Collections

Collect, care for and make your collections accessible

Collections are at the heart of museums and managing them effectively is essential to the success of your museum in both the short and long term. Museum collections hold a variety of types of object and materials; you may have artefacts, archival material and digital assets all requiring specialist care and attention.

There needs to be a strong link between the museum’s collections and its purpose, and collections must be properly documented and cared for, so that access to them can be maximised.

Collections need an investment of both time and money to realise their full potential and to enable engagement from a wide range of museum audiences. You should remember that it is possible for collections to become liabilities for the museum if this does not happen. In the first instance you need to think in terms of effective collections development, making sure that you create a museum collection that can support the museum’s vision, key purpose and aims and objectives. Museums acquire collections primarily through donations, but objects can also be purchased and borrowed from private owners or other museums.

All objects you acquire should be stored and cared for appropriately whilst maximising public access to the collections. Some objects in collections are sensitive in nature, this can include archaeological collections, human remains, religious and sacred items and objects from different countries. Understanding the provenance of objects in your collection is important, it will help you to manage them and explain their wider context and histories to the public.

Museums should follow current legal and ethical procedures in relation to the management of collections. You should be clear about obtaining legal title for objects that are donated or purchased and understand who the legal owner of collections will be (usually the museum’s governing body).

Tackling collections development in a planned way means you will be able to care for and make good use of your collections and it is a vital step on the way to developing a successful museum. You need to develop a policy to inform this area of work, to ensure that you only collect what is appropriate to your museum and the resources you have available.

A collections development policy outlines the status of the current collections, the themes and priorities for future collecting and any areas of a collection which require review or rationalisation and provides guidance on possible disposals. It is a valuable tool for saying ‘no’ to potential donations too. In order to ensure collections development policies comply with museum ethical codes for acquisition and disposal and that relevant legislative frameworks are adhered to; Arts Council England provide an outline framework for museums to follow. This is available on the Accreditation pages of the Arts Council England website. The collections development policy should be approved by the governing body, but everyone in the organisation should understand and adhere to it. It should be sustainable, taking account of the resources available at the museum, such as storage space and time available from staff and volunteers to manage collections. The policy should underpin the direction the museum follows in the future.

A range of resources are available to guide museums in development of effective policies, plans and procedures. Collections Trust is an online resource and a good place to start for free access to information on standards for collections management, fact sheets and discussion forums, plus information on publications that can be purchased to support collections management. Click here for the Collections Trust website>>

Self-assessment questions to help you focus on Collections:

• How strong is the link between our collections and our purpose?
• How well do we realise the full potential of our collection to benefit a broad range of people, including those we have not engaged with in the past?
• How clear is our picture of what constitutes our heritage assets, including looking beyond objects and specimens?
• To what extent does our collections care meet best practice standards?

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