Because museum exhibits and on-line interpretation derive from and rely upon museum collections, the interpretive effort cannot succeed without an underlying viable collection management system. In most museums, collection management is a function of the curatorial staff, who is responsible for both inventory control and intellectual understanding of the collection.
Ideally, the museum will already have a well established collection
management operation before undertaking interpretive work. However, for
those museums without a strong collection management system, or for those
needing to embark on a new collecting effort in anticipation of a new interpretive
program, here we will briefly discuss some of the basic aspects of collection
management.
Collection Management Considerations
Museum collections should be well organized and maintained in a careful professional manner. The museum objects (artifacts, specimens, etc.) in a collection are physical entities, but the data associated with the objects gives them meaning and significance and are just as important as the objects themselves. Consequently, a good collection management system involves both working with physical objects and the information associated with those objects. Museums should provide both appropriate physical facilities for processing, housing and protecting the objects and appropriate manual and/or computerized database systems for managing the information associated with the objects.
A good collection management system provides for a logical procedure for processing incoming collection pieces. An acquisition policy guides the collecting effort, and the curatorial staff should create detailed records of each incoming item (typically including descriptive data about the object, its history or provenance, its condition, the donor or vendor, and other relevant information). The exact procedures and types of forms used by different museums vary substantially, but in every case the basic goal should be to insure that all the relevant information associated with an incoming object is appropriately recorded. Most museums use a three-part (year, accession within year, number of item) registration number to uniquely tie an object to its associated information. In addition, museums utilize an appropriate cataloging system (e.g., Chenhall's nomenclature system for heritage museums) to establish and maintain intellectual control of collected items.
The collection management system must be able to accommodate a range
of interpretive uses for the museum collection. Most museums have specific
policies covering collection use for exhibits, educational programming,
and other interpretive usage. These may include provisions for both incoming
and outgoing loans. In all interpretive use, it is critically important
that collection objects be protected from adverse environmental impact,
mishandling, vandalism, theft, and other factors.