This morning, I got involved in a conversation on Twitter that was lively, with a hint of debate and sadly, still no answer.

A little background:

Back in April, 2012, Peter Davies sent me a copy of Museums and the Disposal Debate: A Collection of Essays @pjdavies2000 @museumsetc.

As an archivist wife, I’m well familiar with the issues involved in decommission and disposal (as related to puppets). Every debate seems to be around money: storage, ownership, current economic issues, responsibility, etc.

The big issue for me has always been this:  Once an item or collection is disposed, it can’t be undone.  Our current economics should not be the reason, or excuse, to decommission and ruin any chance for future generations to have the art/collection because we couldn’t handle our wallet.

Reality is we mustn’t let economics be the assessor in evaluation of the works at that time.

And today’s Sunday debate with Peter Davies @pjdavies2000, David Craven  @davidjcraven and Tiffany Jenkins @tiffanyjenkins was no different.

I’ve Storified the Twitter conversation here (with permission). What are your thoughts?

*Please note, these are our opinions and not those related to employee yada yada yada 

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Museums and the Disposal Debate: A Collection of Essays, edited by Peter Davies, is a fascinating collection of international case studies trying to answer the age old question: How to know what to keep and what to dispose. While the book is collated in academia format, please do not let that discourage you from reading the valuable real-life examples.

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