Transaction Terms: Introduction
SI Data Content Committe, 1994, Version 1.0

"Collections management is the deliberate development, maintenance, use, and disposition of museum collections."
-Smithsonian Institution Collections Management Policy

The specific policies and procedures governing collections management vary from discipline to discipline, by virtue of the nature of the collection. Each museum develops and adheres to established policies for the acquisition and management of its collections to assure their proper physical care; provide for the documentation of their identification, location, condition, and provenance; and assure maximum accessibility consistent with their preservation.

The principal types of transaction terms common to all Smithsonian museums are those which document the acquisition, disposal, lending, and borrowing of objects and specimens. A transaction is characterized by a temporary or permanent change in the physical custody of, management responsibility for, and/or title to objects and specimens. Some collections management activities may consist of more than one transaction. For example, an exchange involves two distinct transactions - to acquire and to dispose of collections. In addition, some terms are transaction-related, such as acquisition by birth, disposal by death, or inventory reconciliation. In these examples, the purpose and method of transaction are the same.

The following chapters describe how Smithsonian museums and collecting units acquire, dispose, lend, borrow and hold in temporary custody objects and specimen.