When items come into your museum, you may not wish to accession them right away. Many institutions have a collections committee that meets regularly to consider new acquisitions. Other organizations must hold potential donations until a curator or other expert can examine them. For many reasons, possible donations may be held for consideration in a state of temporary custody. This allows your institution to analyze the proposed collection items to determine if they conform to your mission statement and can be cared for properly by your institution.
The Temporary Custody catalog in PastPerfect is designed to help you record and retrieve source information and to create temporary custody documents. PastPerfect's Temporary Custody screen records important information about incoming items and their source, prints a receipt for the potential donor, and tracks the items prior to your museum's decision to accession the items. Temporary Custody also tracks the eventual disposition of the items. If you decide to accept the donation, you may convert the Temporary Custody receipt into an Accession record. If you choose to return the items, add the date and method of return to the receipt, and move it to the Returned file. For more information, see Additional Features | Temporary Custody.
For occasions when you wish to accession items immediately, bypass the Temporary Custody procedure and enter source information directly in Accessions. For more information, see Additional Features | Accessions.