Ethical Issues in a Post-Pandemic World
COVID-19: The Ethical Effects of the Coronavirus Epidemic in Collections Management
Global pandemics have altered and shaped the dynamics of society with every significant event. From the Black Death to the Spanish Flu of 1918, these world events have altered everyday activity. The recent COVID-19 epidemic is a worldwide pandemic that is causing thousands of deaths, the loss of businesses and employment and has externally distorted the plans and goals of museums and historical institutions. Institutions and professionals have been faced with the challenge of altering their entire policies to accommodate the guidelines and new standards of operations. Museum collection standards and procedures have been affected due to the recent pandemic. Museum collections are how museums tell their story and display their missions, and Registrar and collection managers now have the responsibility to manage and maintain collections through the drastic event and are responsible for upholding the ethical standards of their institution or museum.
"Historical resources including collections and other evidence of the past, provide the tools through which we interact with the past and are the bedrock upon which the practice of history rests." 1
Museum collections have been affected economically, particularly museums that were already struggling to operate, causing ethical issues to arise and ethical standards to be reconsidered. The post-pandemic world has created ethical issues in the acquisition processes of artifacts and documents, finances situations of museums, and the deaccessioning process.
Ethics are essential standards to have emitted in museums and historical institution's policies and procedures. Ethics help to provide protection of collections and the information that is being put out to the public. Museums have public authority on knowledge and have the social responsibility to project that knowledge truthfully and with the publics' best interest. The COVID-19 pandemic is an international event that must be documented, and museums now have the responsibility to capture this moment. Museums now have the responsibility to display the effect of the pandemic through their mission and visions. Museums should act as "authorized repository for unprovenanced, illicitly collected or recovered specimens and objects from the territory over which it has lawful responsibility.2
Museums have the responsibility to make information available for public consumption and provide knowledge on topics that align with their serving community. The ethical standards of museums must have the best interest of the public when deciding on policies and procedures connected to collections. The public intrust museums with the faith of adequate information and preservation. Museums are to serve the people. The Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum Museums is the world's repository for President Jimmy Carter artifacts, making them responsible for high levels of knowledge and publicly accessible data on President Jimmy Carter.
Museums have the responsibility to go above and beyond the basic lawful requirements, as they struggle to level with true ethical standards. Museum professionals have a duty to the public to decide when the law is not protecting the publics' best interest."museums must rise above the legal bar and try to hold to the highest of ethical standards, lest they be charged with (among other things) feeding the chain of looting, selling off their collections to cover operating expenses, giving their reputations up to commercial enterprises, or becoming centers of entertainment when they should, by virtue of their missions, be educators." 3 If someone donated an item to a museum but later changed their mind because of a particular reason, no law would require the item to be returned. If a mother donated her wedding dress to museum, but later her daughter decided she wanted to wear it for her wedding day and tried to retrieve it, it is up to the museum's ethical conscience to return the dress. Museums are now trying to acquire artifacts for the history of this pandemic, and objects have begun to be acquired by untraditional ethics, but not purposefully.
Museums and institutions geared towards current general history, now find themselves having to include the events of the pandemic. Museums such as the Atlanta History Center will, by its mission of telling Atlanta history past and current, will have to include the events that surrounded the COVID-19 pandemic for its drastic impact on the cities operation. Ethical measures must still be kept in the acquisition of items, even with the urgency to acquire as much as possible to capture the moment for the future. Collection policy standards should still be followed that align with the documentation of items obtained by the museum, and the artifacts should be documented as such "The governing body of each museum should adopt and publish a written collections policy that addresses the acquisition, care and use collections. The policy should clarify the position of any material that will not be cataloged, conserved, or exhibited." 4 The acquisition can be altered to fit the new standards of the museum if the institution can no longer meet previous standards. If an institution has written in their policy that the collection process should have a time limit, that is an element that could change if the collections team has lost staff members, which has been a result of the epidemic. Museums have undergone staff cuts, which has made some institutions chan of command shorter, which can affect the balance of power needed in museums.
