October 21, 1999
CONTENTS:
- RE: Digital recording (Roger Wulff)
- RE: Digital recording (Pat Greeson)
- RE: Digital recording (William Plante)
- Query: Security Departments caught in the "visitor services" dilemma (Michelle Lehrman)
- Uniforms for security and safety personnel (thread at ISEN-ASTC-L)
- Reward Offered for First Lady's Ring (stolen from a Vermont museum during opening hours)
- Indian Artifact Thieves Caught
- Navajos Recover Sacred Artifacts From Looter
From: Roger Wulff museplan@erols.com
Subject: RE: Digital recording
Does any of our subscribers have experiences with digital recording of CCTV images? I do need information about products, software, complete systems, pros and contras, costs, legal (privacy) matters, etc. etc.
thank you in advance,
Ton Cremers
____
Dear Ton:
Since I founded and manage the original "International Cultural Property Protection Exposition" which is held every year in conjunction with the "National Conference on Cultural Property Protection," sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution, I feel it is a part of our service to the cultural and museum communities to provide information on technology and potential vendors of security and fire protection software and hardware to those communities after the conference has been completed for that year.
If you will contact me off the list, I will direct you to some of our exhibitiors at last year's Exposition who provide this technology or you can mark your calendar for next year's Conference and attend the 24th Annual NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON CULTURAL PROPERTY PROTECTION AND ITS EXP0SITION to be held 13-17 February 2000 at the Crystal Gateway Marriott Hotel, 1700 Jefferson Davis Highway, Arlington, VA, (703) 920-3230 (on the Metro Subway line - just outside of Washington, D.C.)
The Office of Protection Services of the Smithsonian will soon have the 2000 Conference on its Web Site - up and running - in the meantime use the MSI Web Site below for additional information.
Kind Regards
Roger Wulff
http://www.MuseumServicesIntl.org
Museum Services International is a non-profit organization which provides services in all areas of the planning and development of cultural institutions and museums - especially in the new area of "Economuseology."
_____________________________________________
From: Pat Greeson PGreeson@hme.com
Subject: Response to Ton Cremer's reguest
Ton:
I am with H.M. Electronics, Inc. I recently read your request for information regarding digital surveillance. We have a remote digital surveillance system that should satisfy your needs. Please contact me to send you information regarding our system. I can be reached through E-mail at pgreeson@hme.com or call me at 858-535-6087.
I will need a street address to send you this information.
Look forward to hearing from you soon.
Patrick Greeson
Market Development Manager
H.M. Electronics, Inc.
_________________________________________
From: "William Plante" corinthian@prodigy.net
Subject: RE: Digital recording
Ton,
There is an excellent summary of the benefits of digital recording in Security Technology& Design. I'll try to dig it up and fax it over to you. Fax number please?
You ARE asking for a lot of information. A few things to note:
1. Legal issues in North America primarily center on hallmarking the digital recording so that image alteration can be verified. If legal image verification is not a concern then straight image capture is fine.
2. Depending on the area, digital recording can be 2-3 time as expensive as analogue recording systems, but cheaper to operate. Let me find the article and send it to you.
William Plante
From: "Michelle Lehrman" mlehrman@nelson-atkins.org
Subject: Security Departments caught in the "visitor services" dilemma
Question for the group.
Are there any other Museum Security Departments caught in the "visitor services" dilemma? For instance, who does the Visitor Services Department report to? Do you have a separate Visitor Services Department or is it under the Security Department? Has anyone renamed the Security Department to incorporate the Visitor Services needs and if so, what is the new title??
Any feedback is very welcomed. You can e-mail directly if you like.
Michelle Lehrman
The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
Kansas City, MO USA
mlehrman@nelson-atkins.org
(from: ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.)
From: Evan Zarchan ezarchan@southwind.net
Subject: Uniforms for security and safety personnel
My question on uniforms has to do with Security or Safety personnel. I am interested in knowing what types of uniforms are used for these positions.
I am particularly interested in getting responses from Centers that employ their own security personnel.
If anyone would like to respond to me directly, please send a reply to ezarchan@southwind.com.
