4.1.1 Code of Ethics: Follow the Code of Ethics for the museum management program.

4.1.2 Museum Handbook: Develop, issue, and periodically update a Museum Handbook containing the information park managers need to know to comply with laws, departmental and Service-wide policies, regulations, professional standards, and a code of ethics applicable to museum collections management. Include in the Museum Handbook, as a supplement to this Director’s Order, specific guidance for collecting, preserving, protecting (including security and fire protection), documenting, accessing, and using museum collections, clearly distinguishing between those actions that are mandatory requirements and those that are discretionary. Cite those laws, policies, and regulations in relevant sections.

4.1.3 Strategic Plans: Develop strategic plans and goals to improve and maintain the management of NPS museum collections Service-wide, consistent with the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 (31 USC 1115).

4.1.4 National Catalog: Maintain for management and public benefit a National Catalog of Museum Objects, consisting of electronic and paper catalog records, with accession and catalog data for all parks. Develop and maintain an automated collections management program (the Automated National Catalog System [ANCS+ and its successor]) for use by parks, centers, and offices Service-wide, as well as the general public.

4.1.5 Report Requirements and Analysis: Identify reports that are required annually, or at other times, to further museum collections management. Reporting requirements will be kept to the minimum necessary. Maintain, analyze, and report on data submitted by parks, centers, and regions, including: the Collections Management Report, the NPS Checklist for Preservation and Protection of Museum Collections; funding distributions and accomplishments; and other required reports and surveys.

4.1.6 Annual Inventory: Review regional certifications of annual inventories, and take any necessary corrective action.

4.1.7 Museum Supplies, Equipment, and Technologies: Research products and facilitate park and center acquisition and use of appropriate supplies, forms, equipment, and technologies for management of museum collections.

4.1.8 Service-wide Initiatives: Develop and coordinate Service-wide initiatives and funding to improve museum management.

4.1.9 Technical Information: Publicize and disseminate technical information on museum management, including conservation and archival collections management.

4.1.10 Information Access: Develop and maintain access to Service-wide information on NPS museum collections through various media (for example, ANCS+ and World Wide Web).

4.1.11 Professional Qualifications and Training: Evaluate Service-wide professional competencies and training needs in museum management, and develop strategies, guidelines, and curricula to meet those needs. Coordinate training to address new technologies, programs, and initiatives.

4.1.12 Plan Review: Review draft park plans that receive Washington Office review, such as General Management Plans, for appropriate coverage of museum management.

4.1.13 Technical Assistance: Provide technical assistance and advice to park and center managers regarding acquiring, preserving, protecting, documenting, accessing, and using museum collections. Provide this assistance and advice at the request of regions.

4.2.1 Code of Ethics: Follow the Code of Ethics for the museum management program.

4.2.2 Plan and Performance Review: Use the strategic and annual performance planning processes, the park planning process, and the performance management system to ensure that superintendents and center managers meet their responsibilities to manage museum collections according to this directive. Review park plans for appropriate coverage of museum collections management, and to ensure consistency with NPS requirements.

4.2.3 Technical Assistance: Provide technical assistance to parks and centers to assist them in meeting NPS museum management requirements, and in providing for access and use of collections.

4.2.4 Staffing and Training: Evaluate museum management staffing and training needs, and develop and provide training to park and center staff. Regional directors will alert the Associate Director, Cultural Resource Stewardship and Partnerships, about regional training needs that may apply Service-wide.

4.2.5 Plans, Priorities, and Reports: Develop plans and set priorities (including funding priorities) for managing museum collections based on all approved planning documents and information provided through Service-wide reports and requirements, including the Collections Management Report, NPS Checklist for Preservation and Protection of Museum Collections, and Automated Inventory Program. Review reports to ensure that parks and centers meet reporting requirements.

4.2.6 Annual Inventory Certification: Annually certify to the Associate Director, Cultural Resource Stewardship and Partnerships, Attention: Chief Curator, no later than September 30 each fiscal year, that parks and centers have completed their annual inventories. Review park and center annual inventories and take any necessary corrective actions. Establish a regular schedule for parks in the region to submit the inventories.

4.2.7 Destructive Analysis and Consumptive Use: After careful review, if the benefits can be clearly shown to outweigh the resulting or potential damage or loss, approve destructive analysis of rare or highly significant objects, specimens, and archival items, and any consumptive use of museum collections.

