Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21 Collection Policy
The Museum’s Collection Policy guides collection management practices at the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21 (the Museum). As stewards of this Collection, the Museum holds this resource in trust for the benefit of future generations while providing access to local, national and global publics.
The Museum recognizes that we cannot tell the comprehensive story of Canadian immigration history without including Indigenous perspectives. The Museum is actively engaging with the Mi’kmaq First Nation to help present these perspectives. Indigenous guidance will determine future proper protocols for collection activities. The Museum operates within a network of five other national museums and also recognizes the existing assets and collecting focuses of those organisations.
Restrictions Management
Due to the highly personal nature of the content within the Collection, restrictions can be required to ensure the protection of the donor’s privacy, rights clearances, or at the discretion of Museum staff in accordance with procedures, ethics and restriction standards.
Copyright Management
The Museum will make all reasonable efforts to ensure proper permissions are in place for use of the Collection material it holds. The Museum will hold exclusive copyright and associated rights to all material it creates.
The Museum affirms that all copyrights and associated rights are subject to the provisions of the Copyright Act and other applicable international intellectual property agreements signed by the Government of Canada.
Deaccessions and Disposals
The Museum acquires assets for its Collection with care. However, there may be times when the removal of particular assets from the Collection becomes necessary.
Recommendations for deaccessioning will be made to the Collection Committee for review. Recommendations for deaccessioning require approval first from the Chief Executive Officer. Final approval rests with the Museum’s Board.
The deaccessioning process must be fully documented and the associated records retained by the Museum in perpetuity, in compliance with legal and professional practices and in accordance with Collection Documentation Policy.
Deaccessioning will be done with care, consideration, and discretion. It will only be considered according to the established criteria, and never in response to trends or changing tastes. The Museum will adhere strictly to legal and ethical standards, and will always approach deaccessioning with serious planning and deliberation.
Criteria for Deaccessioning
General Criteria
One or more of the following criteria must apply to an item considered for deaccessioning or disposal:
- The asset is outside of the Collection’s scope as identified in the Collecting Mandate;
- Possession of the asset endangers the Museum’s staff and visitors;
- Possession of the asset violates the Museum’s ethical commitments;
- The Museum cannot establish clear title to the asset;
- Possession of the asset contravenes the laws of Nova Scotia, Canada or a treaty to which Canada is signatory;
- The asset has been lost or cannot be located
- The asset is duplicated elsewhere in the Collection;
- The asset has deteriorated beyond the point where costs of conservation surpass the
- value to the Collection;
- The asset is under used and highly unlikely to be used in the future.
Assets without Clear Title
Existing assets for which the Museum cannot demonstrate clear title and ownership will be cared for with the same standard of care as all other assets in the Collection.
Collections staff will attempt to contact donors and authorized agents to resolve existing paperwork challenges prior to a recommendation for deaccession. The Museum will not return assets to donors if the ownership of the asset has been formally transferred to the Museum.
If a claim is made by a donor or donor’s family for an asset accessioned into the Collection for which the Museum cannot provide clear documentation of the transfer of title or assignment of rights, the Museum will engage with claimants in a process to establish ownership.
Disposals
Items which have been deaccessioned by the Museum may be disposed of as follows, in order of preference:
- Assets that have been deaccessioned may be offered to other public heritage or educational
- institutions for donation or for exchange. If this is not possible, every effort will be made to keep the item within the public sphere.
- If all other efforts to maintain public ownership of the object have failed, the object may be sent to public auction. Proceeds from the sale are to be reinvested in the care and development of the Museum Collection and never for the day-to-day operating costs of the institution.
- If neither transfer nor sale of the objects is viable, destruction may be considered and may be implemented only after full documentation, including taking reference photographs. In the case of digital collection assets, the Museum will destroy all copies that exist on all drives and servers only if the Museum has asked for advice from the digital preservation community or if the object is corrupt or obsolete and there is no possibility of backup, format migration or emulation that would enable it to become accessible in the future.
- The Museum will reference the Toolkit for managing digital collections for advice on digital asset deaccession and disposal, will seek advice from the CDSN (Canadian Digital Stewardship Network) Community of Practice, Digitization and Digital Preservation Discussion Group or other Canadian or International Digital Preservation networks, and may seek advice from the Canadian Museums Association.
Assets from the Museum’s Collection will not be given, sold or otherwise transferred, either publicly or privately, to individuals or family members of individuals who are Board or committee members, staff members, volunteers, or any others with an association with the Museum.