Several people mentioned problems of museum stores selling artifacts, etc.,
related to exhibits. At the other extreme are the museum stores that are
totally unrelated to the museum's mission or exhibits. The IRS "requires"
museum store material to relate to the mission of the museum, so that a
farm museum should be a place to get books on farming and farm related
toys.  In order to make money, some stores stray a bit into the
sensational. In too many cases, however, museum store managers are totally
indifferent to the museum's mission. I recall a recent incident where a
talented local craftsman, who made authentic replicas of items in a museum,
was denied the museum store as an outlet becaue the store manager could
make a better profit by selling shoddy and inaccurate Pacific Rim knockoffs
of the same material.
 
If the museum store is not an integral part of the museum's interpretive
and curatorial function, it is not, by definition (IRS, at least), a museum
store. So potsherds or pot hunting books in a museum store are a black mark
on the professional staff, and should be considered when accrediting the
museum as a repository for archaeological collections, for example.
 
 
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. | _ |  | --]   Ned Heite,                <DARWIN><
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