Week Three, Day Four- October 5

Today was a rather slow day at the directed study because we were unable to get into the project work room. Although we had no chance to work with the materials, Latoya and I decided that we would use this time to begin to develop a mission statement for the museum and a collection development policy that can be used as more materials are added to the collection.

Here is what I came up with as the mission statement. "The mission of the Birmingham Black Radio Museum is to collect and preserve materials relating to the history of African-American radio in the city of Birmingham, Alabama and the surrounding areas." I feel like this is a good mission statement because it is simple and it lays out exactly what the museum is, or at least what it wants to become.
The collection development policy is also a vital part in the beginning of an archive or museum.

The museum will collect any materials relating to the history and development of black radio in the city of Birmingham, Alabama and the surrounding areas. The museum is most interested in collections materials that explain the history of specific black radio stations in the Birmingham area.

Materials to be collected
• Newspaper articles
• Photographs of radio personalities
• Photographs of radio sponsored events
• Oral histories from persons who were active in the development of black radio in the Birmingham area.
• Manuscripts from radio stations
• Manuscripts from radio personalities
• 3-D artifacts from radio stations

I feel like this is a good collection development policy because it is simple and includes all types of materials that the museum might want to collect. It lays out specifically what materials the museum wants so there will not be any problems with what to do with irrelevant materials.