsible for putting into effect the instructions that the Council issues in accordance with clause 40 above, by determining within these instructions where objects of that kind will be located, by authorising and overseeing the movement of objects where necessary, and by creating and maintaining the location records for objects of that kind. Where necessary, however, any of these Museum Officers may authorise and oversee the movement of any object, and will then be responsible for making the appropriate amendments to the location records.

The Cataloguing Policy

• The SPECTRUM requirements for the policies governing object cataloguing are that they should cover the following:
  • the level and depth of cataloguing appropriate to the collection (ie whether an entry should always identify an individual item, or whether it is acceptable to have one entry for a whole group of items);
  • the required minimum or 'core' content of a catalogue record for different types of object (which are for the museum to decide);
  • the expected content of a typical 'full' catalogue record for different types of object (which are also for the museum to decide); and
  • the maximum time permitted to elapse between the acquisition of an object and the completion of a catalogue record.

• Objects within the collections will normally be catalogued individually. For sets of images or sets of archive documents, as defined in clause 33(iii) above, while they can be accessioned as single objects as described in clause 34 above and some of the catalogue information will be common to all of the items in the set, it is expected that some separate catalogue information will need to be recorded for each item in the set.

• As a minimum, the following common items of catalogue information should be recorded for all objects, and for each object the recording of this should be completed within one month of whichever is the later of the Council deciding to acquire the object and the object arriving on the MRT’s site.
  • major and minor indexing terms (usually referred to as “object category” and “object name”);
  • the object title and a brief description of it;
  • the creator of the object and its date of creation, if known;
  • the classification of its condition, as defined in clause 10 above;
  • the method of acquisition (such as gift, purchase or exchange), and if it was purchased the price paid for it;
  • any other reference numbers that are applicable to the object.

• In addition to the items of information specified in clause 44 above, it is also desirable to record for each object the following items of catalogue information, if they are available.
  • any significant dimensions;
  • details of any specific damage to the object;
  • any markings or inscriptions on the object;
  • any information that is available about the history of the object;
  • for any photograph or other forms of image, information about the date when it was taken, the location where it was taken, and details of any locomotives or other rolling stock depicted in it, although this information may be stored separately from the main catalogue entry for the photograph or set of photographs of which it is a part.

• For those categories of objects for which electronic copies will be held in computer systems, policies will be developed to define the standard file formats that will be used for these electronic copies. Wherever possible these will be open formats, which are supported by a wide range of computer software, rather than being proprietary to particular applications packages.

The Object Exit Policy

• The SPECTRUM requirements for the policies governing object exit are that they should define when object exit occurs, and should cover the following situations:
  • outward loans;
  • temporary transfers (e.g. for conservation, research, and copying);
  • permanent transfers; and
  • destruction of objects.

• The MRT’s Object Exit procedure must be operated for any object that has been through the MRT’s Object Entry procedure and that then subsequently leaves the MRT’s site for any reason other than an outward loan (in which case the MRT’s Outward Loans procedure must be operated instead). In the case of a temporary transfer to some other organisation for the purposes of conservation work, both the MRT’s Object Exit procedure and its MRT’s Movement Control procedure must be operated.

• Where an object has been through the MRT’s Object Entry procedure because it had been deposited to be considered for possible acquisition, as described in clause 20 above, and if the MRT then decides not to accept the object and to ask the depositor to remove the object, as described in clause 22 above, then the object will not have been through the MRT’s Acquisition or Cataloguing procedures. Hence, in this case the MRT’s Object Exit procedure will consist simply of the relevant Museum Officer endorsing the Object Entry Form to indicate that the object was not accepted. Otherwise, for any object that has been through the MRT’s Cataloguing procedure, the relevant Museum Officer will be responsible for ensuring that the exit of the object from the MRT’s collections has been properly authorised by the Council, and that the MRT’s Object Exit procedure is operated fully, to ensure that the exit of the object from the MRT’s collections is properly recorded.