-----Original Message-----
From: George Wurtak [SMTP:Wurtak@MANITOBAMUSEUM.MB.CA]
Subject: Uniforms
I agree with Deb Fuller on the value of having staff who work with the public, wear an easily identifiable article of clothing or some other mechanism. However, I don't think an ID badge or nameplate is enough; from a distance they may not be very noticable, and especially if their back is turned to the visitor (or sideways!). At the risk of giving more info than you wanted, here's our history with uniforms: Over the past 15 years here we have had:
1- no dress codes
2- dress codes establishing cleanliness, general appearance, but not specifying garments to be worn.
3- t-shirts and sweatshirts with colourful institutional name and logo (large) on the front and "STAFF" ,"May I help you" on the back. These differed slightly for planetarium operators and science centre attendants, essentially the name of the place they worked in. The museum provided two t-shirts and one sweatshirt (in case they were cold), but while they were required to be cared for by the staff, they remained the property of the museum. This is important, so the museum has some control over who is wearing the shirt that says "staff", especially for staff who leave employment, and who knows who wears the shirt. A sister institution has had major theft problems caused by people walking into restricted areas wearing a staff shirt.
4- white shirts/black bottoms for all visitor services staff (including gallery "attendants" - a term for our helpers; planetarium operators; planetarium attendants - essentially ushers; box office attendants (cashiers); museum guides; and gift shop attendants (clerks). The staff are expected to purchase their own black/white clothes and care for them.
We are still at stage 4 in the evolution. I preferred stage 3. Why? Because coloured , standardized t-shirts and sweat shirts with large, coloured institutional names were highly visible and easily picked out from the crowd. It also conveyed the "I can get my hands dirty &/or down on my knees to help you learn about this or that principle", friendly, doing-science kind of appearance.
While the black and white (4) guideline helps the staff look professional and have a generally uniform image (altho they range, eg. one staff wears a white cotton shirt while another wears a white cashmere sweater, both satisfying the code), they are not necessarily identified as Museum staff, especially from a distance. Black is currently the colour of choice for our visitors, so staff blend in, and in our darkened galleries and theatre, are less noticeable.
Also, a crisp white shirt and pant does not convey the "I can get my hands and knees dirty to help you learn" image which I think is so important. They look like fine waiter and waitresses, or as I have been known to say, shoe salespersons. Not necessarily an active "scientist" model or "discovery leader".
If you are considering uniforms, I suggest #3 above. Hope this is useful.
George Wurtak
Manitoba Museum of Man and Nature
Winnipeg, Canada
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From: Deb Fuller dbfuller@PEN.K12.VA.US
To: ISEN-ASTC-L@HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM
Subject: Re: [ISEN] Uniforms
At the National Air and Space Museum where I'm at part-time, ushers, Personally, I think anyone with a visible, highly customer-interactive type of job should have some sort of easily identifible article on them like a shirt, name tag or id badge. I think it's important that visitors can clearly spot staff, esp. when we are working behind the exhibits or in other places where we are visibly in off-limits areas. This makes it clear that people who are in off-limits areas are staff and are allowed back there as opposed to being nosey tourists who haven't gotten caught.
Reward Offered for First Lady's Ring
MONTPELIER, Vt. (APBnews.com) -- A $5,000 reward is being offered in the theft of a former first lady's diamond engagement ring from a Vermont museum.
The Vermont Historical Society is offering the reward in hopes of recovering the 14-karat-gold diamond solitaire engagement ring that Calvin Coolidge gave Grace Goodhue in 1905. The ring was stolen from the museum July 27, according to historical society curator Jackie Calder.
Coolidge, U.S. president from 1923 to 1929, and his wife both were Vermont natives. Grace Goodhue Coolidge's ring was one of two in a Plexiglas case screwed to a wall of the museum. The thief unscrewed the case and took the Coolidge ring but left behind a smaller ring once belonging to Hetty Green, the "Witch of Wall Street," a Vermonter who was one of the world's richest women around the turn of the century, Calder said. "She was not known to be a very nice person," Calder said in reference to Green's nickname.
'It's very disappointing'
The thief apparently stole the Coolidge engagement ring while the museum was open to the public, Calder said. "It's very disappointing," Calder said. "We're a public institution. We let the public in, and what happens is you start to become suspicious of everybody, which is not good for anyone." The missing ring is a European-cut brilliant stone with a Queen Anne-style setting, she said. Museum officials are unsure of the number of carats in the diamond or the ring's value, she said. "To us, it's invaluable," Calder said. Money needed for security
The Coolidge family, which gave the ring to the Vermont Historical Society in 1982, has been informed of the theft. "I'm sure they're just as disappointed as everyone else is," Calder said. There are no security guards in the museum, she said. Historical society officials have reviewed their procedures, but because the society's budget already has been approved for the fiscal year, officials would have to ask the board for funding to upgrade the security system, if they want to go in that direction, Calder said.
