Fundraising presents us with a disclosure issue as well. Nell, finds herself entangled within a web of political intrigue regarding whom to trust and when. Slowly she allows herself to let in other members of the staff on the details of missing items but all the while she struggles about when to inform outsiders. As the one primarily responsible for fundraising, she finds herself struggling with the dynamics of informing the FBI and the local police and the implications of allowing potential donors find out that the society may be unable to properly catalog its collections. After all, if Nell is unable to raise appropriate funds, she could be terminated rightly for failure to achieve the goals of her position. Because of the easy access to which board members can access the collection and staff, regardless of procedure, Nell is "married" to a disclosure problem simply because a board member first approached her instead of the appropriate department when they discovered some missing items.
The large number of items plus a small number of staff makes losing items inevitable. The members of the Society seem to too easily accept a few disappearing items. I can't say if a real society of this type would be so accepting of this, but I don't know how any library can rightly say they know where all of their collection items are at any given time until they in fact turn up missing. In addition, the ease at which the public can access the items and inadequate staff preventing some items from walking off calls into question the validity of many of the items. Controls against tampering must be enabled in this type of setting. Above all in the interest of integrity, missing items should be disclosed to any party with a financial investment (the board and donors) if not to members of the public if for no other reason than to manage any doubt as to items' credibility if and when they are recovered.
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