Student Project Deaccessioning: A curatorial review

Abstract

Deaccessioning in collections can be controversial because of the value associated with some taxa and their conservational, historical, educational, display and research significance within the collection. Twenty-one horticultural institutions completed a survey on the protocols for deaccessioning plant material. The resulting data were collated to provide a comparison of the different approaches institutions take towards deaccessioning their collections. This study has identified that conservation and education are the most important factors in managing garden collections. Accession data of high quality is an essential part of managing a collection, but poor accession data should not be a reason to deaccession plants. Space constraints are the primary factor behind the deaccessioning of collections. This paper is a summary of the research project completed by the author for the BSc in Horticulture with Plantsmanship at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE).