CUTBACKS AT THE UTRECHT GELDMUSEUM

For years the new Geldmuseum in Utrecht struggles with serious budgetary problems. Now the bigger part of the staff will be laid off, services will be extremely reduced, the research department cut off, the library closed and much more. Here you will find an information send by the Head of Department and the Librarian.

Since the merger of the Royal Coin Cabinet, the Dutch Mint Museum and the numismatic collection of the Dutch Central Bank in 2004, the new Geldmuseum struggles with serious budgetary problems.

There was no other option than to reorganize the staff. Since the opening, it was obvious that the focus of the museum was no longer on numismatics, but on financial education. This already resulted in a permanent exhibition without collection, and in the end we can conclude that this change of direction made it easier to decide to cut off the research department. The director has chosen to keep the public side of the museum intact and sacrifice the scientific side, the Department of Collections and Research.

That has resulted in the lay-off of 9 people.

There are plans to keep the library open for a limited amount of hours a week, hosted by volunteers, but officially there is nothing said about it, yet. There will be no budget for new publications. The library collection will not be built up, exchange will diminish and the international network of numismatic libraries will not be co-ordinated anymore by the librarian of the Geldmuseum. Questions for information from the library collection by external users will hardly be answered and accessibility will be limited to almost none.

The library of the Money Museum houses a unique collection of scientific publications in the field of numismatics (coin and numismatics and paper), the financial culture and monetary history.

The collection consists of books, magazines, annual reports, reports, reprints, lists, archives and documentation. Besides the above collection of components there is a large collection of auction catalogs and much photographic material. The collection is largely made accessible via the catalog . The library collection is also accessible via Picarta, the Dutch Union Catalogue and Worldcat

To read the complete article, see: Cutbacks at Geldmuseum Utrecht (www.coinsweekly.com/en/News/4?&id=1005)

Wayne Homren, Editor

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