ARCL0118: Collections Management & Care

2019–20

Taught in association with UCL Museums & Collections

www.ucl.ac.uk/museums

30 CREDITS

Deadline for coursework for this course: Monday 13 January 2020

Marked assignments returned on: Wednesday 14 February 2020

Course Co-ordinator: Ian Carroll

Email: i.carroll@ucl.ac.uk

Tel: (0)20 7679 (2)4789

IoA Room 203a Office Hours: Thurs 2-4pm (other times by appointment)

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1. OVERVIEW

Short description

The management of collections is the foundation for many other museum activities. Although it

may seem to involve straightforward administrative practices, many aspects of collections

management are determined by social and political values of society. Consequently, what may

initially appear uncomplicated, in reality requires reflexive decision making and problem solving.

The aim of this course is to provide students with a thorough knowledge of the principles and

practice of collections management and care, and familiarity with established professional standards

concerning collections development, documentation, care, and use, to inform such decisions. The

course covers key areas of museum practice as outlined in the summary below. Having taken the

course students should understand why collections management is important, have a good practical

idea of how to go about the different aspects of it, and understand some of the ethical issues

involved. The course is taught in association with UCL Museums & Collections and with

considerable input from the Institute of Archaeology’s collection’s manager, Ian Carroll, through a

series of workshops.

Week-by-week summary

Wk Date Topic

1 Tue, 01 October Introduction, Museums and Collections Development

2 Tue, 08 October Handling and Examining Objects

3 Tue, 15 October Museum Documentation, Object Labelling

4 Tue, 22 October Object Cataloguing, Collection Management Systems

5 Tue, 29 October Photographing Museum Objects, Public Outreach and

Collections Management

READING WEEK

6 Tue, 12 November Environmental Conditions, Monitoring & Disaster Planning

7 Tue, 19 November Storing Collections,

8 Tue, 26 November Pest Management, Preventive Conservation & Condition

Reporting

9 Tue, 03 December Loans, Packing and Moving Objects

10 Tue, 10 December Disposal, Museum Ethics

Basic texts

Ambrose, T. & Paine, C. 1993. Museum Basics. London: Routledge.

Caple, Chris (ed.) 2011. Preventive Conservation: Caring for Artefacts and Collections In

Museums. London and New York: Routledge

Cassar, M. 1994. Environmental Management: Guidelines for Museums and Galleries. London:

Routledge.

Fahy, A. (ed.) 1995. Collections Management. London: Routledge.

Harrison, M. & McKenna, G. 2009. Documentation: A Practical Guide. Collections Trust.

Hillhouse, S. 2009. Collections Management: A Practical Guide. Cambridge: Collections Trust.

Keene, S. 2002. Managing Conservation in Museums. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann.

Keene, S. 2008. Fragments of the World: Uses of Museum Collections. Oxford: Butterworth-

Heinemann.

Matassa, F. 2011. Museum Collections Management: A Handbook. London: Facet Publishing.

National Park Service. 1990. Museum Handbook. Washington, DC: National Park Service. Updated

version available online at www.nps.gov/museum/publications/handbook.html

Pinniger, D. 2008. Pest Management: A Practical Guide. Cambridge: Collections Trust.

Thompson, J.A. (ed.) 1992. Manual of Curatorship. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann.

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Method of assessment The course is assessed by means of a portfolio (equivalent to 8,000 words, 30 credits or 16.7% of

total MA mark), which must be submitted no later than Monday, 7th January 2019. The portfolio

assignment is described in the Aims, Objectives and Assessment section of this handbook and will

also be discussed in class. If students are unclear about any assignment, they should contact the

Course Co-ordinator.

Teaching methods

The course is taught through a series of ten three-hour workshops, which take place weekly in Term

1. The workshops are taught in association with UCL Museums & Collections staff and as much

time as possible is spent working with UCL’s collections and in its museum environments. The

workshops typically include introductory lectures, practical sessions, and opportunities for

discussion. Additional small group practical sessions may be arranged as necessary, particularly in

relation to Portfolio tasks. Students are expected to undertake a considerable amount of self-directed

learning preparing for the workshops, conducting research and working on their Portfolios. It is

particularly important that students keep up to date with portfolio activities and come to the

workshops suitably prepared, having familiarized themselves with the recommended readings, as

they will be expected to apply this knowledge in class. Students will be often asked to undertake

portfolio related research between workshops and asked to report back on this in class.

Workload

In addition to approximately 30 formal contact hours of workshops, you are expected to spend 140

hours on private reading, research and preparation for the course, as well as 130 hours working on

Portfolio assignments. This adds up to a total workload of 300 hours for the course.

Prerequisites

There are no prerequisites for this course. It is a Term 1 core course available only to MA Museum

Studies students.

2. AIMS, OBJECTIVES AND ASSESSMENT

Aims

The aim of this course is to provide students with a thorough knowledge of the principles and

practice of collections management and care, including the acquisition; object handling and

observation; museum documentation; accessioning and cataloguing; object labelling; collections

management systems; photographing museum objects; storage; environmental conditions and

monitoring; pests; preventive conservation and condition reporting; loans; packing and moving

collections; disposal; and ethical frameworks. Having taken the course students should understand

why collections management is important, have a good practical idea of how to go about the

different aspects of it, understand the wider picture of some of the ethical issues involved, and gain

a sense of what interesting things a museum can do if its collection is in good order.

Objectives

On successful completion of the course students should:

Understand why collections are important to museums, that good management of them is

essential to making them a useful resource, and that they should be seen as the basis for

services to be delivered

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Be conversant with the practices of managing the handling, acquisition, documentation,

protection, storage, and accessibility of museum collections

Be familiar with established professional standards relating to collections management, care

and documentation

Understand the role of preventive conservation and the care of collections

Be familiar with the ethical issues surrounding collections and collecting, such as acquiring

and disposing of objects

Have a working familiarity with UCL’s museums and collections

Learning outcomes

On completion of the course, students should be able to:

Demonstrate understanding of a wide range collections management issues

Show awareness of the importance of established museum standards

Provide practical solutions for a wide range of collections management tasks and issues

Be able to communicate collections management principles and their importance to both

professional museum staff and non-specialists in a variety of formats (reports, database

entries, blogs)

Coursework

As noted above, the course is assessed by means of a portfolio (equivalent to 8,000 words), which

must be submitted by Monday, 13th January 2020. Throughout the course a series of ten ‘portfolio

tasks’ are set, which relate to issues and skills explored in the workshops. These must be completed

during or after the respective workshops, and then compiled and submitted in a folder or other kind

of binding. Exercises may include a variety of activities: writing short reports, cataloguing objects,

documenting practical exercises, writing a blog etc. The length for each exercise will vary

depending on the activity, but on average this will be about 800 words per workshop (i.e. 10 x 800

= 8,000 words). In addition to written work, students are strongly encouraged to supplement their

texts with images, drawings, sketches, diagrams, photographs, and other materials documenting

their workshop activities (bring a camera/camera phone along to the workshops). It is important that

students keep up-to-date with their portfolio exercises and ensure that they catch up if they miss a

workshop through illness. Completed portfolios must be submitted no later than Monday 13th

January 2020. If students are unclear about the nature of a portfolio task, they should contact the

Course Co-ordinator, and students are encouraged to ask questions and discuss tasks in class.

Portfolio format

The portfolio should be produced as a Word document report and it should be clearly formatted

with relevant subject headings. You should cite appropriate literature in the body of the text in

Harvard style, with a reference list at the end of the portfolio. Pay particular attention to museum

sector guidelines and standards, which you should be able to draw for to inform answers to the

tasks. You are encouraged to use photographs and other illustrations to document the tasks, and to

incorporate these images within your portfolios to complement and illustrate your written text. You

will need ten sections in your portfolio, corresponding to the ten portfolio tasks, a cover page, a

contents page and a reference list. Each section may require different forms of presentation, from

narrative text, to bullet points, and the use of tables and diagrams to blog-style writing. These

different formats are all fine for portfolio exercises, but think carefully about how you wish to

present your answers for each task. For some tasks it is appropriate to cite specific sector literature

and guidelines.

