Preservation supplies budgeting

>Several of the curators carry on their own collection preservation
>projects, more or less independently of the Preservation Office for
>which they require services or supplies or the funds to purchase them

well, I may be a control freak, but I have never liked curators going
around the Conservation Department to hire their own pets, on the
grounds that they really are not the best equipped to define the project
or select the best conservator. What I have done in the past (when I was
institutionalized, as opposed to my current spatula-for-hire status)
was:

    1) I would buy normal supplies and give them out as carrots.

    2) for unusually big project supplies I would advise on what to
    order, but they have to find the money.

    3) My lab would do routine work, planned for on an annual basis.  If
    anyone has special projects which will require a larger than usual
    share of resources, those are all submitted to me during the normal
    budget drafting time. I then meet with all the users and we go over
    the list as a group: projects agreed to as useful to all or to the
    institution as a whole, I cover.  Others they have to find the
    resources for, but I will help them draft the project description
    and budget (especially if a grant is involved), and help find the
    most experienced conservator.

On research topics, if all the user group agreed on priorities, then I
used their priorities.  If they couldn't agree, then I decided.  Funny
how quickly they reached consensus...

Lisa Mibach

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 6:41
                 Distributed: Tuesday, February 2, 1993
                        Message Id: cdl-6-41-004
                                  ***