Collections Management

Anne Fahy

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2005
• Print ISBN: 9780415112826
• eBook ISBN: 9781134830510
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Museum Administration
• Index: Business

Collections Management brings together leading papers exploring some of the major issues affecting collections management.

Providing information about initiatives and issues for anyone involved in collections management, Fahy identifies the main issues relating to collecting and disposal of collections and discusses why museums should develop appropriate documentation systems.

Examining the status of research within museums, the various sources of advice relating to security and addresses the basics of insurance and indemnity, Collections Management is an invaluable and very practical introduction to this topic for students of museum studies and museum professionals.

Part I: Collections management policies

1: Collection management policies

Marie Malaro

Marie Malaro has been one of the major contributors on the subject of the law and collections management. One tool she advocates, the collections management policy, articulates the museum’s activities in its collections care, demonstrating that the museum is behaving legally and responsibly towards its collections. This chapter from her book A Legal Primer on Managing Museum Collections clearly sets out the reasons why a museum should consider developing a collections management policy and how to prepare one.

1. A. Why a Collection Management Policy?
2. B. Guidelines for Preparing a Collection Management Policy

A. WHY A COLLECTION MANAGEMENT POLICY?

• ‘Our museum has quite a few objects that we have had for years, but we aren’t sure if we own them. We would like to dispose of the objects, can we?’
• ‘Every year, our museum ends up taking objects we don’t really want. How can we control this?’
• ‘Frequently, staff members are asked to provide appraisals for donors. We oblige but feel uneasy about it. How should these situations be handled?’

These are common questions from the museum community and the queries themselves reflect a degree of uncertainty regarding the role of the museum and the responsibilities of its officers and staff. Without clear direction, poor decisions are bound to be made and for a museum many such ‘mistakes’ have no easy solutions. The best approach is prevention, and a suggested technique is the adoption of a collection management policy.

A collection management policy is a detailed written statement that explains why a museum is in operation and how it goes about its business, and it articulates the museum’s professional standards regarding objects left in its care. The policy serves as a guide for the staff and as a source of information for the public.

A good collection management policy covers a broad range of topics:

1. The purpose of the museum and its collection goals.
2. The method of acquiring objects for the collections.
3. The method of disposing of objects from the collections.
4. Incoming and outgoing loan policies.
5. The handling of objects left in the custody of the museum.
6. The care and control of collection objects generally.
7. Access to collection objects.
8. Insurance procedures relating to collection objects.
9. The records that are to be kept of collection activities, when these records are to be made, and where they are to be maintained.

Each of the above-mentioned topics raises a host of issues that must be considered if comprehensive and practical guidance is to be offered in the policy itself. Many of these issue are listed in the ‘Guidelines for preparing a collection management policy’, which follows this section. The very exercise of reviewing and coming to terms with these issues provides a worthwhile educational opportunity for museum officers and staff. All who participate cannot help but emerge with a better appreciation of their respective roles and with a firmer grasp of important basic principles.

The guidelines should not be viewed as a rigid format for the preparation of a collection management policy. Their purpose is to provoke thought and discussion. The form and content of any policy rests essentially with the individual museum, and it should be tailored to the needs of the museum. A collection management policy is not unlike a pair of eyeglasses; both are effective aids to perception only if individually prescribed and faithfully used.

Drafting a collection management policy is not an easy task. It requires much communication among staff members and frank discussion between staff and board members. Areas of uncertainty or disagreement must be resolved and adjustments made. The objective in drafting the policy is not to attempt to solve all possible problems, but to define areas of responsibility and to set forth guidelines for those charged with making certain decisions. The completed policy should be approved by the board or entity charged with overall governance of the museum and, once in effect, the policy should serve as a formal delegation of responsibilities.