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Word-length

The following should not be included in the word-count: title page, contents pages, lists of figure

and tables, abstract, preface, acknowledgements, reference list, lists of references, captions and

figures, appendices.

Due to the nature of the portfolio task it is understood that an exact word count may be difficult to

estimate. However students are encouraged to aim at an average of 800 words per task, with a total

word count of approximately 8000 words. You should not go over 10,000 words.

Coursework submission procedures

All coursework must normally be submitted both as hard copy and electronically unless instructed otherwise (However, bulky portfolios and lab books are normally submitted as hard copy only.)

You should staple the appropriate colour-coded IoA coversheet (available in the IoA library and outside room 411a) to the front of each piece of work and submit it to the red box at the Reception Desk (or room 411a in the case of Year 1 undergraduate work)

All coursework should be uploaded to Turnitin by midnight on the day of the deadline. This will date-stamp your work. It is essential to upload all parts of your work as this is sometimes the version that will be marked.

Instructions are given below. Please note that the procedure has changed for 2019-20, and work is now submitted to Turnitin via Moodle. 1. Ensure that your essay or other item of coursework has been saved as a Word doc.,

docx. or PDF document, Please include the module code and your candidate number on every page as a header.

2.. Go into the Moodle page for the module to which you wish to submit your work. 3. Click on the correct assignment (e.g. Essay 1), 4. Fill in the “Submission title” field with the right details: It is essential that the first

word in the title is your examination candidate number (e.g. YGBR8 Essay 1), Note that this changes each year.

5. Click “Upload”. 6 Click on “Submit” 7 You should receive a receipt – please save this. 8 If you have problems, please email the IoA Turnitin Advisers on ioa-

turnitin@ucl.ac.uk, explaining the nature of the problem and the exact module and assignment involved. One of the Turnitin Advisers will normally respond within 24 hours, Monday-Friday during term. Please be sure to email the Turnitin Advisers if technical problems prevent you from uploading work in time to meet a submission deadline - even if you do not obtain an immediate response from one of the Advisers they will be able to notify the relevant Module Coordinator that you had attempted to submit the work before the deadline

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3. SCHEDULE AND SYLLABUS

Workshops take place between 14:00 and 18:00 on Tuesdays in Term 1, with most classes finishing

by 17:00. Unless otherwise stated, each week the workshop will start in Room 209 on the second

floor of the Institute of Archaeology, but activities will often take place at other locations across

campus and the class will frequently be broken up into small groups for practical activities.

Workshop Topic Location(s) Tutor(s)

1 Tue 01

Oct

Introduction to the Course

Museum Objects,

Collections Development

IoA Room 209

Ian Carroll

2 Tue 08

Oct

Handling and Examining

Objects

Conservation Lab 615

IoA Room 209

Dean Sully

Mike Charlton

Ian Carroll

3 Tue 15

Oct

Museum Documentation,

Accessioning, Object

Labelling

IoA Room 209

Sarah Brown

Ian Carroll

4 Tue 22

Oct

Object Cataloguing,

Collection Management

Systems

IoA Room 209

Rachel Sparks

Ian Carroll

5 Tue 29

Oct

Photographing Museum

Objects

Promoting Collections

Management work: Blog

writing

IoA Photographic

Laboratory (405)

TBC

Tannis Davidson

READING WEEK – no workshop

6 Tue 12

Nov

Environmental Conditions

and Monitoring

IoA Room 209, Ian Carroll

Emi Kingham

Graeme McArthur

Tannis Davidson

Lucy Waitt

7 Tue 19

Nov

Storing Collections IoA Room 209

Collections Storage

spaces

Ian Carroll

Andrea Frederickson

Frances Potts (tbc)

8 Tue 26

Nov

Pest Management and

Condition Reporting, and

Disaster Planning

IoA Room 209

Emilia Kingham

Graeme McArthur

Renata Peters

Ian Carroll

9 Tue 03

Dec

Loans, Packing and

Moving Objects

IoA Room 209

Frances Potts (tbc)

Maria Ragan

Ian Carroll

10 Tue 10

Dec

Disposal, Museum Ethics IoA Room 209

Jenny Durrant

Ian Carroll

Mon

13 Jan

Deadline for submission of portfolio

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Object assessment sessions

On selected Wednesday afternoons you will sign-up for a half hour slot between 2-5. Where you

will have the opportunity to examines objects that relate to that week’s portfolio task.

Portfolio Task No. Topic Location(s)

2 Tue 09 Oct Handling and Examining Objects IoA Room B54

3 Tue 16 Oct Museum Documentation, Accessioning,

Object Labelling

IoA Room B54

6 Tue 13 Nov Environmental Conditions and Monitoring IoA Room B54

7 Tue 20 Nov Storing Collections IoA Room B54

8 Tue 27 Nov

Pest Management and Condition Reporting IoA Room B54

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WORKSHOP 1: INTRODUCTION, STANDARDS OF PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE,

COLLECTIONS DEVELOPMENT

DATE: Tuesday, 01 October 2019, 14:00-16:00

VENUE: IoA Room 209

TUTOR: Ian Carroll

SUMMARY

In this first workshop students are introduced to the course, the topics and skills it seeks to cover,

and the approach to teaching that we employ. We will look at the requirements of the portfolio task

and assessment expectations. Workshops are led by various staff members from across UCL

Museums and Collections and the Institute of Archaeology, so these collections will be introduced.

This week we will consider the need for establishing guidelines and codes of best practice

relevant to museum collections management and care. Museums are required to demonstrate their

adherence to such standards in order to acquire ‘accredited’ status. In England, the Accreditation

Scheme for Museums and Galleries is run by the Arts Council, and aims to encourage all museums

and galleries to achieve agreed standards in how they manage their collections and reinforce a

shared ethical and professional basis for museum practice. Students will be introduced to the

accreditation guidelines relating to collections management and care, which will provide an

important framework for this course, embedding it in a professional context.

After a short coffee break, we focus more specifically on museum acquisition. Museums

acquire objects through various means, but it is important that they do so in a coherent and ethical

manner according to an institutional acquisitions policy. This is part of a broader collections

development policy, which should accord to the over-riding mission statement of the museum. We

will examine examples of such mission statements and collections development policies, as well as

the different methods by which things come into museums from bequests to rapid-response

collecting.

PORTFOLIO TASK 1

There are three parts to this week’s task:

(1) Following on from our discussions in class, find two different museums’ mission

statements. These can usually be found online. Identify the key elements in the mission

statements and discuss how effectively they characterize the nature of the museums’

collections (you can put the mission statements in an appendix to your portfolio).

(2) Collection Development Policies usually include: (i) a section giving an overview of current

collections and; (ii) a section identifying themes and priorities for future collecting. Choose

one of the museums from exercise 1 and provide (i) brief overview of the collection and (ii)

develop your own themes and priorities for future collecting in the context of your chosen

institution. [Examples are on Moodle]

(3) Describe an object that your chosen museum might be interested in acquiring in line with

your themes and priorities (this could be, but does not need to be, a specific object, just a

general object type, e.g. antiquity, modern sculpture, taxidermy specimen etc.). What

information do you need to collect along with the object and what else do need to take into

consideration in order to ensure ethical compliance?

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RESOURCES

Arts Council England. 2014. Accreditation Guidance. Section two: collections.

Heritage Collections Council (Australia). 1998. ‘ReCollections: Managing Collections’ (Moodle)

Morris, J. 2007. ‘Making the Case for Collecting’, Museum Practice 40: 50-51 (Moodle)

National Park Service. 2006. Museum Handbook. Washington, DC: National Park Service.

