Collections Management Checklist
Resource
The aim of this resource, from Museum Development Yorkshire, is to provide a simple checklist to determine the state of collections management procedures in your museum.
Part of: Inventory
Inventory
The Inventory procedure supports you when checking that you have the basic information to be accountable for the objects in your care. If your museum has always met the minimum requirements for the other primary procedures, you will already have this information recorded and you should just keep up the good work. Keeping on top of the other primary procedures will maintain your inventory information. If, however, you do not have the basic information recorded, the procedure will help you tackle the backlog.
Here you can find further resources to help with the Spectrum procedure Inventory and see how other museums have put it into practice. For the procedure itself follow this link. You can find further blog posts related to banishing backlogs here.
Moving 300,000 objects to their new home
Resource
This film goes behind the scenes with the Science Museum Group teams preparing to move 300,000 objects to their new home at the National Collections Centre.
Part of: Inventory
Revealing the collection in 2019
Resource
This resource is a blog from the Science Museum Group , which is in the middle of a project to study, digitise and re-home more than 300,000 objects, and looks back on the team’s achievements in 2019.
Part of: Inventory
Guidance for bulk accessioning
Resource
This resource outlines bulk accessioning and how to apply it to different collections. Contents What is bulk accessioning and why is it important? Spectrum 5.0 and the Museum Accreditation Scheme How to bulk accession Bulk accessioning and Cataloguing Bulk accessioning and different types of collection Bulk accessioning and Inventory Please note, this resource has been […]
Collections Biography Toolkit
Resource
This toolkit, from Museum Development Yorkshire, provides a framework to undertake an initial survey of a museum collection to create a collection biography and provide an overview of the collection.
Part of: Inventory
Our survey said...
News, blog and events
Pulling together who knew what about the collections via a survey helped Dorset Museum banish the backlog, as Collections Assistants Kat Broomfield and Camilla King explain.
Top ten tips to #BanishThatBacklog
News, blog and events
Collections Trust Outreach Officer, Sarah Brown, has some sensible and down-to-earth advice for getting to grips with your backlog.
Developing a documentation procedural manual
Resource
The procedural manual is a widely recognised device for expressing and communicating a museum’s policy and practice. It should include reference to the standards the museum uses for collecting information about museum objects. The resource describes how to develop and maintain a procedural manual, and what it might contain.
Documentation planning pack
Resource
The aim of the Collections Trust Documentation planning pack is to assist museums to produce their own documentation plans. The guidelines contained in the pack can be used for all types of documentation planning; they are not intended as the only way to produce a documentation plan and are specifically to help the documentation planning process as required by UK Museum Accreditation Scheme.
Documentation procedural manual from the British Schools Museum
Resource
The British Schools Museum have created a documentation procedural manual, which sets a useful example for appropriate contents and structure when creating your own procedural manual for Accreditation.
Wheal Martyn - dealing with documentation backlogs
News, blog and events
Jo Moore, Curator and Collections Coordinator at Wheal Martyn, has written this guest blog about how Wheal Martyn approached dealing with their documentation backlog, which was identified following an audit of their collections.
Numbering
Resource
This resource gives guidance on numbering your collection, on different types and formats and a summary of commonly occurring issues surrounding numbering.