Few leads
Montpelier police Sgt. John Martin said investigators had some leads, but they went nowhere. "This is a loss for all the people of the state," he said. Calder said the reward has resulted in few leads, although she still holds out hope that the missing ring will be recovered. "You always have hope, but it gets less and less over time," Calder said. Anyone with information on the stolen ring is asked to call Montpelier police at (802) 223-3445.
By Richard Zitrin, an APBNews.com national correspondent.
Indian Artifact Thieves Caught
- (DENVER) --
Denver police have arrested two thieves and recovered more than 92-thousand dollars worth of stolen American Indian artifacts. The stolen goods include a 38-thousand-dollar chief's blanket and a pair of Sioux burial moccasins from the 1890's. Ricky and Pauline Whitted are the main suspects in the case. The two also face charges in other cases across the Southwest. Police say Ricky Whitted came into David Cook Galleries October eleventh, offering to sell museum-quality relics. A clerk called police because the artifacts looked like those stolen from gallery in New Mexico. A detective posed as the store owner when the Whitteds returned, and arrested them after they agreed on a price.
Navajos Recover Sacred Artifacts From Looter
(Salt Lake Tribune)
BY VALERIE TALIMAN
INDIAN COUNTRY TODAY
WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. -- After almost a decade of investigation, sacred items stolen by a gravedigger have made their long journey home. John Kelley, U.S. attorney for New Mexico, presented the ancient ceremonial objects, referred to as "jish" in the Navajo language, to a group of Navajo medicine men so they could be blessed before being turned over to tribal officials late last month. The jish were not available for public viewing because of their sacred nature. The items -- a ceremonial mask, a tortoise shell and two leather drum heads -- were recovered in a federal undercover operation after being tracked through a number of art dealers in Santa Fe, N.M., and New York. According to Navajo hataathli, or medicine men, the sacred objects have gone through a great ordeal. "The Ye'i [mask] is not just a mask. It is a living, breathing personation of the Navajo gods used in Ye'iibicheii healing ceremonies," said Alfred Yazzie, a chanter who recently retired from the Navajo Office of Historic Preservation. "It needs to be fed corn pollen and blessed and given back to the people. Holding it in a dark, airless storage box is like suffocating it." The sacred items were returned to the Navajo Nation at the conclusion of a case against Patrick Williams, 44, of Farmington, N.M., who pleaded guilty in 1992 to illegally taking and selling archaeological artifacts, a federal felony. He received four years probation and a $5,000 fine, and is in jail in Arizona for possession of methamphetamine. After Williams stole the rare mask from a cave near Farmington, it traded hands through several antiquities dealers in Santa Fe and New York City before eventually being sold to a prehistoric art collector in Tucson, Ariz., for $25,000. The other items were sold to Santa Fe galleries. Agents confiscated the items in 1992 following a long investigation and held them for almost nine years until authorities were able to determine which tribe owned the artifacts. Williams' desecration and plundering of caves on public lands near Farmington spurred a 1990 undercover operation by federal agents who heard about the artifacts when they served a search warrant on a man believed to be selling fossils. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) special agent Noel Johns said he posed as a college professor to get information about the illegal sale of fossils and came up with Williams' name. During the investigation, Bureau of Indian Affairs Special Agent John Fryar and BLM agent Gary Olson discovered that Williams was likely responsible for looting hundreds of artifacts during a 30-year period. As part of a plea agreement, Williams took investigators to the site where he stole the artifacts. He said he had been hunting in caves in the area since he was 10 years old. He said he took fossils, pottery, ceremonial objects, dinosaur bones and sometimes used a saw to remove pictographs from sandstone rock formations. He also dug graves, focusing his efforts on ancient Navajo burial sites because of the Navajo tradition of burying jewelry, ceremonial items and other valuables with the deceased. He confessed that he had uncovered many graves and "thrown skeletons to the wind" in his quest for ancient artifacts that could be sold, according to Johns. He also saved several human skulls in his Farmington home.
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