(Appendix B: Accreditation) (Moodle)

Mission Statements

Anderson, G., ed. 1998. Museum Mission Statements: Building a Distinct Identity. Professional

Practice Series, R. Adams, ed. Washington, DC: American Association of Museums [not

available at UCL but through British Library]

Fleming, D. 2013. The essence of the museum. Mission, Values, Vision. In McCarthy, C. (ed.) The

International Handbooks of Museum Studies: Museum Practice. Wiley.

Collection Policies

Arts Council England. 2011. http://326gtd123dbk1xdkdm489u1q.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-

content/uploads/2016/10/Collections-Management-Policies.pdf

Acquisition

Collections Trust. 2017. Due Diligence checklist (Moodle) – also

http://collectionstrust.org.uk/resource/acquiring-objects-due-diligence-checklist/

Matassa, F. 2011. Museum Collections Management: A Handbook. London: Facet Publishing.

(Chapter 8: Acquisitions, pp.145-167)

Morris, J. 2007. ‘Collecting from Specialist Dealers’, Museum Practice 40: 55-57 (Moodle)

Museums Association. 2004. ‘Acquisition: Guidance on the Ethics and Practicalities of Acquisition’

(Moodle)

Museum Accreditation (International Contexts)

UK: Arts Council England - www.artscouncil.org.uk/what-we-do/supporting-

museums/accreditation-scheme/

UK: Museums Galleries Scotland: https://www.museumsgalleriesscotland.org.uk/accreditation-

recognition/

USA: American Association of Museums - http://www.aam-us.org/resources/assessment-

programs/accreditation

Canada: https://www.accreditation.ca/become-

client?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIpcWiv7Gz1QIVZbXtCh1L8Qy6EAAYASAAEgJ7PfD_BwE

Useful websites for due diligence:

https://cites.org/eng/disc/text.php

https://www.nps.gov/nagpra/

http://icom.museum/programmes/fighting-illicit-traffic/red-list/

http://icom.museum/the-vision/code-of-ethics/7-museums-operate-in-a-legal-manner/

http://www.lootedart.com/

https://www.nationalmuseums.org.uk/what-we-do/contributing-

sector/spoliation/spoliation_statement/

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WORKSHOP 2: HANDLING AND EXAMINING OBJECTS

DATE: Tuesday, 08 October 2019, 14:00-18:00

VENUES: IoA Room 209, IoA Conservation Laboratory Lab Room 615

TUTORS: Ian Carroll, Dean Sully, Mike Charlton

SUMMARY

Important: Students will be split into two groups prior to the workshop. Group A should meet in the

IoA Conservation Laboratory on the Sixth Floor at 14:00, Group B in IoA Room 209. We will then

swap around at 14:50. At 15.50, the whole class will reconvene in IoA Room 209.

Many curatorial activities, including cataloguing, photographing, housekeeping, research, etc.,

require staff to handle and engage closely with objects. It is thus important for students to learn

good handling techniques and to become confident at handling objects. Indeed, there are many

things that we can learn about objects only through picking them up and examining them

closely. This workshop is therefore concerned with developing appropriate object handling

skills and learning about what objects can tell us. The workshop will be comprised of three

parts: (1) an introduction to handling collections and thinking critically about how this changes

the way we are able to engage with objects in Conservation; (2) an exploration of approaches to

examining objects and understanding artefact biography through understanding Archaeological

Materials; and (3) the development of handling guidelines for different kinds of objects and

collections led by Ian Carroll, Collections Manager at the Institute of Archaeology. We will also

pay attention to hazardous materials in collections that may need to be handled or managed in

special ways. As noted above, students will be divided into two groups for the first two parts,

reconvening as a whole for the final part in IoA Room 209.

PORTFOLIO TASK 2

There are two parts to this week’s portfolio exercise:

(1) Draft a set of handling guidelines for one object you have seen on display in a UCL

Museum or a London based museum (please take a photograph of the object in situ). Your

guidelines should take account of such issues as the material(s) that the object is made from,

manufacturing techniques, its design, weight, and so on. It should also take into account the

kind of museum the objects is in, and whether you think that handling might be an important

part of the museum’s practice for staff and visitors.

(2) Choose one object from the selection provided in B54 and discuss what you can discern

about its life history from examination alone.

In addition you are encouraged to read in advance of next week’s class the Segal 1998 chapter

on marking objects. This is available on Moodle.

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RESOURCES

Candlin, F. 2010. Art, Museums and Touch. Manchester: Manchester University Press.

Caple, C. 2006. Objects: Reluctant Witnesses to the Past. London: Routledge.

Chatterjee, H. (ed.) 2008. Touch in Museums: Policy and Practice in Object Handling. Oxford:

Berg.

Heritage Collections Council (Australia). 1998. ReCollections: Handling, Transportation, Storage

and Display (Moodle) – see pp.2-14 on Handling

Kingery, W.D. 1996. Learning from Things: Method and Theory of Material Culture Studies.

Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution.

Kopytoff, I. 1986. ‘The Cultural Biography of Things: Commoditization as Process’ in A.

Appadurai, A. (ed.) The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective.

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp.64-91.

Longstreth-Brown, K. 1998. ‘Handling’ in A. R. Buck & J. A. Gilmore (eds) The New Museums

Registration Methods. Washington, DC: American Museums Association, pp.45-48.

Morris, J. 2007. ‘Handling Stored Collections’, Museum Practice 37: 65-67 (Moodle)

National Museums of Scotland 2011. Hazards in Collections Care. NMS Knowledge Exchange

Workshop PowerPoint (Moodle).

National Park Service. 1990. Museum Handbook. Washington, DC: National Park Service. (Chapter

6: Handling, Packing, and Shipping) (Moodle)

Pearce, S.M. 1993. Museums, Objects and Collections: A Cultural Study. Washington, DC:

Smithsonian Institution Press. (Chapter 2: ‘Objects Inside and Outside Museums’, pp.15-35)

Pye, E. (ed.) 2007. The Power of Touch: Handling Objects in Museum and Heritage Contexts. Left

Coast Press.

Oddy, W. A. 1992. The Art of the Conservator. London: British Museum Press.

Schlanger, N. 2005. ‘The Chaîne Opératoire’ in C. Renfrew and P. Bahn (ed.) Archaeology: The

Key Concepts. London: Routledge, pp.25-32.

Smithsonian Institution Education, n.d. ‘Looking at Artifacts, Thinking about History’ -

www.smithsonianeducation.org/idealabs/ap/essays/looking.htm

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WORKSHOP 3: MUSEUM DOCUMENTATION, ACCESSIONING, OBJECT MARKING

DATE: Tuesday, 15 October 2019, 14:00-18:00

VENUE: IoA Room 209

TUTORS: Sarah Brown (Collections Trust), Ian Carroll

SUMMARY

Museum documentation comprises all the recorded information that a museum holds about the

objects in its care. In this workshop, which is led by Sarah Brown of the Collections Trust we will

consider the kinds of documentation that are appropriate at different times in the museum object’s

status and use: object entry, accessioning, loans, location and movement control, object exit through

the lens of the UK’s Collections Trust SPECTRUM. Over the past year Collections Trust have been

working on a revised edition of the Spectrum collections management standard, following extensive

consultation with the museum sector. This session will offer an introduction to the Spectrum

Primary Procedures, and will explore how they might be approached by different organizations.

After a quick coffee break, we split into two groups and turn our attention to marking

objects. It is important that all objects in a museum collection are marked or labelled with the

unique identifying number given to the object in the process of accessioning. This ensures that each

object is linked with the information that the museum holds about it. Students will be shown a

variety of techniques appropriate to different objects and materials. Students will then label a

selection of objects using an appropriate technique.