4.2.8 Unconditional Gifts: Grant exceptions to the unconditional gift policy on a rare, and case-by-case basis.

4.3.1 Code of Ethics: Follow the Code of Ethics for the museum management program.

4.3.2 Standards: Meet museum management standards in the NPS Museum Handbook (Parts I-III) for:

• acquiring, preserving, protecting, documenting (including accessioning, cataloging, lending, deaccessioning), accessing, and using museum collections; and
• completing actions specific to archival and manuscript collections (appraising, arranging, describing, producing finding aids, and providing reference and duplication services).

4.3.3 Procedures: Follow procedures in the Museum Handbook.

4.3.4 Ongoing and Corrective Actions: Provide ongoing funding for recurring museum management functions and take appropriate action to correct identified preservation, protection, documentation, and access and use deficiencies, including programming for funding to correct such deficiencies. Complete Project Management Information System (PMIS) and Resource Management Plan (RMP) project statements that identify all preservation, protection, documentation, access and use needs.

4.3.5 Staffing and Training: Evaluate and address museum management staffing and training needs according to established personnel qualifications standards and Service-wide professional competencies.

4.3.6 Scope of Collection: Approve and keep current a Scope of Collection Statement to identify the scope of collecting activities and define the purpose of the collection. Ensure acquisitions are consistent with the Scope of Collection Statement. Deaccession objects inconsistent with the Scope of Collection Statement.

4.3.7 Collection Management Plan: Approve, keep current, and implement a Collection Management Plan to:

• evaluate issues of preserving, protecting (including security and fire protection), documenting, accessing and using collections;
• address issues specific to archival and manuscript collections (appraising, arranging, describing, producing finding aids, and providing reference and duplication services); and
• propose a strategy to address the issues, including staffing and cost estimates.

4.3.8 Housekeeping Plan: Approve, keep current, and implement a Housekeeping Plan for every space that houses museum collections, to ensure that housekeeping routines are sensitive to museum collections preservation needs.

4.3.9 Integrated Pest Management: Approve, keep current, and implement an Integrated Pest Management Plan that addresses the museum collections.

4.3.10 Emergency Operation: Approve, keep current, and implement a Museum Collections Emergency Operations Plan, as part of the park's Emergency Operations Plan, that identifies museum collection vulnerabilities to events (such as fire, earthquakes, and floods), and identifies responses that will protect resources without endangering human health and safety. Ensure staff is practiced and prepared for emergency response.

4.3.11 Job Hazard Analysis: Complete a Job Hazard Analysis (JHA) for all museum jobs that have an associated history of injury, illness, or death; or that require the use of personal protection equipment, such as respirators; or that involve activities that are clearly dangerous, such as handling collections with mold, working with toxic or flammable chemicals, or operating heavy machinery.

4.3.12 Collection Condition: Monitor and record information about the environment in spaces housing collections and manage the environment to maximize preservation. Complete Collection Condition Surveys, as needed, to assess conditions in spaces housing museum collections, to record the condition of objects or groups of objects, and to determine treatment needs and priorities. Incorporate survey data in ANCS+ and in accession or catalog files.

4.3.13 Accession and Catalog Records: Accession collections upon acquisition to establish basic accountability. Catalog the collections immediately following acquisition, or program to catalog them in the near future. Survey, appraise, rehouse, arrange, and describe archival and manuscript collections and prepare finding aids. Develop park archival duplication and reference procedures. Have PMIS statements in place to address eliminating any archival processing backlog.

4.3.14 Accession and Catalog Backup: Maintain a complete current backup of all electronic accession and catalog records at a location that is not vulnerable to the same catastrophic events as the computer workstation. Submit a complete annual backup to the National Catalog in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.

4.3.15 Unconditional Gifts: Accept only unconditional gifts and bequests, and, where possible, obtain applicable copyrights and releases with acquisitions. Obtain regional director’s approval for rare exceptions, on a case-by-case basis.

4.3.16 Project-generated Collections: Require project budgets to include funding for the basic management of collections that are project-generated. Collections management includes cataloging; labeling; conservation examination and treatment (including specimen preparation); initial storage of objects and specimens; and organization and storage of project documentation, including appraisal, arrangement, description, finding aid production, and appropriate archival housing.

