Practical Approaches to Collections Care

Practical Approaches to Collections Care
Author: Samantha Forsko
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 184
Release: 2022-12-09
Genre: Art
ISBN: 1000782816

While cultural heritage practitioners and caretakers are often intimidated by "best practices," Practical Approaches to Collections Care helps to alleviate those concerns, offering a stepped approach to preservation encompassing a variety of collections care programs. The author, drawing on over a decade of experience working in libraries, museums, archives, and other historic sites, and specifically building off of her work as a Preservation Specialist at the Conservation Center for Art & Historic Artifacts, discusses realistic, efficient, and sustainable approaches to collection housing, space planning, environmental management, facilities care, emergency preparedness, and much more. Giving examples of implementation and easy-to-follow guides that will allow readers to start from scratch or improve an already existing program, Forsko demonstrates how preservation can become a component of any collections care program. Encouraging the reader to start by taking small, manageable steps, the author shows that even the smallest of actions can make a difference that will ultimately help to preserve collections and ensure that the world’s heritage will remain intact for future generations. Practical Approaches to Collections Care takes an applied approach, making suggestions the reader can immediately implement no matter the size of their institution. It is an essential tool for stewards of cultural heritage collections, particularly collections managers, registrars, and preservation specialists. It will also be useful to students who are engaged in the study of collections care.

Collection Care/Sammlungspflege

Collection Care/Sammlungspflege
Author: Gabriela Krist
Publisher: Böhlau Verlag Wien
Total Pages: 658
Release: 2015-05-21
Genre: Art
ISBN: 3205201353

Prevention is an attempt to look into the future and have a positive influence on it – therefore it is one of the most important aspects in the area of collection care, the central, current field of applied research in conservation and restoration. With sustainability damage and loss are avoided, dangers averted and research conducted. Collection care is only successful, if the theory is appropriately implemented in museum practice.

Things Great and Small

Things Great and Small
Author: John E. Simmons
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 313
Release: 2024-03-18
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 153818379X

Collection care is a fundamental responsibility for museums and other collecting institutions, and the foundation of collection stewardship is good collection management policies. The new third edition of Things Great and Small continues to be a comprehensive resource for developing, implementing, and revising collection management policies and includes new information for addressing prolonged or permanent closure of museums, wider parameters for collection storage environments, and sustainable collection management practices to cope with climate change. Drawing on more than 50 years of experience as a collection manager, educator, consultant, and AAM Museum Assessment Program peer reviewer, John E. Simmons reviews the most recent collection management thinking and literature, helps determine which policies an institution needs, and provides guidance on policy content. In this new edition, coverage of critical areas is expanded, including digital objects, intellectual property rights, deaccessioning, decolonization, standards and best practices, collection storage environment parameters, managing off-site storage facilities, health and safety, laws and regulations, risk management, and sustainable collection management practices. With more than 50 tables and charts and model policy templates, this major publication is aimed at museums of all kinds, historic houses and sites, and other collecting institutions.

Managing Previously Unmanaged Collections

Managing Previously Unmanaged Collections
Author: Angela Kipp
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 253
Release: 2024-12-19
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1538190656

This book is a practical guide for everyone who is confronted with a collection that hasn’t seen any preventive conservation or cataloging before. It helps gaining an overview, defining priorities, and organizing the work in a way it is safe for the objects and the people involved. It defines “logical exits”, goals to work towards where the collection is in a state the next steps can wait without risking the progress made. Later on, readers learn to define their own “logical exits” that fit their specific situation. Compared to other books about collections management it doesn’t focus on the details of collections care, but rather on the big picture of managing such a project. It assumes that at the beginning there is nothing but the reader and an unmanaged collection, so that part of the project is to source money, material, and people to help. The second edition has a new chapter on setting up collections management systems, the original text was reworked and in parts enhanced, there are additional success stories in the last chapter with references to them in the text, and the bibliography now contains some resources for natural history, indigenous, and archaeological collections.

Prioritizing People in Ethical Decision-Making and Caring for Cultural Heritage Collections

Prioritizing People in Ethical Decision-Making and Caring for Cultural Heritage Collections
Author: Nina Owczarek
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 224
Release: 2023-06-27
Genre: Art
ISBN: 1000891380

While historically focusing on the object, the study of ethics in conservation has expanded to consider the human aspect of conservation work. This book offers a flexible framework to guide decision-making in line with this development, offering an inclusive, compassionate approach to collections care. This edited volume contributes theories and international examples for advancing conservation practice and providing best practice for the field that centers people in conservation of cultural heritage and collections care. The first part examines the ethical theory that underpins conservation decision-making by challenging outdated norms, introducing updated methods, and demonstrating new ways to approach compassionate collections care. The second part considers the challenges of human-centered ethics in conservation practice, while the final part provides real-world examples and case studies of these best practices in action, including successful challenges to colonial authority. By presenting both theoretical and practical aspects of prioritizing people, this volume establishes the need for rethinking conservation approaches while demonstrating how to do so effectively. Combining theory and practice, Prioritizing People in Ethical Decision-Making and Caring for Cultural Heritage Collections is valuable reading for conservation professionals, including collections managers, conservators, curators, and registrars. It will also benefit students working in Cultural Heritage Conservation, Museum studies, and Heritage Studies, as well as those taking courses in Art History and Anthropology.

