Everyone knows what a bar code is – we can’t forget the commercial showing bank customers with bar codes on their foreheads – but the workflow and inventory management benefits of RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology aren’t as well known. Like bar codes,...
Designing the Disaster-Proof Museum
The recent devastating fire in the National Museum of Brazil reminds everyone in the museum realm that disasters can strike any time. Fire, flood, climate, earthquakes – the potential for damage and loss takes many forms, and no museum is invulnerable. The Association...
Art Storage and the Deaccessioning Controversy
As any museum director will tell you, deaccessioning is not quite as simple as cleaning out one’s closets and holding a yard sale. Museums as a whole have a mission to acquire, conserve, and exhibit collections for the benefit of their communities. Reducing the number...
The Lean Museum
Lean management techniques are most commonly associated with manufacturing and logistics, and not with collections of historic artifacts or centuries-old artworks. Is there a place for the new lean leadership style in institutions that are, by their very nature,...
A Tax Deduction To Give Thanks For – The Sec. 179 Rule
It happens every year around this time – the season for end-of-year tax deductions. The Section 179 tax rule gives businesses an opportunity to write off as much as $500,000 in new and used equipment costs. Equipment or software purchased and put into service by...
How Yankee Ingenuity Went The Extra Mile
Sharon, Massachusetts, is crammed full of history and historical artifacts. And like much of the area around Boston, it’s also densely built up. When the Massachusetts Trustees of Reservations decided to consolidate their scattered collections into a single facility...
Storage Challenge: Truly Unusual Museums
Museums typically fall into a few well-known categories: art, science, and history. But there are some museums specializing in genuinely obscure collections. The Travel Channel’s online magazine offers a selection of some of the most unusual, including: A circus...
What Is The U.S. Army’s “Treasure Room?”
The Army has a large stockpile of outdated, outmoded weapons stored at Virginia’s Ft. Belvoir – but not because it expects to ever use these old weapons. The firearms, and thousands of other military artifacts, are in a storage facility awaiting the completion of The...
Thank You, IRS! The Equipment Purchase Deduction
As the end of the year approaches, the IRS has a little holiday gift for businesses looking for last-minute ways to boost their tax deductions. It’s the Section 179 tax rule, which permits the deduction of the full purchase price of business equipment, up to $25,000....
Back from the Dead Files: Vintage Police Photographs
When Los Angeles Police Department reserve officer Merrick Morton and LAPD historian Lt. John Thomas began researching historic criminology photos, they didn’t expect to find a treasure trove of stunning black-and-white images dating back to the 1920’s, stored in the...