Through the acquisition process, registrars and collection managers should treat artifacts related to the epidemic as culturally sensitive materials. This epidemic has claimed the lives on thousands of individuals and affected millions of families around the world. The political and cultural stigma that surrounds COVID-19 is rooted in a culturally insensitive manner that pinpoints one group of people to blame for the outbreak. It is imperative for museums to interpret artifacts from the perspective of its origin. "Historical resources shall be acquired, cared for, and interpreted with a sensitivity to their cultural origins" 5 The American Alliance Museum website states "Whilst it's important that museums record this challenging period which is having an impact on the whole of society on an international scale, we clearly need to be approaching contemporary collecting with sensitivity and respect." 6 The pandemic affected different cultures, races, and nationalities differently and was interpreted differently. Some religious groups believed that the epidemic is the coming of God, while others believe it is a scientific event that will continue to occur throughout history. No matter the background of the item, it should be considered for its history.
One of the significant effects of Coronavirus is the impact it has had on the economy. Museums and historical institutions have become hurt by the lack of visitors and donations. The Coronavirus is preventing museums from operating, leaving no revue from visitation, and the downturn of the economy has made extra expenses for a lot of Americans rare to provide. Museums are facing financial hardships that have become difficult to reverse, and unethical measures have been used for some museums. Artifacts in a collection should not be sold for the financial gain of an institution or museum. Artifacts should serve the public rather than benefit the institution. "Collections-related activities promote the public good rather than individual financial gain…collections shall not be capitalized or treated as financial assets" Through the pandemic, some museums have been faced with the challenges of selling items in their collection for financial support for the museum. Museums have to make the decision to follow the ethical guidelines of their collection or maintain the existence of the museum. Ethical policies are not law because social consciousness determines them. Although it is unethical to sell items of a collection, in a post-pandemic world, it might be the only option for some museums to continue operation. Ethical policies should be reviewed as times change and when extreme world events occur. When creating the policies and procedures of a collection, institutions do not factor in global pandemics and the overall implications it will have on an institution. Museums have a duty to the public to educate and inform, but that would be impossible if the institution no longer exists.
Museums should be able to sell items to cover the financial deficits of an institution when extreme events happen, but those items shall be for educational use. The items a museum chooses to sell should be given only to individuals or institutions that have a mission dedicated to the subject of the artifact. If a museum such as the National Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta, Ga, were severely financially affected by the pandemic and selling an artifact would keep the museum operating, it might be in the museum's best interest to do so. The ethical standards pre-pandemic were profits from the selling of artifacts should only be used to maintain the collection, "Museum collections are held in public trust and may not be treated as a realisable asset. Money or compensation received from the deaccessioning and disposal of objects and specimens from a museum collection should be used solely for the benefit of the collection and usually for acquisitions to that same collection." 8
Post-pandemic should also take into consideration in order to maintain the collection there must be a museum to house the collection. Museum personnel remains with the same ethical responsibility of establishing a separation of collections and the governing bodies. Museum professionals should not have any personal stake in the institution that they are employed by or board member. Although museums might need to sell an item to maintain operation, the item should not be sold to someone apart from the museum. Collections sales should not be used for the personal gain of board members or staff, even if affected by the pandemic. Museum professionals have a commitment to serving the community, and that must come first. "Museum personnel, the governing body, or their families or close associates, should not be permitted to purchase objects that have been deaccessioned from a collection for which they are responsible." 9 The COVID-19 epidemic has changed the way of living as we know it. With the new social distancing precautions to the economic downfall, museums and historical institutions have been affected and have had to reconsider what their ethical practices should be.
Ethics is a continuously evolving field that has to adapt to its times. What we find unethical in today's society was not considered unethical fifty years ago, and ethics we have today that is ethical can be considered unethical fifty years from now. The post-pandemic will make professionals reconsider the policies they once used for every aspect of the museum, from finances to visitation. The field now has the challenge of implementing policies for future epidemics. The post-pandemic world has created ethical issues in the acquisition processes of artifacts and documents, finances situations of museums, and the deaccessioning process. Museums have begun to adapt to the post-epidemic society, and ethical standards have begun to be reevaluated.
- Rebecca Buck, Museum Registration Methods: Ethics for Registrars and Collections Managers, (Washington D. C, American Association of Museums, 2005), 397.
- Ibid, 394
- Ibid 396
- Ibid, 394
- Ibid, 394
- Ibid, 395
- Sharon Heal, (American Alliance Museum)
- Rebecca Buck, Museum Registration Methods: Ethics for Registrars and Collections Managers, (Washington D. C, American Association of Museums, 2005), 395
- Ibid, 395