Collections Management as Critical Museum Practice

Collections Management as Critical Museum Practice
Author: Cara Krmpotich
Publisher: UCL Press
Total Pages: 550
Release: 2024-07-22
Genre: Art
ISBN: 1800087047

There is a common misconception that collections management in museums is a set of rote procedures or technical practices that follow universal standards of best practice. This volume recognises collections management as a political, critical and social project, involving considerable intellectual labour that often goes unacknowledged within institutions and in the fields of museum and heritage studies. Collections Management as Critical Museum Practice brings into focus the knowledges, value systems, ethics and workplace pragmatics that are foundational for this work. Rather than engaging solely with cultural modifications, such as Indigenous care practices, the book presents local knowledge of place and material which is relevant to how collections are managed and cared for worldwide. Through discussion of varied collection types, management activities and professional roles, contributors develop a contextualised reflexive practice for how core collections management standards are conceptualised, negotiated and enacted. Chapters span national museums in Brazil and Uganda to community-led heritage work in Malaysia and Canada; they explore complexities of numbering, digitisation and description alongside the realities of climate change, global pandemics and natural disasters. The book offers a new definition of collections management, travelling from what is done to care for collections, to what is done to care for collections and their users. Rather than ‘use’ being an end goal, it emerges as a starting point to rethink collections work.

Collections Vol 5 N1

Collections Vol 5 N1
Author: Collections
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 96
Release: 2009-04-16
Genre: Reference
ISBN: 1442267682

"Collections: A Journal for Museum and Archives Professionals" is a multi-disciplinary peer-reviewed journal dedicated to the discussion of all aspects of handling, preserving, researching, and organizing collections. Curators, archivists, collections managers, preparators, registrars, educators, students, and others contribute.

Museum Practice

Museum Practice
Author: Conal McCarthy
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 696
Release: 2020-11-19
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1119796636

MUSEUM PR ACTICE Edited by CONAL MCCARTHY Museum Practice covers the professional work carried out in museums and art galleries of all types, including the core functions of management, collections, exhibitions, and programs. Some forms of museum practice are familiar to visitors, yet within these diverse and complex institutions many practices are hidden from view, such as creating marketing campaigns, curating and designing exhibitions, developing fundraising and sponsorship plans, crafting mission statements, handling repatriation claims, dealing with digital media, and more. Focused on what actually occurs in everyday museum work, this volume offers contributions from experienced professionals and academics that cover a wide range of subjects including policy frameworks, ethical guidelines, approaches to conservation, collection care and management, exhibition development and public programs. From internal processes such as leadership, governance and strategic planning, to public facing roles in interpretation, visitor research and community engagement and learning, each essential component of contemporary museum practice is thoroughly discussed.

The Preparator's Handbook

The Preparator's Handbook
Author: Andrew Saluti
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 193
Release: 2022-08-23
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1538139235

The Preparator’s Handbook :A Practical Guide for Preparing and Installing Collection Objects is an invaluable resource for emerging museum professionals or anyone working in galleries and collections with little-to-no previous preparatory experience or training. This handbook explores, explains, and illustrates the basics for the preparation and installation professionals. - practical, step-by-step guides that outline museum-standard procedures for most types of collection objects, including works on paper, archival volumes, and historic artifacts. - templates and guides for presentation, preservation, and collection storage - illustrated inventories of standard and specialized tools, materials and hardware - the basics of lighting, audio, and video in installations. - unique case-studies from working professionals for a wide-range of objects and installations including examples from the Field Museum, the Corning Museum of Glass, and the Folger Shakespeare Library. - Over 50 illustrations and photographs that accompany the written text. This practical book is the first of its kind: a guide for novice or amateur collection and gallery professionals as well as an academic textbook for museum studies and fine art students.

Collections Care and Stewardship

Collections Care and Stewardship
Author: Juilee Decker
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 113
Release: 2015-07-15
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1442238801

Collections Care and Stewardship: Innovative Approaches for Museums considers best practices and innovations related to documenting collections with regard to movement and safe handling of items for transport, display, photography, and treatment; collections storage; and information-sharing within and beyond the museum. The case studies in this volume examine best practices and innovations related to collections with regard to display, interpretation, engagement, storage, conservation treatment, and preservation. Several chapters address undergraduate and graduate coursework and internship experiences in a variety of contexts to offer best practices as well as evaluation of such training opportunities. All of these case studies ask us to think about the responsibilities that we have, as museum professionals, to be stewards—a challenge for all of us in terms of the obligations and responsibilities therein, but also in terms of the challenge to frame our collections as having the capacity to reflect as well as inspire. The Innovative Approaches for Museums series offers case studies, written by scholars and practitioners from museums, galleries, and other institutions, that showcase the original, transformative, and sometimes wholly re-invented methods, techniques, systems, theories, and actions that demonstrate innovative work being done in the museum and cultural sector throughout the world. The authors come from a variety of institutions—in size, type, budget, audience, mission, and collection scope. Each volume offers ideas and support to those working in museums while serving as a resource and primer, as much as inspiration, for students and the museum staff and faculty training future professionals who will further develop future innovative approaches. Contributions by: Jennifer Schwarz Ballard, Terry A. Barnhart, Rebecca E. Bria, Marlena Cannon de Mendez, Robert P. Connolly, Mary Coughlin, Elizabeth K. Cruzado Carranza, Katherine A. Johnson, Michael Jones, Allison McCloskey, Nicolette B. Meister, Carrie Wieners Meyer, Eileen Prendergast, Marjorie Schwarzer, Glori Simmons, Shari Stout, and Kelly Tomajko