Collections management involves the development, storage, and preservation of cultural property, as well as objects of contemporary culture (including contemporary art, literature, technology, and documents) in museums, libraries, archives and private collections. The primary goal of collections management is to meet the needs of the individual collector or collecting institution's mission statement, while also ensuring the long-term safety and sustainability of the cultural objects within the collector's care. Collections management, which consists primarily of the administrative responsibilities associated with collection development, is closely related to collections care, which is the physical preservation of cultural heritage. The professionals most influenced by collections management include collection managers, registrars, and archivists.
Definition
Cultural property collections require a great deal of care and protection in order to ensure their safety from external loss or damage, but they also require in-depth documentation to assist in tracking the life of the object within the holding institution. To accommodate these needs, collectors adhere to collections management and collections care standards and practices, which serve to create a safe environment for collection objects with clear and precise accompanying documentation. Where collections care addresses the physical actions necessary to prevent or delay damages of cultural heritage, collection management can be defined as "a process of information gathering, communication, coordination, policy formulation, evaluation, and planning." These processes influence decisions about records management and the collections management policy, which outlines protocols for the collection scope, collections care, and emergency planning and response.
Collections management systems
Collection management systems (CMS) are software programs designed to aid in the archiving and cataloging of objects in a collection. Within libraries, archives, and museums. Although every CMS program is unique, there are several features that are considered standard:
Cataloging: This feature includes fields for object identification purposes such as permanent identification numbers, object name, artist or creator name, object description, dimensions, object components and materials, condition, provenance, exhibition and preservation history, current location, and an image of the object. Acquisitions: This feature includes fields relevant to the donor and purchase history for the object such as date of acquisition, donor or seller name and contact information, the assigned accession number, purchase price, condition assessment at the time of arrival, and seller or donor restrictions, if applicable. Deaccessions: This feature addresses the removal of an object from a collection and includes information such as the date of deaccessioning, method of disposal used, and reason for removal. Loans: This feature is used for tracking information about incoming and outgoing loans to include lender name and contact information, special requirements, shipping instructions, associated insurance policies, and loan history. Condition and conservation reports: This feature includes condition assessments performed on objects, and the name of the inspector and date of inspection. This section also includes conservation reports detailing conservation-restoration treatments performed on the object. Security: This feature allows the database administrator to restrict access to the database by giving only specific individuals access to view and/or edit object records. Copyright: The copyright feature allows the institution to input relevant intellectual property restrictions for the objects in order to prevent illegal distribution or reproduction of the object. Multimedia: The multimedia feature is a function that allows digital materials such as image, video, and audio content associated with an object to be attached to the object record. This feature typically allows the input of associated metadata. QR Codes or Bar Codes: This feature allows for increased accuracy and efficiency, and streamlines location and inventory management.
Inventories
According to the Smithsonian Institution, a record is "any official, recorded information, regardless of medium or characteristics which are created, received, and maintained" by an individual collector or institution. As every object within a collection must have accompanying documentation, records management functions as the primary focus of collections management, and covers a wide range of documentation and policy standards. Topics covered under the umbrella of records management include collection information management systems, collections accession and deaccession policies, collection management policies, cataloging, and curation. The lack of appropriate record-keeping systems in museums compromises the security of museum collections and threatens the role of museums as information centers. Planned and systematized management of records improves programs and activities in museums, thereby leading to effective governance and operation of the museum.
Cataloging
Cataloging is the process of entering informational data about an object into a collection catalog or database. This process involves assigning unique identification numbers to individual objects within a collection, and attaching relevant accompanying documentation to the item such as curatorial worksheets, photographs, condition assessments, and accession and/or deaccession information. A catalog is meant to serve as a systematic written or digital record of every object within a collection, and should at the very least, include an object description that will allow for easy identification of an object.
Cataloging is an important aspect of collections management as it provides the individual records associated with each object within a collection. Should an object be lost or destroyed, the catalog entry can be utilized as a permanent record of the object and its data. For some collections, such as natural history collections, the catalog entry for an object or specimen also contains the scientific values and research information about the physical object, making maintenance of a catalog entry imperative for future research and education. Most modern collectors and institutions utilize CMS to streamline the catalog process. For this to be effective, data entry standards must be utilized for data structure, data values, and data content, which then "form the basis for a set of tools that can lead to good descriptive cataloguing, consistent documentation, shared records, and increased end-user access."
Curation Curation can be defined as the collecting, organizing, preserving, and displaying of information about a specific object or collection topic. The role of curating is performed by individuals known as curators, who, in many cases, are trained as subject specialists. Curators conduct research on objects, offer guidance in the organization of a collection, and select objects to be utilized in exhibitions. Curation involves the development and design of exhibitions, typically based on objects within the collection, as well as the in-depth research and writing of materials associated with the collection.
Digital curation
Digital curation is an extension of content curation, and involves the collecting, preserving, and archiving of digital assets associated with digitized collections. Digital assets include both those items that originated in a digital form and are considered born-digital (i.e. websites, wikis, and digitally created sound and photographs), as well as analog items that have been digitized (i.e. cataloged in digital form, while still maintaining the original physical/analog form). Digital curation, like content curation, also involves the development and design of exhibitions based on objects within the collection, which in this case, often involves website maintenance for online exhibits.
Whether born-digital or digitized, many modern collections contain some form of digital collection content which must be maintained in much the same way as physical objects. Preservation of digital assets involves the creation of metadata to improve accessibility and object tracking, preventing technical obsolescence and data loss due to mismanagement, performing routine audits of technical software and digital catalogs to ensure data remains uncorrupted, applying authorization standards to protect data from unauthorized alterations, and managing content for the purposes of research and exhibition.
Collections management policy A collection management policy lays the foundation for how an institution handles situations pertaining to their collection. It can be defined as "a detailed written statement that explains why an institution is in operation and how it goes about its business. The policy articulates the institution's professional standards regarding the items left in its care and serves as a guide for the staff". Since institutions are often faced with questions that deal with what objects they should acquire, how to handle removing or loaning items in the collection, or standards of care for items; it is imperative to have a well-written policy that can help prevent possible issues on the institution's end. Prevention is the best approach when dealing with operations and objects in the collection, therefore the policy is an important document that can be looked at almost like boundaries set in place to help insure that the museum stays true to its mission while also providing the best care for the collection.
The primary focus of collections management is to document the standards and practices necessary to develop, care for, and make available for use, the collection objects within a collector or institution's care. To accomplish this, a collections management policy is created in which detailed information is provided to explain the specific needs of the collection based on type, age, location, etc. Collection management policies are specific to the collection-holding institution and these policies lay out terms such as which personnel are responsible for individual tasks involving the collection, if and when an object should be acquired for or removed from the collection, who within the institution has access to the collection, and the preventive care needs of each object within the collection.
Given that almost every decision a museum makes is done with its mission statement in mind, it is important that it is included in the policy. A mission statement addresses the museum's focus in terms of its purpose and its roles and responsibilities to the public and collections. This statement is what helps determine everything the museum does and should be referenced to on a regular basis to ensure that decisions are still in line with the museum's original goal. Museum mission statements should adhere to the standards of the American Alliance of Museums.
In addition to the mission statement, policies typically include a section that outlines the scope of the collection. This is a useful part of the policy that "reviews the history of the collection; considers its strengths, weaknesses, and current uses; and states what the museum does and does not collect" . The collections policy or selection criteria of a library, archive or museum collection is a statement of the institution's priorities as they apply to the acquisition of new materials. Collections policies guide the process of collection development.