The Inward Loans Policy

• The SPECTRUM requirements for the policies governing the borrowing of objects are that they should cover the following aspects:
  • the reasons why objects may be borrowed;
  • the conditions the museum will observe for loans;
  • the minimum and maximum length of a loan period;
  • the way in which loans are authorised;
  • how the organisation will establish, by due diligence, the lender's title to objects (e.g. to avoid exhibiting finds known to have been either: illegally taken from archaeological sites; or the result of spoliation; or protected natural material); and
  • steps for dealing with loaned objects for which the original lender cannot be contacted.

• There are three main situations in which the MRT may wish to borrow museum objects from individuals or from other museums, as follows.
  • Where another museum owns an object that would fill a significant gap in the display of the MRT’s collections, but that other museum does not attach a high priority to including that object in the display of its own collections, then the MRT may wish to arrange a long-term loan of that object from that other museum.
  • Where an individual owns an object that would fill a significant gap in the display of the MRT’s collections, but that individual wishes to retain the title to that object and so is only prepared to loan the object to the MRT rather than to allow the MRT to acquire it, then the MRT may wish to arrange a long-term loan of that object from that individual.
  • If the MRT should decide to arrange some special museum exhibition to illustrate some aspects that are relevant to one of its collections, and if some other museum should own an object that would form an important element in that special exhibition, then the MRT may wish to arrange a short-term loan of that object from that other museum for the duration of that exhibition.

• Any request to another museum for a long-term loan of an object from that museum must be authorised initially by the Council, which will designate one of its Museum Officers to negotiate with that other museum over the terms of the loan. Once the terms have been negotiated then the loan of the object on those terms must be approved by the Council.

• Arrangements for the loan of objects from individuals are very common in respect of items of railway rolling stock, but these are handled in accordance with the MRT’s policy directive FIN/3 (on the acquisition, disposal and hiring of rolling stock), and are outside the scope of this policy. For other objects the possibilities for such a loan will usually arise from a proposal by the individual owning the object, but once such a proposal has arisen the same procedure must be followed for authorising negotiations about it and then authorising a resulting loan as would apply to any proposal for requesting a loan from another museum, as described in clause 48 above. In addition, the Museum Officer handling negotiations about the loan must apply the same checks that are specified in the MRT’s Acquisition procedure, as described in clause 26 above, so as to ensure that the MRT does not borrow objects that would contravene its Museum Collection Development Policy, as that is specified in its Policy Directive MUS/1.

• The MRT has not as yet organised any special museum exhibitions that involved borrowing items from any other museum, and limitations on available manpower and other resources mean that it is only likely to organise such exhibitions rarely. It has organised a number of model railway exhibitions, but since these are not intended to have any particular connection with the MRT’s museum collections they are outside the scope of this policy. Any proposal to organise a museum exhibition which would require any items to be borrowed from other museums must be authorised initially by the Council, which will appoint one or more individuals to draw up the detailed plans for the exhibition, including the specific proposals for borrowing objects to include in the exhibition. Thereafter, the procedure described in clause 52 must be followed for each separate object that it is proposed to borrow for the exhibition.

• For any loan of an object, the terms and conditions that are negotiated must cover the following issues:
  • the period of the loan, as described in clause 56 below;
  • how costs associated with the loan, such as the costs of transport, will be covered;
  • any insurance or indemnity arrangements that must be put in place in respect of the object;
  • any special conditions that must apply to the transport or other handling of the object;
  • what conservation work on the object, if any, the MRT might be expected to undertake as part of the loan;
  • the conditions under which the MRT will display the object, including any restrictions on public access to it, or on smoking, eating or drinking in the vicinity of it, and any restrictions on the environmental conditions for its display or special requirements for ensuing its security;
  • the provisions in respect of rights for the reproduction of the object or of images of it, and for crediting the owning museum in any published material that refers to the object; and
  • the provisions that the MRT will apply in the event that at the end of the period of the loan it is unable to contact the lender, which should allow for the title to the object to transfer to the MRT by default, as described in clause 57 below.

• For any loan described in clause 51 above as a long-term one, the MRT would normally aim at the period of the loan being for up to five years in the first instance, and with the option of renewing the loan for further such periods at the end of each period thereafter. For any special exhibition the likely minimum duration of the exhibition would be three months and the likely maximum duration about eight months (from Easter to the end of November), and so the intended period of any associated loan would be the duration of the exhibition, plus up to one month at either end to allow for setting up and taking down of the exhibition.