PORTFOLIO TASK 3

There are two parts to this week’s portfolio exercise:

(1) Describe and justify a solution to one of the real life documentation scenarios described

below:

a) ‘At the SS Great Britain a descendent of Brunel has brought in a carrier bag that contain a

collection of documents relating to Isambard Kingdom Brunel. They wish to donate the

collection to you. There are 69 items in the bag, separated between three modern folders. It’s

unclear why the material has been stored in three folders. The material includes letters,

drawings, handwritten reminiscences, newspaper clippings, postcards and envelopes – most

relate to IK Brunel or his father, Sir Marc Brunel, but some items relate to more recent

family members. Many of the letters are on multiple pages. Many of the envelopes are

empty, but appear old, while some are clearly modern, but contain older letters. It is

impossible to match all of the empty envelopes with the letters. One of the letters has a

calling card tucked inside which appears unrelated to the letter, and from a later period. The

oldest item in the collection is a letter from Sir Marc and dated 1817. The most recent item

is a post card showing two hunting dogs, and dated to the 1920’s. The SS Great Britain’s

Collecting Policy is to collect material related to Isambard Kingdom Brunel; 19th Century

Science and Engineering; and Maritime History.

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i. How do you catalogue this collection? All one number, with parts, or do you

assign separate accession numbers? Do you group by folder? Are the

multiple sheets of the letters catalogued as one or separately? How about the

calling card?

ii. Do you keep all of the collection, even though some appears to fall outside

the collecting policy? Do you keep all the envelopes, even the modern empty

ones? If not what do you do with them, and how is it recorded? Do you keep

the folders? Do you keep the bag? [Courtesy of Nick Booth, Collections

Manager SS Great Britain]

b. At the University of Oxford’s Natural History Museum the Oxford dodo is one of

the most iconic and arguably most cited natural history specimen and has been the

subject of research since 1650. Unfortunately, the documentation of the specimen

has not been so well managed. The specimen now comprises the skull with skin on

the right side, the skin removed from the left side, a foot skeleton, scales from the

foot, a sclerotic ring (from the eye), feathers removed from the head and mounted on

a slide, strange concretions from inside the skull and tissue samples taken for genetic

analysis as well as numerous casts of the head (taken at various dates) and wax

models of the head and foot. The specimen itself, or parts of it has been cited in the

literature hundreds of times under one number. How would you document this

specimen? All parts of the original under one number even if each is stored in

different locations due to storage requirements? Should the models and casts be

separate? Should each part be numbered separately? How would we rectify this with

the widely published literature on the specimen and the images and scans we hold for

this? [Courtesy of Collection Manager Mark Carnall].

c. Historic Royal Palaces acquired several hundred fragments of pottery from an 18th-

century shipwreck. Some pieces were nearly complete, some very fragmentary. The

best pieces were accessioned into the collection and used to dress the rooms in the

palace. Some items with lots of barnacles and sea accretions were given to the

handling collection. At some point a very keen conservator accessioned each

fragment with an individual number and labelled with paraloid all the tiny fragments

individually. In addition they were individually wrapped in acid-free tissue paper (to

prevent abrasions) and bagged. How should this material be managed? Should it all

be accessioned into the same sequence of numbers or the different parts (e.g.

handling material) numbered using a different system. Was the numbering of all the

fragments a practical solution? If not, what would have been a better approach to the

collection? [Courtesy of Curator Megan Gooch].

d. The Collections Manager comes across a box of 27 flint blades inside a larger box

containing material — including lithics — from Hierakonpolis. The 27 flint blades

are not marked with an accession number, some are marked ‘Hierakonpolis’ in

pencil whilst others have no markings at all. There are flint blades from

Hierakonpolis accessioned as 1917.214 with no storage location, but also with no

details of the number of blades. Should the Collections Manager: a) tentatively

assume that the 27 unmarked blades are 1917.214; b) accession the flint blades; or c)

assign TEMP (i.e. temporary) numbers to the flint blades. If b) or c) should they be

accessioned as a single accession number, or should each blade have its own

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accession number. What Place information should be given? [Courtesy of Imogen

Gunn, Collections Manager, MAA Cambridge]

(2) Discuss the numbering issues presented by two of the objects from a selection in B54.

Describe an appropriate solution for labelling and physically associating numbers with them

and justify your recommendations.

RESOURCES

Collections Trust: http://collectionstrust.org.uk/spectrum/

Collections Trust. 2017. ‘SPECTRUM Advice: Acquisition’

Collections Trust. 2017. ‘SPECTRUM Advice: Labelling and Marking Museum Objects’

Collections Trust. 2017. ‘SPECTRUM Advice: Numbering’

Collections Trust. 2017. ‘SPECTRUM Advice: Object Entry’

Collections Trust. 2017. SPECTRUM: The UK Museum Collections Management Standard,

Version 5.0.

Harrison, M. & McKenna, G. 2009. Documentation: A Practical Guide. Cambridge: Collections

Trust.

Holm, S.A. 2002. Cataloguing Made Easy: How to Catalogue Your Collections, 2nd Edition.

Cambridge: MDA.

Matassa, F. 2011. Museum Collections Management: A Handbook. London: Facet Publishing.

(Chapter 5: Documentation, pp.67-93)

National Park Service. 2000. Museum Handbook. Washington, DC: National Park Service. (Chapter

2: Accessioning) (Moodle)

National Park Service. 2000. Museum Handbook. Washington, DC: National Park Service.

(Appendix J: Marking) (Moodle)

Pedley, M. 1998. Standards in Action. Cambridge: MDA.

VIDEO RESOURCES

Share Museums East. 2012. The Contents of a Museum Labelling and Marking Kit -

http://youtu.be/osEIQsqG3CU

Share Museums East. 2012. Labelling and Marking Paper Objects in Museum Collections -

http://youtu.be/BF2olxg1hmc

Share Museums East. 2012. Labelling and Marking Textiles in Museum Collections -

http://youtu.be/-zCXNphTv0U

Share Museums East. 2012. Marking Museum Objects Using the Starch Paste Method -

http://youtu.be/XB30xTpYJ00

14

WORKSHOP 4: OBJECT CATALOGUING, COLLECTION MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS

DATE: Tuesday, 22 October 2019, 14:00-17:00

VENUE: IoA Room 209

TUTORS: Rachel Sparks and Ian Carroll

SUMMARY

Cataloguing is the process of recording detailed information about individual items or groups of

items. It is important for many reasons, including collections management (recording information

such as an object’s location, loans history and valuation for insurance purposes), research

(providing detailed information about an object, its provenance and history), and public access

(increasingly selected ‘public fields’ in a catalogue system feed open access online catalogues).

We will discuss the kinds of information that it is important to record for different types of

objects, and the importance of data consistency and terminology control. In particular we will refer

to SPECTRUM standards regarding data consistency and control, and explore the requirements of

database interoperability. We explore some examples of museum object and materials thesauri. The

majority of museums now use computer-based collection management systems. There is a great

variety of systems available – we will discuss the basic features common to all systems as well as

some of the more advanced features. During the workshop students will have an opportunity to

practice cataloguing skills with a variety of museum objects.

PORTFOLIO TASK 4

Select an object that is on display in a museum that you can visit and take a photo for reference. List

in a table the database fields you would ideally need in order to fully document this object and

complete as much as you are able [note it may not be possible to fill out all the fields you identify].

Discuss your rationale as to which fields should be controlled fields (syntax control and/or

thesaurus control) and which should be free text.

RESOURCES

Blackaby, J. and Greeno, P. (eds) 1988. The Revised Nomenclature for Museum Cataloging: A

Revised and Expanded Version of Robert G. Chenhall’s System for Classifying Man-made

Objects. Nashville: AASLH

British Museum Materials Thesaurus - http://www.vocabularyserver.com/materials/

British Museum Object Names Thesaurus - http://collectionstrust.org.uk/resource/british-museum-

object-names-thesaurus/

Collections Trust. 2017. ‘SPECTRUM Advice: Cataloguing’ (Moodle)

Collections Trust. n.d. ‘Terminology Control’ factsheet (Moodle)

Harrison, M. & McKenna, G. 2009. Documentation: A Practical Guide. Cambridge: Collections

Trust.