• Before starting, permitting, or contracting a project, specify in writing in the task directive, proposal, agreement, permit, or contract, the parties responsible, the designated NPS or non-NPS repository, the collections management tasks, and a time schedule for completion.
• Fund subsequent ongoing maintenance costs of collections management from the operating base of the responsible park, center, or other repository.
• If project-generated collections cannot be accommodated in available storage space, and new storage space construction is necessary, program to construct new space to accommodate the expanded collection. If interim storage is needed, specify in the project task directive the location of that storage, and state that it must meet NPS standards. Identify the funding source for interim storage.

4.3.17 Systematic Collections: Add collections made through systematic research to the museum collection. House those associated with a single accession at the same repository to facilitate research and use. As appropriate, lend these collections for exhibit, research, conservation, and other approved uses. Superintendents may authorize housing of collections from the same accession at different repositories if by so doing preservation, research, and use will be improved.

4.3.18 Collections Management Report: Annually complete the automated Collections Management Report (CMR), using ANCS+. The report provides information on accessions, deaccessions, cataloging, backlogs of objects to be cataloged, use of museum collections, and total collection size. The report must include all collections, whether kept in park facilities, other NPS facilities, or in non-NPS repositories. Submit the CMR using ANCS+.

4.3.19 Annual Inventory: Conduct an annual collection inventory on a regular schedule using the Automated Inventory Program (AIP) in ANCS+ and reconcile the results with existing accession and catalog records. Take any necessary corrective action.

4.3.20 Checklist: Keep the NPS Checklist for Preservation and Protection of Museum Collections (Checklist) up-to-date in the Automated Checklist Program (ACP) in ANCS+. The Checklist records information on preservation and protection conditions in parks and centers, identifies deficiencies, and provides estimated costs to correct deficiencies.

4.3.21 Treatment Documentation: Document treatment of collections, and record that information in ANCS+ and retain reports and documentation in accession or catalog files.

4.3.22 Cellulose Nitrate and Cellulose Ester Film: Identify cellulose nitrate and cellulose ester film, and take steps to preserve the visual information contained by duplicating the images onto safety film. After inspecting the copies, evaluate and either deaccession and destroy or provide for long-term storage of the original film according to the criteria in Museum Handbook, Part I, Appendix M, "Management of Cellulose Nitrate and Ester Film."

4.3.23 Access and Use: Promote access to cataloged collections for research and interpretive purposes through a variety of means and media, such as exhibits, interpretive programs, loans, publications, film and television, the World Wide Web, archival finding aid production and distribution, and posting of finding aids and repository-level guides for archival and manuscript collections in the National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections (NUCMC).

• Ensure that access and use are consistent with the laws and NPS policies pertaining to Freedom of Information Act disclosures, copyright, privacy, publicity, obscenity and pornography, defamation, and resource protection.
• Document access and use with a researcher logbook, signed access policy statement, researcher registration, copyright and privacy restriction statement, and duplication forms.

4.3.24 Consultation: Consult with affiliated groups in managing collections, including Native American groups when managing collections subject to the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.

4.3.25 Preservation vs. Destructive Use: Manage objects to preserve their condition, including using reproductions when originals may be damaged by use. Authorize in writing destructive analysis of collections, except for rare or highly significant objects, specimens, and archival materials. Obtain regional director approval for destructive analysis of rare or highly significant objects, specimens, and archival materials and for any consumptive use of collections.

4.3.26 Exhibits: Exhibit collections according to an approved exhibit plan, accompanied by maintenance instructions. Ensure that all exhibits meet the standards in the NPS Checklist for Preservation and Protection of Museum Collections.

4.3.27 Objects in Historic Structures: Document furnishings that are exhibited in their associated historic structures with an approved Historic Furnishings Report. Consider the preservation requirements of both objects and historic structures when objects are on exhibit or in storage in historic structures.

4.3.28 Exhibit of Human Remains: Never exhibit Native American human remains or photographs, drawings or renderings, or casts of the remains. Exhibit non-Native-American human remains and photographs, drawings or renderings, or casts of the remains only in consultation with traditionally associated groups.

4.3.29 CRBIB: Ensure that approved museum plans are entered in the Cultural Resource Management Bibliography (CRBIB).