Ethics

Up until a year ago visitors could turn up unannounced and ask for items to be fetched from store there and then. Both our security and our health and safety advisers recommended, however, that we institute the appointment system now in operation.

Visitors only need give us several days notice but there have still been a number of complaints, particularly from overseas visitors, who were unaware of the new system and have had to return home before their request could be dealt with. We are uneasy about the situation, particularly in view of the new emphasis in museums on Access.


In dealing with ethical issues there is rarely a straightforward choice between 'good' and 'bad' alternatives. Competing pressures have to be reconciled. Obviously you would like to make access as convenient as possible for all users.

If security and health and safety concerns are not addressed, however, your ability to make the resource available in any form will be compromised. Museums need to develop public relations skills to get this message across. If handled poorly a measure such as the one you have instituted will be misconstrued as withholding the resource rather than managing it for the greater long term good of all.

It may be worthwhile getting good, cost-efficient specialist advice on how to present any changes in the service you offer through signage, publications and, if appropriate, on your website.

The management and governing body of your museum will have to decide on priorities both in promoting a user-friendly image and in formulating creative solutions to resource management dilemmas.

Perhaps a dual system for making items available from store would be appropriate to the circumstances of your museum. You could, for example, keep the present appointment system but offer one afternoon a week when members of staff would be specifically deployed to make immediate retrievals from store. Many museums offer an identification service for items brought in by the public on this basis.

In the long term, you may want to consider investing in storage systems that permit more open access - very difficult for prints and drawings compared to, say, ceramics, but not to be dismissed as an impossibility.