Holm, S.A. 2002. Cataloguing Made Easy: How to Catalogue Your Collections, 2nd Edition.

Cambridge: MDA.

Matassa, F. 2011. Museum Collections Management: A Handbook. London: Facet Publishing.

(Chapter 5: Documentation, pp.65-94)

15

Museums Australia. 2009. ‘The Small Museums Cataloguing Manual: A Guide to Cataloguing

Object and Image Collections’ (Moodle)

National Park Service. 2000. Museum Handbook. Washington, DC: National Park Service. (Chapter

3: Cataloging) (Moodle)

National Park Service. 2000. Museum Handbook. Washington, DC: National Park Service.

(Appendix C: Cataloging Guidelines) (Moodle)

Roberts, D. (ed.) 1990. Terminology for Museums: Proceedings of an International Conference

Held in Cambridge, England. Cambridge: Museum Documentation Association.

Many Museum databases are procured from Axiel and include commonly encountered software

such as: Adlib, Calm, EMu and Mimsey (see https://alm.axiell.com/)

16

WORKSHOP 5: PHOTOGRAPHING MUSEUM OBJECTS/ PUBLIC OUTREACH AND

COLLECTIONS MANAGEMENT

DATE: Tuesday, 29 October 2019

VENUE: IoA room 209

IoA Photographic Laboratory, Room 405 (TBC)

TUTOR: TBC

SUMMARY

Part of this week’s workshop will take place in the Photographic Laboratory. The workshop will

introduce students to techniques for producing professional quality digital photographs of two and

three-dimensional museum objects, including basic Photoshop image enhancement methods, and

approaches to managing images and associated metadata. The session will address issues of

exposure, depth of field, lighting types and controls, background, and scales, and introduce students

to more advanced imaging systems that museum and conservators are beginning to use.

The second part of this session addresses public engagement with collections management

work. Increasingly museums are seeking to make the ‘behind the scenes’ work of their staff

transparent and engaging for the public, including collections management. This often happens

through store tours or public talks, but perhaps more frequently through online blogs. We will take

some time, therefore, to look at some examples of museum blogs and consider what audience they

appear to pitched at, their tone-of-voice and what use they make of images and links to other

resources. We will also provide guidance about how to cite the work of others in your blog, explain

how to avoid infringing copyright law when linking or embedding material available elsewhere on

the Internet and discuss a range of electronic resources that may be useful to you when constructing

a blog.

PORTFOLIO TASK 5

There is one portfolio exercise this week:

(1) Write an c.800-word blog for the general public on any aspect of museum collections

management, documentation or care. You can choose any case study but do remember to

include appropriate images and captions [see Moodle for examples]

Your blog should be written and illustrated so that non-specialists will find it engaging, but

at the same time it should retain professional rigour; to achieve this you will need to adopt a

voice which is personal (yours) and so less formal than a journal article, but you should

nevertheless provide links to appropriate sources and ensure that your prose is

grammatically correct. You can highlight where you place hyperlinks using a different

colour of font on the words you would link and use a footnote to give the url of the link.

17

Over reading week students should familiarize themselves with the Workshop 6 resources

concerning museum environments, agents of deterioration and standards of collections care.

There will be a test at the beginning of the workshop to quiz your knowledge.

RESOURCES

Collections Trust useful links:

http://collectionstrust.org.uk/spectrum/

Resources on provenance, due diligence etc. for acquisitions - http://collectionstrust.org.uk/cultural-

property-advice/

http://collectionstrust.org.uk/accreditation/

Practical photography references:

Bigras, C. Choquette, M. and Powell, J. 2010. Lighting Methods for Photographing Museum

Objects. Ottawa: Canadian Conservation Institute.

Dorrell, P.G. 1994. Photography in Archaeology and Conservation. 2nd edition. Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press

National Park Service. 2000. Museum Handbook. Washington, DC: National Park Service.

(Appendix K: Photography) (Moodle)

Shanks, M. 1997. Photography and Archaeology, in Molyneaux, B. (ed.) The Cultural Life of

Images: Visual Representation in Archaeology, p. 73-107. London: Routledge

Share Museums East. 2011. ‘Point and Shoot: Collections Photography using Digital Cameras’

(Moodle)

Museums Australia. 2012. Photographing Collection Items - http://youtu.be/oUgG7HEpvyo

18

WORKSHOP 6: ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS, MONITORING AND DISASTER

PLANNING

DATE: Tuesday, 12 November 2019, 14:00-18:00

VENUES: IoA Room 209, Art Museum, Grant Museum of Zoology

TUTORS: Ian Carroll, Tannis Davidson, Lucy Waitt

SUMMARY

Workshops 6 and 7 are concerned with museum environments, including both the wider

environments of museum store rooms or display spaces and, in Workshop 7, the micro-

environments in which objects are stored (including mounts, boxes, sleeves, etc.). As instructed in

Portfolio Task 5, students are expected to come to Workshop 6 having explored this week’s

resources concerning best practice on environmental conditions in the museum.

The workshop will start will a quiz using remote response equipment. Students will have a

Q&A session on environmental conditions and control measures, which will introduce them to the

various agents of deterioration, including light, relative humidity, pollutants, security and pests.

This will be followed by an introduction to equipment used to measure the various

environmental factors and gain experience using these instruments. Once students have gained a

basic understanding of the equipment, they will be split into three groups and assigned to a different

museum/collection: the Grant Museum, Art Museum and IoA Leventis Gallery doing spot check

measuring. Students will consider environmental conditions in exhibition spaces associated with the

collections. Assisted by Ian Carroll, Lucy Waitt (Curatorial Assistant Art Museum) and Tannis

Davidson (Curator Grant Museum of Zoology) students will fill in data collection sheets and will

also be able to explore various storage techniques and practices. Students will then reconvene in

IoA Room 209 and in their groups present up to five recommendations for improvement.

In our last part of the day we will look at environmental conditions outside of human control

and how museums can mitigate the effects of disaster through proper planning. We will look at a

series of case studies and explore an emergency response kit.

PORTFOLIO TASK 6

There are two parts to this week’s portfolio task:

(1) Write up the environmental survey exercise that you conducted in class, taking each factor

explored in the workshop into account. Highlight the risk of each factor, identify any high

risk objects in the collection, report on evidence of any damage done, any monitoring

equipment in place, and make recommendations for future collections care measures

required in the spaces. (The curators will be on hand for this session to answer any queries

that students may have and to open up storage relating to the portfolio task. Students can

then visit the collections in their own time for further research before completing their

surveys.)

(2) Discuss how the different environmental factors explored in the workshop might affect one

object from a selection presented in B54, identifying particular risks. Make

recommendations for storage and display to mitigate environmental damage.

RESOURCES

19

Ashley-Smith, J. 1999. Risk Assessment for Object Conservation. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann.

Canadian Conservation Institute, Ten Agents of Deterioration -

http://canada.pch.gc.ca/eng/1444330943476

Cassar, M. 1994. Environmental Management: Guidelines for Museums and Galleries. London:

Routledge.

Collections Trust. 2011. Benchmarks for Collections Care 2.0. (Moodle)

Heritage Collections Council (Australia). 1998. ReCollections: Caring for Cultural Materials 1

(Moodle)

Heritage Collections Council (Australia). 1998. ReCollections: Caring for Cultural Materials 2

(Moodle)

Heritage Collections Council (Australia). 1998. ReCollections: Damage and Decay (Moodle)

Institute of Conservation. 2012. Caring and Conservation of... (a series of factsheets on care and

conservation of a range of different materials and objects, available online at

www.conservationregister.com/PIcon-CaringFor.asp)

Keene, S. 2002. Managing Conservation in Museums, 2nd Edition. Oxford: Butterworth-

Heinemann. (Chapter 8: ‘Preservation’, pp.114-37)

Matassa, F. 2011. Museum Collections Management: A Handbook. London: Facet Publishing.

