10 challenges for the next generation of collections management standards

10 CHALLENGES FOR NEXT-GENERATION COLLECTIONS MANAGEMENT STANDARDS

01.02.10

Campaign for the public right to access and engage with Collections by:

•Promoting best practice•Supporting innovation•Representing the sector

Independent not-for-profit organisation based in London

As a ‘social enterprise’, we’re accountable for our environmental, social and economic sustainability.

Collections Trust

PAS 197: A Code of Practice for Cultural Collections Management

Standards : Collections Trust/BSI PAS 197

Organisational Mission/Purpose

Collections Management Policy

Collections Access

Collections Care

Collections Information

Collections Development

• SPECTRUM 4.0

• Joint standard for Sustainable Environmental Management

• Principles for Digital Sustainability

• LIDO

• Museum Accreditation Scheme

The museum sector is experiencing a dramatic period of change, and our aim is to ensure that the next generation of standards is able to meet these new challenges.

Collections Trust Standards Programmes

What are the 10 most important challenges for the next generation of Collections Management Standards?

Challenge 1: Hybrid organisations

• There is no such thing as a ‘pure’ museum, archive or library any more

• Museums are managing both physical and digital collections

• Museums are delivering onsite and offsite, online and offline

• Museums are both places of memory and places of business

• Information and Records Management are vital

• Our standards must prevent silos of information

• And promote synergy between different parts of the museum

Challenge 1 – Hybrid organisations

Challenge 2: Flexibility

• Different institutions have different needs and capabilities

• Different situations require different responses

• How can we make our standards flexible enough to allow people to exercise their judgement in how to apply them?

• How can we create standards which are more flexible without losing the measurability of the current standards?

• We are moving from ‘big’ standards to frameworks of smaller standards, assembled on demand

Challenge 2 – Flexibility

Challenge 3: Difference

Different types of material require different standards

The tendency has been to treat everything as if it were the same

Managing Natural History collections is different from managing Fine Art or Geology

The legal, ethical and practical aspects of managing different types of material must be recognised

Our new generation of standards must retain a common core, but be adaptable to allow for difference

Challenge 3 - Difference

Challenge 4: Demonstrating public value

• Museums have an obligation to provide value for their publics

• Collections Management has to deliver public value

• How do we demonstrate that Collections Management is an important part of public service?

• How can we, as Collections Managers, ensure that Collections Management systems and processes support our organisations in delivering value?

• How can we unite ‘back office management’ with ‘front of house’ services

Challenge 4 – Public Value

Challenge 5: Return on Investment

• Collections Management costs a lot of money

• What is the return on that investment?

• Can our new standards demonstrate that:

• Investment in improving processes makes museums more efficient?

• Collections Management creates new opportunities for generating income?

• Collections Management helps our organisations survive and recover from the Recession?

Challenge 5 – Return on Investment

Challenge 6: An Interoperable World

• We live in an age of aggregation, syndication and federation

• The opportunities of Machine-Readable Data and the Semantic Web are tremendous

• Our documentation can become Linked Data for a tremendous range of other systems

• How do our sector-specific standards interact with standards in other industries (such as tourism, health, education, libraries and archives)

• How can we make best use of standards and knowledge from other sectors?

Challenge 6 – An Interoperable World

Challenge 7: Management buy-in

• Standards are useless without senior-level understanding

• Managers can regard Collections Management as a burden

• It’s a cost without a clear return

• Our standards present the problem, but not the solution

• We talk about Collections Management in terms of its features, rather than its benefits for the wider organisation

• How can our standards help managers engage with the value of the work involved?

Challenge 7 – Management buy-in

Challenge 8: Richer information

• We have already moved far beyond the simple catalogue record

• Collections Management still has to cater for accountability, location and movement control and security

• At the same time, it has to enable a whole range of new, more complex and non-standard data sources

• As well as managing complex narratives, standards increasingly need to account for User-generated Content

• Both our procedural and taxonomic standards have to be able to manage this new richness of information

Challenge 8 – Richer information

Challenge 9: The Green Challenge

• Collections Management is about slowing the process of decay

• Collections Management is resource-intensive, and has a clear environmental impact

• Changes in both the internal micro-climate and external macro-climate have impact on the sustainability of the Collections

• Information Management is process-intensive

• How can our new generation of standards make use of new knowledge about living in sympathy with our environment (eg. passive environmental control and Green computing)

Challenge 9 – The Green Challenge

Challenge 10: Change

• Change is inevitable, and in the Digital world is happening faster than ever

• The development of standards is not fluid or progressive, it happens in 10-year bursts

• What can we learn from the new generation of iterative, agile standards in the technology industry

• Can we turn Collections Management into a perpetual beta, with stable releases every few years

• Can we connect the global community of Collections Managers to share knowledge and collective effort?

Challenge 10 – Change

1. Hybrid organisations2. Flexibility3. Difference4. Public Value5. Return on Investment6. An interoperable world7. Management buy-in8. Richer information9. The Green Challenge10.Change

Our next generation of standards have to be able to respond to these new challenges, and enable us to deal with the challenges of the future.

10 Challenges

Contact...

Nick PooleChief ExecutiveCollections Trust

+ 44 (0) 207 022 1889

http://www.collectionstrust.org.ukhttp://www.collectionslink.org.ukhttp://openculture.collectionstrustblogs.org.uk

@NickPoole1@collectiontrust