Collections Management

Object Handling and Care: Understanding how to properly handle and care for museum objects is critical to ensuring the longevity of the collection. This includes best practices for storage, display, and preservation.

Collection Development: Developing a museum collection involves identifying suitable objects, acquiring them through purchase, donation or loan, and documenting their provenance and history.

Cataloguing and Documentation: Cataloguing the museum’s collection involves creating records for each item that include information such as dimensions, description, condition, and provenance. This information is often stored in a database, and may be used for exhibitions, research, and loans.

Exhibition Planning: Planning an exhibition involves selecting objects, designing the exhibition space, developing interpretive materials, and working with other museum departments and outside partners.

Audience Research: Understanding the needs and interests of the museum’s visitors is essential to creating engaging exhibitions and programming. This may involve focus groups, surveys, or other methods of gathering feedback.

Education and Programming: Developing educational programs and events that engage the museum’s audience is an important aspect of Collections Management. This may include lectures, workshops, and tours.

Loans and Acquisitions: The museum may loan objects to other institutions or acquire objects for the collection. Understanding the legal and logistical considerations for these processes is important for Collections Managers.

Deaccession and Disposal: Deciding which objects to remove from the collection and how to dispose of them is a challenging aspect of Collections Management. Ethics and legal considerations must be taken into account.

Intellectual Property and Copyright: Understanding intellectual property and copyright laws in relation to museum objects is important to avoid infringement and to properly document the rights and ownership of objects.

Conservation and Restoration: Knowing when and how to conserve or restore museum objects is important to maintain their aesthetic and historical value. Expertise in this area may be required for specialized objects or materials.

Registrar Collections Management: A registrar manages the entire collections inventory of a museum, which includes acquisition, accessioning, inventorying, and cataloging all museum objects.

Exhibition Planning Collections Management: This type of collections management involves planning and organizing exhibitions. It includes the design, creation, marketing, and implementation of exhibitions for museums, galleries, and other cultural institutions.

Conservation Collections Management: This type of collections management is responsible for the preservation of objects in a collection. It includes proper handling, documentation, storage, and conservation treatments.

Collections Management Policy Development: Developing a collections management policy is important to prevent loss, theft, and damage of collections. Collections management includes creating and implementing these policies.

Art Collections Management: Art collections management involves managing fine art collections, which may include paintings, sculpture, ceramics, and other media. This includes acquisition, cataloging, exhibitions, and preservation.

Archive Collections Management: Archives focus on preserving documents and manuscripts, such as letters and photographs, for future generations. Archive collections management involves cataloging, preservation, and digitization for easy access and retrieval.

Special Collections Management: Sometimes referred to as rare books collections, special collections focus on collections that are unique or hold significant historical or cultural importance. Special collections management ensures the preservation and accessibility of these collections.