Collections Management

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The policies and procedures governing the acquisition, documentation, and storage of museum objects, including the legal and ethical issues involved.

Object handling: Methods of handling, examining, and storing objects for preservation and accessibility.
Collections development: Developing collections in accordance with the mission and goals of the museum, acquiring new items, and keeping records of collections.
Cataloging: Techniques for documenting and cataloging objects in a database, including standards for vocabulary and classification.
Collections policy: Developing and implementing standardized policies for collections management, including ethical considerations and legal requirements.
Conservation: Methods for preserving and protecting objects, including preventative and restorative conservation techniques.
Collections storage: Creating efficient and effective storage solutions for objects, while ensuring their safety and accessibility.
Risk management: Assessing and mitigating risks to collections, including factors such as environmental hazards and security risks.
Accessioning: Procedures for documenting and officially accepting new items into a collection.
Deaccessioning: Procedures for removing items from a collection, including ethical considerations and legal requirements.
Loans: Procedures for lending and borrowing objects, including legal agreements and insurance coverage.
Curating exhibitions: Planning and presenting exhibitions, including object selection, interpretation, and display.
Digital collections: Developing and managing collections that are accessible through digital platforms, including digitization techniques and metadata standards.
Collections research: Conducting research on objects in a collection, including historical, cultural, and scientific research.
Collections outreach: Engaging with the public through outreach initiatives, including educational programming and exhibitions.
Emergency preparedness: Developing plans and procedures for responding to natural disasters and emergencies to protect collections.
Accessioning Management: The process of recording and registering new items getting added to the collection of a museum. This includes verifying the authenticity of acquired objects or items, labeling the items with accession numbers, and updating the museum's inventory.
Documentation Management: A system for creating, maintaining, and updating the records of the museum's entire collection. This includes documentation of ownership, donor information, provenance, condition reports, cataloging, digital images, and inventories.
Conservation Management: A system for preserving and maintaining valuable objects in the museum's collection. This involves developing preservation policies and conservation treatment plans for the objects in the collection, providing ongoing maintenance and periodic conservation treatment to the objects, and monitoring the objects regularly to ensure their long-term preservation.
Collections Storage Management: A careful and systematic approach to the physical storage and handling of museum objects. This includes designing and maintaining storage environments and facilities, performing regular inventories, and monitoring objects for damage and deterioration.
Exhibition Management: This involves the display of the collection for public view. This includes planning, designing, constructing, and installing exhibitions or displays of museum objects, working with curators, designers, and installers, and preserving and maintaining objects while on exhibit.
Loans Management: A program of managing the temporary loan of objects from the museum's collection to other institutions. This includes ensuring that objects are adequately insured and stored during transportation, and that they are returned on schedule.
Research Management: A program that supports scholars' use of the museum's collection for research purposes. This involves making objects available to researchers, providing access to documentation and specialized collections, and organizing workshops and symposia.
Emergency Preparedness and Response Management: A comprehensive plan for managing collections in the event of an emergency, such as natural disasters, fires, or theft. This involves developing emergency plans and training staff on response procedures, establishing cooperative agreements with local emergency services, and providing regular testing and updating of emergency plans.
"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 development, storage, and preservation of cultural property, as well as objects of contemporary culture, occur 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."
"Collections management involves museums, libraries, archives, and private collections."
"Cultural property includes objects of contemporary culture such as contemporary art, literature, technology, and documents."
"Collections care refers to the physical preservation of cultural heritage."
"Collections management aims to ensure the long-term safety and sustainability of the cultural objects within the collector's care."
"The primary goal of collections management is to meet the needs of the individual collector or collecting institution's mission statement."
"Collections management consists primarily of the administrative responsibilities associated with collection development."
"Cultural objects in collections management include both cultural property and objects of contemporary culture."
"Registrars are professionals most influenced by collections management."
"Collections management involves the development, storage, and preservation of cultural property, as well as objects of contemporary culture such as contemporary art."
"Collections management involves the development, storage, and preservation of cultural property, as well as objects of contemporary culture, in private collections."
"Collections management aims to ensure the long-term safety and sustainability of the cultural objects within the collector's care."
"Collections care focuses on the physical preservation of cultural heritage."
"Collections management involves the development, storage, and preservation of cultural property, as well as objects of contemporary culture, in libraries."
"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 consists primarily of the administrative responsibilities associated with collection development."