(Chapter 7: Storage, pp.123-143)

Museum & Galleries Commission. 1992. ‘Standards in the Museum Care of Archaeological

Collections’ (Moodle)

Museum & Galleries Commission. 1992. ‘Standards in the Museum Care of Biological Collections’

(Moodle)

Museum & Galleries Commission. 1992. ‘Standards in the Museum Care of Larger and Working

Objects’ (Moodle)

Museum & Galleries Commission. 1996. ‘Standards in the Museum Care of Photographic

Collections’ (Moodle)

Museum & Galleries Commission. 1998. ‘Standards in the Museum Care of Costume and Textile

Collections’ (Moodle)

Museum & Galleries Commission. 2004. ‘Standards in the Museum Care of Geological

Collections’ (Moodle)

Museum & Galleries Commission. 2005. ‘Standards in the Museum Curation of Musical

Instruments’ (Moodle)

Museums Galleries Scotland. 2009. ‘Advice Sheet: Monitoring Light and UV Radiation in

Museums’ (Moodle)

Museums Galleries Scotland. 2009. ‘Advice Sheet: Monitoring Temperature and Humidity in

Museums’ (Moodle)

Museums Galleries Scotland. 2009. ‘Advice Sheet: What is Environmental Monitoring?’ (Moodle)

National Park Service. 1999. Museum Handbook. Washington, DC: National Park Service. (Chapter

4: Museum Collections Environment) (Moodle)

Re:Source: The Council for Museums, Archives and Libraries. 2003. Security in Museums,

Archives and Libraries: A Practical Guide. (Moodle)

Staniforth, S. 1992. ‘Control and Measurement of the Environment’ in J.A. Thompson (ed.) Manual

of Curatorship: A Guide to Museum Practice. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann, pp.234-245.

Thomson, G. 1994. The Museum Environment, 2nd edition. London: Butterworth-Heinemann.

Waller, R.R. 2003. Cultural Property Risk Analysis Model: Development and Application To

Preventive Conservation. Göteborg: Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis.

Disaster Planning and Emergency Response

Museums Association 2005. Emergency Planning Museums Practice Issue 29, Spring 2005.

20

ICOM. Guidelines for Disaster Preparedness in Museums. In Museum Security and Protection

http://icom.museum/fileadmin/user_upload/pdf/Guidelines/guidelinesdisasters_eng.pdf

VIDEO RESOURCES

Museums Australia. 2012. Organising Your Collection Store - http://youtu.be/GGeYd1ivRSg

Share Museums East. 2012. Calibrating a Thermohygrograph - http://youtu.be/kKowgsle1L0

Share Museums East. 2012. Calibrating a Dial Hygrometer - http://youtu.be/zq3xMMGMH8A

21

WORKSHOP 7: STORING COLLECTIONS

DATE: Tuesday, 19 November 2019, 14:00-18:00

VENUE: IoA Room 209, Collections Storage spaces

TUTORS: Ian Carroll, Andrea Frederickson, Frances Potts

SUMMARY

Proper storage is key to collections care. There are standards and best practice, but in the end each

object presents its own challenges in material, stability and form. In this workshop, students will

consider storage with a visit to the stores at the IoA, the Petrie Museum, and the Art Museum where

they assess the suitability of collections storage and consider some of the practical constraints.

They will then move on to devise a storage solutions for a selection of objects taking into

consideration its particular vulnerabilities. Students will work with a variety of materials and

commercially available products, and try their hand at plaztazote cutting.

PORTFOLIO TASK 7

(1) Select one of the objects from B54 that you have studied previously and prepare instructions and

illustrations on how to store the selected object. Think about what packing materials or containers

might be required and the ideal storage conditions it should be placed in. Ensure that you explain

the rationale behind your storage solution.

RESOURCES

Canadian Conservation Institute. 2011. Six Steps to Safe Shipment -

http://canada.pch.gc.ca/eng/1444920450433

Heritage Collections Council (Australia). 1998. ReCollections: Handling, Transportation, Storage

and Display (Moodle) – see pp.30-34 on Storage and Display

Heritage Collections Council (Australia). 1998. ReCollections: Damage and Decay (Moodle) – see

pp.39-58 on Biological Pests

Hood, A. 1993. ‘Storage’ in D. Fleming, C. Paine & J.G. Rhodes (eds) Social History in Museums:

A Handbook for Professionals. London: HMSO, pp.311-316.

Matassa, F. 2011. Museum Collections Management: A Handbook. London: Facet Publishing.

(Chapter 7: Storage, pp.123-143)

National Park Service. 1998. Museum Handbook. Washington, DC: National Park Service. (Chapter

5: Biological Infestations) (Moodle)

National Park Service. 2001. Museum Handbook. Washington, DC: National Park Service. (Chapter

7: Museum Collection Storage) (Moodle)

22

WORKSHOP 8: PEST CONTROL, CONDITION REPORTING, AND DISASTOR

PLANNING

DATE: Tuesday, 26 November 2019, 14:00-17:00

VENUES: IoA Room 209

TUTORS: Ian Carroll, Emmy Kingham, Graeme McArthur, Renata Peters

SUMMARY

This workshop will cover two topics: first pest control; then preventive conservation and condition

survey

We continue to explore issues around the monitoring and control of museum environments,

with a particular focus on pest management and storage. We discuss common pests that damage

museum collections, including beetles, moths, silverfish and rodents. We consider how we can

identify different pests from the damage they do, and what kinds of collections are most vulnerable.

We then explore methods for monitoring for pest infestation, including the use of traps and trapping

plans, and the visual identification of common pests using reference examples. Students will inspect

some traps that have been used in UCL Museums and IoA and will identify any pests present and

complete a monitoring sheet. We will discuss a range of approaches to dealing with infestation.

The second part of the workshop will explore methods and aims in the conservation and care of

museum collections. Conservators contribute to an understanding of an object’s history, meaning

and significance in a contemporary cultural context by developing an understanding of the nature of

materials and techniques in manufacturing objects and on how materials and objects change through

the influence of various agents. Equipped with this insight, a conservator designs strategies aimed at

both facilitating use of objects and prolonging the lives of objects through preventive, and

sometimes interventive, conservation treatment measures. Through talks and guided learning

exercises, students will be introduced to preventative and interventive conservation principles and

practices. The first half of the workshop will:

Examine how conservation principles and practices can be applied to develop strategies to

care for collections of objects;

Introduce the concept of a condition survey;

Explore ways of understanding manufacturing techniques and assessing condition

Finally students will gain experience handling and examining objects, and gathering information

which will be applied in this week’s portfolio task: writing a condition report of a selected object.

Working in small groups, students will apply close observation and critical thinking to gather

evidence about the materials and about possible agents of change in the physical or chemical

condition of the object.

PORTFOLIO TASK 8

There are two parts to this week’s task, reflecting the two parts of the workshop

(1) Collect one of the insect traps. Select from one of these rooms in the IOA (209, 309, 412,

405, Leventis Gallery, B54) and prepare a ‘trapping plan’ of it, indicating the position of

your insect trap. Leave your trap for two weeks (and no more than three) before opening

23

them. You should identify any insects you trap and explain what conclusions you can draw

from the findings. Don’t forget to write you name on the trap

(2) During the workshop you will have been introduced to the procedures and format for

preparing a condition report on a museum object. Applying this knowledge, students should

write a condition report on an object from a selection in B54 that is going on short-term loan

to another institution abroad. Using glossaries and other resources (available via Moodle),

ensure that you employ the correct technical vocabulary to describe evidence of

deterioration of your object. Your report should be well illustrated with photographs,

annotated drawings, etc. and be fully referenced. Where appropriate, make

recommendations for the treatment of the object. You will be able to draw upon the tutors’

advice during the workshop.

