new collections management
DESCRIPTION
Presentation to UCL students on the new framework of Collections Management, developed by the Collections Trust (then MDA) between 2005-7.TRANSCRIPT
What makes a museum a museum and not just a random collection of stuff?
What stops an object from just being a passive ‘thing’?
• A museum is a legal entity – we have a legal relationship to the objects in our collections
• A museum is a social entity – we have a social/ethical relationship with the object
• A museum is a creative entity – we extract meaning and connections from things
• A physical object is the trigger for a series of meanings, interpretations and associations
• A object of itself can inspire a reaction – aesthetic, emotional, non-rational
• An object plus the information about that object becomes something active and descriptive
• A collection of objects and their associations becomes a tool for narrating human history
A short history of MDA…
1971 The Museums Association sets up a Special Interest Group to look into these new-fangled ‘computers’
1977 The MDA becomes a separate body
1987 Museum Object Data Entry System (MODES) is launched
1994 First edition of SPECTRUM, the UK museum documentation standard
2001 SPECTRUM Knowledge: A Guide to Knowledge Management for museums
The real history…
• Geeks play with data
• Sector creates stock-control for objects
• Both strands get formalised into SPECTRUM
• SPECTRUM becomes a requirement of the Museum Accreditation Scheme
A note about: Accreditation
• Replaced the Registration Scheme
• Four sections
– Governance and management– User services– Visitor facilities– Collections Management*
• * Including SPECTRUM
What is SPECTRUM?
• 400+ pages long
• A procedural standard – a more or less sequential list of processes you will need to go through with the objects in your collection
• An information standard – a formal information architecture which gives standard definitions for the kinds of information you will collect about an object
How it works in practice
• When an object comes into the collection, give it a unique number
• Write down everything you know about it
• Every time something happens to the object, write that down too
• Rinse and repeat
Why document (the official list)
• For users:
– Find objects in your collections & in store– Answer queries from people– Respect the rights of others (eg. Data Protection)
– Unearth the histories of diverse/minority cultures
– Helps create learning & other materials
Why document (the official list)
• For your collection
– Monitor sensitive or at-risk items in the collection
– Prove legal ownership in the event of dispute
– Trace lost or stolen items– Inventory for insurance purposes
Why document (the official list)
• For your museum
– Identify objects for exhibition– Produce catalogues
– Increases credibility with funders and politicians
– Protects your rights (eg. Copyright)– Enables collaboration– Creates persistent knowledge (when Bob moves on)
The backlogs question
• A backlog is a perceived failure to keep your records as complete as possible
• Came about because we went mad with collecting between 1970 and 1990, but couldn’t be bothered with management
• Backlogs can quickly become a millstone – because you don’t know what you don’t know
• Backlogs are also used as a political weapon (you have to give us more money, look at the state of our backlog)
• There is no such things as a ‘backlog’
Backlogs
• A true backlog is a collection of objects for which there is no information at all, this is spectacularly rare
• People usually mean that they have some objects which either haven’t been formally accessioned into the collection or which only have incomplete information
• Incomplete information is fine – this is a long-term process, not a finite project
How to fix a backlog
STEP 1 Define your terms. What constitutes a backlog to your museum in the context of your users
STEP 2 Backlogs happen for a reason – get your house in order and stop it growing
STEP 3 Your backlog should now be (a) smaller and (b) manageable. Get to it!
MDA’s work
• UK’s focus for expertise in the management of collections
• Providing advice, guidance and training across 16 areas of collections management practice
• From documentation to digitisation, copyright, legal compliance and electronic publishing
What we believe
• We love museums. We love what they do and what they mean to people
• We believe that the UK enjoys the most vibrant and professional museum sector in the world
• We believe that museums should enjoy the same profile and celebrity as any of the other creative industries
Collections Link
• 550 standards, guidelines and factsheets
• 20+ publishers
• 16 areas of collections management practice
• Freely available online at www.collectionslink.org.uk
• Local-rate telephone advisory service on 0845 838 4000
• Give it a try!
Cultural Property Advice
• Detailed guidance and checklists on restitution, repatriation, theft and spoliation
• Written by industry experts
• For use by museums, private collectors and the art & antiquities trade
• Coming soon at www.culturalpropertyadvice.org.uk
The future
• We are at the beginning of the next big thing for museums
• Variously called ‘democratisation’ or ‘opening up’
• The idea is that the user community holds expertise and knowledge which should be used to interpret the collection
• The curator may not have all the answers
The future
• We will always need to document for accountability, but the real value of documentation is using knowledge and information to create stories and connections
• Opening up documentation to enable a two-way conversation with the community and with users
• Documentation is becoming more closely integrated into service delivery
• You will come across a sarky, conspiratorial attitude to documentation. Fight it.
The future
• Beginning to challenge some perceptions and learned behaviours
• It is OK (essential) to get rid of stuff as well as collect it
• We can be market-driven without dumbing-down
• New technology creates as many problems as it solves – we need to step back from the bleeding edge and go for solid and dependable