• If at the end of the period of any loan the MRT should find that it is unable to contact the lender of the item at the address that was recorded at the beginning of the loan, then it must make all reasonable efforts to trace the lender so that arrange to either renew or terminate the loan. If these efforts are unsuccessful, and if the terms of the loan have made provision for the MRT to claim title to the object under these circumstances, then after one calendar year from the date of the end of the loan the MRT may operate these provisions, claim title to the object and operate its Acquisition procedure to record this claim.

The Outward Loans Policy

• The SPECTRUM requirements for the policies governing the loaning out of objects are that they should cover the following aspects:
  • categories of objects which may and may not normally be loaned out;
  • categories of borrower which will not normally be eligible to receive loans;;
  • reasons for a loan which will not be considered;
  • the standard terms and conditions for loans out.

They also require that the standard terms and conditions for loans out should cover the following issues:

• the timetable requirements e.g. minimum period of notice required;
• the number of objects able to be loaned;
• the maximum length of loan permitted;
• the potential costs that the borrower will be expected to meet;
• the maximum number of venues permitted in a single tour;
• the permitted public access to the object;
• the provision of valuations;
• the insurance or indemnity requirements;
• the handling conditions;
• the restrictions on preparation, conservation and analysis of the loaned material;
• the packing requirements;
• the shipping, transport, courier or customs requirements;
• the display, use and storage conditions;
• the security of the venue;
• the environmental conditions, including any restrictions on smoking, eating or drinking around the object;
• the borrower's contingency planning arrangements;
• the protection of rights (e.g. copyright and reproduction right);
• the requirements for acknowledgements or credits in displays and publications;
• the terms and provisions for monitoring object condition and environment;
• the arrangements for renewal, transfer or cessation of the loan;
• the requirements for the borrower to provide copies of catalogues.

• It is common for items of railway rolling stock to be loaned or hired to other operating heritage railways, but such loans or hires are handled in accordance with the MRT’s policy directive FIN/3 (on the acquisition, disposal and hiring of rolling stock), and are outside the scope of this policy. For other museum objects the MRT would normally only expect to loan them to another museum that wished to borrow them for the short term in order to display them at its own site as part of a special exhibition. For the reasons given in clause 56 above, the MRT would normally regard the maximum acceptable duration of such a loan as being eight months, but would be prepared to consider a longer loan if it considered that this was adequately justified by the nature of the proposed special exhibition.

• Any request from another museum to borrow any museum object must be approved in principle by the Council, which would designate one of the Museum Officers to be responsible for negotiating the details of the loan, and bringing these details back to the Council for final approval. In approving a loan, the Council will set the terms and conditions of the loan in order to suit the status of the museum that was wishing to borrow the items, the items that it wished to borrow, and the purpose for which it wished to borrow them. These terms and conditions would be required as a minimum to cover all the issues listed in clause 58 above.

• The general principles that the MRT would apply to these terms and conditions for any loan of an object to another museum are that:
  • the borrowing museum should be expected cover all of the costs of the loan, including costs of handling and transport;
  • the borrowing museum should be expected to ensure that the objects borrowed would be cared for at least as well as they would while on the MRT’s site, in respect of security, environmental conditions, public access, etc;
  • the borrowing museum should be expected to give adequate recognition to the fact that the object was on loan from the MRT, and to provide some opportunity for publicity material relating to the MRT to be displayed in the vicinity of the object or at least of the special exhibition in which it appeared;
  • if the borrowing museum was producing a special brochure containing a catalogue for the exhibition, the MRT should be consulted over the text that was to be included in it relating to the object that was being borrowed, and the borrowing museum should be expected to supply the MRT with a reference copy of this brochure; and
  • the MRT would not normally expect any conservation work to be done on the object by the borrowing museum.

Drafted by A. J. Cowling (MRT Museums Officer) and D. Martin (MRT’s Museum Mentor), and approved on 23rd September 2014.