As noted in the Preface, one of the objectives of [A Legal Primer on Managing Museum Collections] is to stress ‘prevention’ and for this reason, it is urged that the book be used as a tool for drafting or perfecting a collection management policy.¹ Each chapter serves this end. Chapters I and II, on the nature of a museum and its accountability, provide essential background material for understanding the role of a museum, the duties of governing boards and the obligations owed the public. Chapter III…introduces the general topic of collection management and provides guidelines for drafting a collection management policy. Subsequent chapters discuss specific collection-related problems, but these should not be read in isolation. They presuppose an understanding of the material in the preceding chapters.

B. GUIDELINES FOR PREPARING A COLLECTION MANAGEMENT POLICY²

These guidelines are offered as a checklist for the museum interested in drafting or revising a collection management policy. Most of the issues raised in the guidelines are treated in detail in the following chapters. Chapters I and II, which concern the legal nature of a museum and its accountability, are suggested as useful preliminaries before work on a policy is begun.

1 General comments

A collection management policy is a comprehensive written statement that sets forth the goals of a museum and explains how these goals are pursued through collection activity. One of the main functions of the policy is to guide staff members in carrying out their responsibilities. The policy, therefore, must be detailed enough to provide useful instruction and yet avoid procedural minutiae. (The latter are subject to frequent revision and are more appropriately handled in supplementary documents.) Flexibility is essential also in order to permit prudent ad hoc decisions. These objectives can be achieved by bearing in mind the following:

• Define areas of responsibility clearly.
• Where possible, delegate final decision-making authority to one individual or group.
• Establish policy but, where appropriate, permit decision-making authorities to grant exceptions in unusual circumstances.
• Stress the maintenance of complete, written records regarding all collection-related decisions.³

2 Definitions

As used in these guidelines:

• A collection object is an item that has been or is in the process of being accessioned into the collections.
• Accessioning is the formal process used to accept and record an item as a collection object.
• De-accessioning is the formal process used to remove permanently an object from the collections.⁴
• Loans are temporary assignments of collection objects from the museum or temporary assignments of similar objects to the museum for stated museum purposes, such as exhibition and research. These assignments do not involve a change in ownership.
• Objects placed in the custody of the museum are items that are not owned by the museum but are left temporarily in the museum for other than loan purposes, such as for attribution, identification or examination for possible gift or purchase.

3 Drafting the policy

(a) Statement of purpose and description of collections

The introductory ‘statement of purpose’ should be written so that it sets forth such basic information as:

• The purpose of the museum.
• The present scope and uses of the museum’s collections.
• The more immediate goals of the museum as they relate to the collections.

Statutes and legal documents pertinent to the establishment of the museum should be explained as well as the role of any museum boards or committees involved in collection procedures.⁵ If the museum maintains more than one type of collection (for example, permanent collection, study collection, school collection), the ‘statement of purpose’ section may be a convenient place to describe each type and its rationale. When a museum lists more than one type of collection, differences in the handling of these collections, if any, then should be noted appropriately in its collections policy.

The drafting of the statement of purpose can prove to be a challenge, especially for the small organization with very limited financial resources. How focused must collecting be in order to assure sufficient depth? What portions of time and money should be allocated to collecting? to exhibits? to educational outreach? Has there been a realistic appraisal of the resources it takes to support a collection (record-keeping, storage, conservation, exhibits)? Each of these questions, and others, must be considered before a realistic statement of purpose can be produced. One article which describes a particular historical society’s efforts to draft a statement of purpose puts it this way:

What the committee was actually wrestling with was a question of finding a comfortable middle ground between the ideal and carelessness…. Few, if any, historical organizations have the personnel or funding to pursue the ideal. What is necessary is to have an understanding of professional standards and then to develop a plan that best approaches the ideal, based on the organization’s resources.⁶

Because the statement of purpose is a very crucial element in any collection management policy, it is a prudent step to go back and thoughtfully re-examine the articulated purpose after the entire policy has been drafted. What has been learned in the drafting process should provide a basis for more critical review.