RESOURCES

American Institute for Conservation - www.conservation-us.org

Ashley-Smith, J. 1999. Risk Assessment for Object Conservation. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann.

Buttler, C. & Davis, M. (eds.) 2006. Things Fall Apart: Museum Conservation in Practice. Cardiff:

National Museum Wales Books.

Canadian Conservation Institute, CCI Notes - http://canada.pch.gc.ca/eng/1439925167385 Caple, C.

2000. Conservation Skills: Judgement, Method and Decision Making. London: Routledge.

Clavir, M. 2002. Preserving what is Valued: Museums, Conservation, and First Nations.

Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press.

Conservation Online - http://cool.conservation-us.org/

Corfield, M. 1992. ‘Conservation Documentation’ in J.M. Thompson (ed.) Manual of Curatorship.

Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann, pp.229-233.

Corr, S. 2000. Caring for Collections: A Manual of Preventative Conservation. Dublin: Heritage

Council.

Cronyn, J.M. 1990. The Elements of Archaeological Conservation. London: Routledge. (Chapter 1:

‘Introducing Archaeological Conservation’, pp.1-13; Chapter 2: ‘Agents of Deterioration and

Preservation,’ pp.14-42 ).

Dohne, E. and Price, C.A. 1996. Stone Conservation: An Overview of Current Research. Los

Angeles: Getty Conservation Institute (See especially Chapter 2) (Moodle)

Henderson, J. 2000. The Science and Archaeology of Materials: An Investigation of Inorganic

Materials. London: Routledge.

Institute for Conservation - www.icon.org.uk

Koob, S.P. 2006. Conservation and Care of Glass Objects. London: Archetype.

Mann, P.R. 1989. ‘Working Exhibits and the Destruction of Evidence in the Science Museum’,

International Journal of Museum Management and Curatorship 8: 369-387.

Oddy, W. A. 1992. The Art of the Conservator. London: British Museum Press.

National Park Service, Museum Management Program, ‘Conserve O Grams’ (useful factsheets) -

www.nps.gov/history/museum/publications/conserveogram/cons_toc.html

Pearce, S. (ed.) 1994. Interpreting Objects and Collections. London: Routledge.

Peters, R. 2008. ‘The Brave New World of Conservation’ in Diversity in Heritage Conservation:

Tradition, Innovation and Participation - Preprints of the ICOM-CC 15th Triennial

Conference. New Delhi: Allied Publishers, Vol. 1, pp.185-190.

Pye, E. 2001. Caring for the Past: Issues in Conservation for Archaeology and Museums. London:

James and James.

Richmond, A. & Bracker, A. (eds.) 2009. Conservation: Principles, Dilemmas and Uncomfortable

Truths. London: Butterworth-Heinemann.

24

Sease, C. 1998. ‘Codes of Ethics for Conservation’, International Journal of Cultural Property 7:

98-114.

Share Museums East. 2011. Condition Reporting Crib Sheet (Moodle)

Stanley-Price, N. et al (eds) 1996. Historical and Philosophical Issues in the Conservation of

Cultural Heritage. Los Angeles: Getty Conservation Institute.

Viñas, S.M. 2005. Contemporary Theory of Conservation. Oxford: Elsevier Butterworth-

Heinemann.

Ward, P. 1986. The Nature of Conservation: A Race Against Time. Marina del Rey: Getty

Conservation Institute.

Pests

Canadian Conservation Institute. 2012. Combatting Pests of Cultural Property - https://www.cci-

icc.gc.ca/resources-ressources/publications/downloads/technicalbulletins/eng/TB29-

CombattingPestsofCulturalProperty.pdf

English Heritage. n.d. Insect Pests found in Historic Houses and Museums poster (Moodle)

Integrated Pest Management Working Group - www.museumpests.net

Pinniger, D. 2009. Pest Management: A Practical Guide. Cambridge: The Collections Trust.

Winsor, P. (ed.) 2011. Integrated Pest Management for Collections. Swindon: English Heritage.

Zycherman, L. (ed.) 1988. A Guide to Museum Pest Control. Washington, DC: American Institute

for Conservation.

Sample Condition Report

Colchester and Ipswich Museum Service. 2011. Condition Report: ‘Still Life with Fish’ by Charles

Keene. (Moodle)

25

WORKSHOP 9: LOANS, PACKING AND MOVING OBJECTS

DATE: Tuesday, 03 December 2019, 14:00-18:00

VENUE: IoA Room 209

TUTORS: Maria Ragan, Frances Potts, Ian Carroll

SUMMARY

The borrowing and loaning of collections is a significant area of museum activity. Loans benefit

both lenders and borrowers. They enable museums to reach wider audiences, reunite fragments of

the same object, set collections in context and increase public awareness of museums. The process

of both making and receiving a loan request can, however, be quite complex and there are

established guidelines for the appropriate procedures. In the first part of the workshop we will

introduce the procedures and documentation relating to loans, including the use of loans policies

and conditions typically encountered, through a series of real life case studies from recent loan

requests.

In the second part of the workshop, we turn our attention to the related issue of object

movement, whether internally within a museum or between institutions in the context of loans.

Museum collections are most vulnerable to damage when being moved – even over short distances.

Alice Williams, Curatorial Assistant at the Petrie Museum, will give an insight into the role of

collections management in managing the movement of objects from her experience in both the

Science Museum and the Petrie Museum.

Students will then gain hands on experience in object movement and packing, and will work

in teams to prepare a risk assessment/method statement for this week’s portfolio task.

PORTFOLIO TASK 9

The Institute of Archaeology and UCL Art Museum are collaborating on a joint exhibition, and

some objects currently on display in the Institute’s Leventis Gallery need to be moved to UCL Art

Museum for temporary display. Select two objects made from different materials (at least one of

which must be ceramic, glass or metal) currently on display in the Leventis Gallery. Prepare a risk

assessment/method statement for each of your objects, outlining how they can safely be transported

to the Art Museum. The document should include a description and accession number for each

object, and consider:

what type of documentation you will need

what type of packing material should be used

how the object should be packed

how the object should be transported between the two venues

what hazards will be encountered en route, and how risks associated with these hazards will

be minimized

Each statement should be supplemented with photographs, diagrams, route/access plans, etc.

RESOURCES

26

Berkow, R. 1998. ‘Import and Export’ in A. R. Buck & J. A. Gilmore (eds) The New Museums

Registration Methods. Washington, DC: American Museums Association, pp.147-150.

Britton, J. 2004. The Challenge of Moving Objects. Museum Practice 28:44-45. (Moodle)

Collections Trust. 2017. ‘SPECTRUM Advice Factsheet: Loans In’ (Moodle)

Collections Trust. 2017. ‘SPECTRUM Advice Factsheet: Loans Out’ (Moodle)

Collections Trust. 2017. ‘SPECTRUM Advice Factsheet: Location and Movement Control’

(Moodle)

Cowan, S. 1998. ‘Preparation’ in A. R. Buck & J. A. Gilmore (eds) The New Museums Registration

Methods. Washington, DC: American Museums Association, pp.120-126.

Freitag, S. & Smallwood, M. 1998. ‘Packing and Crating’ in A. R. Buck & J. A. Gilmore (eds) The

New Museums Registration Methods. Washington, DC: American Museums Association, pp.

131-140.

Griffith, E. A. 1994. ‘Liability Risk Management For Museums’ in A. Fahy (ed.) Collections

Management. London: Routledge, pp.277-283.

Heritage Collections Council (Australia). 1998. ReCollections: Handling, Transportation, Storage

and Display (Moodle) – see pp.15-28 on Transportation

Matassa, F. 2011. Museum Collections Management: A Handbook. London: Facet Publishing.