(b) Acquisition of objects

Objects may be added to collections by means of gifts, bequests, purchases, exchanges, field work acquisitions, or any other transactions by which title to the objects passes to the museum. In stating criteria for determining whether an object should be added to a collection, some basic considerations are:

• Is the object consistent with the collections goals of the museum?
• Is the object so unusual that it presents an exceptional opportunity for the museum and thus should be given preferential consideration?
• If the object is offered for sale, might it or a comparable object be obtained by gift or bequest?
• Can the proper care be given to the object?
• Is the object something which probably should be refused because it is of marginal value or interest?
• Will the object be used in the foreseeable future and is there a good faith intention to keep it in the museum’s collection for the foreseeable future?
• Is the provenance of the object satisfactory and how is this decision made?
• Is the object encumbered with conditions set by the donor (for example, a requirement that it be permanently displayed)? How are decisions made on such matters and by whom?
• Is the use of the object restricted or encumbered by (1) an intellectual property (copyright, patent, trademark, or trade name) or (2) by its nature (for example, obscene,⁷ defamatory, potentially an invasion of privacy, physically hazardous)? How are decisions made on matters of this nature and by whom?
• Will the acceptance of the object, in all probability, result in major future expenses for the museum (for example, for conservation, maintenance, or because it opens a new area of collecting)?

The policy should state clearly the procedures to be followed in accessioning, who makes the final decision, what records must be made of the process, when the records are to be made and by whom, and where the records are to be maintained.

In determining the procedure and the appropriate level of authority for accepting items for the collections, distinctions may have to be made on the basis of such factors as size or extent of the objects, value, cost of maintenance, restrictions on use.

As a general rule, objects should not be accepted unless they are destined for particular collections for the foreseeable future. Exceptions to this rule should be permitted only with the knowledge of the donors and with due consideration to the satisfactory disposition of unwanted objects.⁸

Advice should be given regarding the appraisal of objects by the staff in response to outside requests. As a rule, museums avoid doing formal appraisals, especially at the request of donors or prospective donors. Deviations from the museum’s standard practice should require the approval of an appropriate museum official.⁹

(c) De-accessioning

As a general rule, collection objects may be de-accessioned unless there are specific restrictions to the contrary. In stating criteria for determining whether an object should be removed from a collection, some basic considerations are:

• Are there any restrictions which may prohibit removal? What is the procedure for resolving such questions?
• Is the object no longer relevant and useful to the purposes and activities of the museum?
• Is there danger of not being able to preserve the object properly?
• Has the object deteriorated beyond usefulness?
• Is it doubtful that the object can be used in the foreseeable future?
• Is there a need to weed out redundant items?
• Is there a need to improve or strengthen another area of the collections in order to further the goals of the museum?
• Have the interests and reactions of the public been considered?

The policy should state clearly the procedures to be followed in de-accessioning, such as who makes the final decision, what records must be made of the process, when the records are to be made and by whom, and when the type and value of the object under consideration may dictate such additional precautions as a higher level of approval than ordinarily required and the need for outside appraisals.

The issue of acceptable methods of disposal also may be addressed. Some basic considerations are:

• May objects be disposed of by exchange, donation or sale?
• Will preference be given to any particular method(s) of disposal?
• Will scholarly or cultural organizations be preferred as recipients rather than private individuals or commercial entities?
• Will local or national interests be given weight in deciding on the recipient?
• If an object has seriously deteriorated, may it be designated for other uses or destroyed?
• If donors of items to be de-accessioned are alive, as a matter of courtesy are they to be notified of the intent to de-accession?
• How are funds realized from de-accession sales to be used?

(d) Loans

1 Outgoing loans

In general, museums expect to lend objects only to similar institutions. The major reasons for this practice are to afford the loaned objec...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Leicester Readers in Museum Studies
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Figures
• Tables
• Series preface
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Part I: Collections management policies
• Part 2: Acquisitions and protecting cultural property
• Part 3: De-accessioning and disposal
• Part 4: Documentation
• Part 5: Research
• Part 6: Security
• Part 7: Insurance and indemnity
• Further reading