(Chapter 6: Movement, pp.95-121; Chapter 9: Loans, pp.169-200)

Museums Association. 2007. Collections for the Future: Simple Loans Administration (Moodle)

Museums Association. 2012. Smarter Loans: Principles for Lending and Borrowing from UK

Museums (Moodle)

Museum of London. 2010. Loans from the Museum Collections. (Loan Conditions) (Moodle)

National Park Service. 2000. Museum Handbook. Washington, DC: National Park Service. (Chapter

5: Outgoing Loans) (Moodle)

National Park Service. 1999. Museum Handbook. Washington, DC: National Park Service. (Chapter

6: Handling, Packing, and Shipping) (Moodle)

Rose, C. 1998. ‘Couriering’ in A. R. Buck & J. A. Gilmore (eds) The New Museums Registration

Methods. Washington, DC: American Museums Association, pp.151-156.

Share Museums East. n.d. Packing Museum Objects: A Collections Care How To Guide. (Moodle)

Sixsmith, M. 1995. Touring Exhibitions: The Touring Exhibition Group's Manual of Good

Practice. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann. (See sections on loans, indemnity and couriering)

Stansfield, G. 1994. ‘Insurance and Indemnity’ in A. Fahy (ed.) Collections Management. London:

Routledge, pp.284-287.

Stolow, N. 1987. Conservation and Exhibitions: Packing, Transport, Storage and Environmental

Conditions. London: Butterworth.

Taurins, I. 1998. ‘Shipping’ in A. R. Buck & J. A. Gilmore (eds) The New Museums Registration

Methods. Washington, DC: American Museums Association, pp.45-48.

27

WORKSHOP 10: DISPOSAL, MUSEUM ETHICS

DATE: Tuesday, 10 December 2019, 14:00-17:00

VENUE: IoA Room 209

TUTORS: Jenny Durrant, Alice Stevenson

SUMMARY

In this workshop Jenny Durrant, Assistant Curator at the Royal Albert Memorial Museum and

University of Leicester doctoral student, will lead discussion on disposal. Disposal is the permanent

removal of an item from a museum collection. Many people regard museums as places where

collections are kept in perpetuity. As such the issue of deaccessioning and disposal of collections

can be controversial. The disposal of collections may, however, be appropriate for a number of

reasons: for example, due to resource limitations, a museum may not be able to care for parts of its

collection, or certain parts of a collection may fall outside a museum’s broader mission, items may

be damaged or have deteriorated beyond the museum’s ability to repair them, or certain collections

may pose a threat to health and safety. The Museums Association has recently conducted research

on the issue of disposal and has developed a ‘Disposal Toolkit’, providing an ethical framework for

considering and carrying out disposal. Museums are now expected to include a disposal policy

within their broader collections development policy. We will think through the legalities, ethics and

practicalities of this issue.

We conclude the workshop – and the course – with a review of module, and recap on the

requirements of the portfolio, which must be submitted on the first Tuesday of next term.

PORTFOLIO TASK 10

Write an c.800 word response to one of the following questions citing appropriate literature and

case studies to support your answer:

Can you dispose of an object if you do not know what it is?

Can you dispose of an object if it is not accessioned?

Should you dispose of an object to fund collections development? And if so how?

Should objects be disposed of via the commercial art market?

When is it appropriate to destroy an object as a form of disposal? What procedures should

be followed?

Can you dispose of an object that has been left as a bequest to a museum in someone’s will?

As a collections manager how might you manage the deaccessioning of human remains that

are ancestral to a contemporary source community? What do you need to take into

consideration?

RESOURCES

Merriman, N. 2008. ‘Museum Collections and Sustainability’, Cultural Trends 17(1): 3-21.

Collections Trust. n.d. Disposing of Objects You May Not Own. (Moodle)

Collections Trust. 2017. ‘SPECTRUM Advice Factsheet: Object Exit’ (Moodle)

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Das, S. 2011. ‘Disposal?: A Democratic Exhibition at UCL Museums and Collections’,

OnCurating.org. (Moodle)

Das, S., Dunn, J. and Passmore, E. 2011. ‘Disposal? How to Run a Democratic Exhibition’ in P.

Davies (ed.) Museums and the Disposals Debate. Edinburgh: MuseumsEtc. (Moodle)

Davies, P. 2011. Museums and the Disposals Debate. MuseumsEtc.

Besterman, T. 1992. ‘Disposals from Museum Collections: Ethics and Practicalities’, Museum

Management and Curatorship 11(1): 29-44.

Leary, E. 2012. Collections Rationalisation: Planning for Action. (Moodle)

Lewis,G. 1992. ‘Attitudes to Disposal from Museum Collections’, Museum Management and

Curatorship 11(1): 19-28.

Matassa, F. 2011. Museum Collections Management: A Handbook. London: Facet Publishing.

(Chapter 3: Ethical Considerations, pp.31-42)

Merriman, N. 2008 Museum collections and sustainability. Cultural Trends 17(1): 3–21.

Museums Association. 2008. Code of Ethics for Museums. (Moodle)

Museums Association. n.d. Disposal Digest: An Introduction for Museums. (Moodle)

Museums Association. n.d. Disposal Toolkit: Guidelines for Museums. (Moodle)

Museums Association. 2012. Draft Due Diligence Guidelines Relating to Sales of Items from

Museum Collections. (Moodle)

Robertson, I. 1995. Infamous Deaccessions. In Fahy, A. (ed.) Collections Management. London:

Routledge, pp. 168 – 181.

South East Museum Development Group, 2016: A guide to collections review and rationalisation

[http://southeastmuseums.org/domains/southeastmuseums.org/local/media/images/medium/

A_Guide_to_Collections_Review_and_Rationalisation.pdf]

Stevenson, A. 2016. Conflict antiquities and conflicted antiquities: addressing commercial sales of

legally excavated artefacts. Antiquity 90: 229–236.

UCL Museums & Collections. n.d. Disposal Flowchart. (Moodle)

UCL Museums & Collections. n.d. Disposal Form. (Moodle)

Ulph, J. 2015. “Dealing with UK Museum Collections: Law, Ethics and the Public/Private Divide”

International Journal of Cultural Property Issue 2-3 / August 2015, pp 177-204.

Ulph, J. 2015. 2013. The Sale of Items in Museum Collections. In N. Hopkins (ed), Modern Studies

in Property Law, Volume 7. Oxford: Hart Publishing.

Ulph, J 2015. The legal and ethical status of museum collections: Curatorially-motivated disposal.

http://www.museumsassociation.org/download?id=1151041

Vecco, M and Piazzi, M. 2015. Deaccessioning of museum collections: what do we know and

where do we stand in Europe? Journal of Cultural Heritage 16(2): 221–227.

Weil, S (ed.) 1997. A Deaccession Reader. American Association of Museums.

VIDEO RESOURCES

Share Museums East. 2012. Collections Rationalisation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GM1DRlEtJ5Y

Blogs

Durrant, J. 'Discussing Disposal" http://collectionstrust.org.uk/news-and-blog/discussing-disposal/

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___________________________ APPENDIX A: POLICIES AND PROCEDURES 2019-20 (PLEASE READ CAREFULLY) This appendix provides a short précis of policies and procedures relating to modules. It is not a substitute for the full documentation, with which all students should become familiar. For full information on Institute policies and procedures, see the IoA Student Administration section of Moodle: https://moodle.ucl.ac.uk/module/view For UCL policies and procedures, see the Academic Regulations and the UCL Academic Manual: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/srs/academic-regulations ; http://www.ucl.ac.uk/academic-manual/ GENERAL MATTERS ATTENDANCE: A register will be taken at each class. If you are unable to attend a class, please notify the lecturer by email. Students are normally required to attend at least 70% of classes. DYSLEXIA: If you have dyslexia or any other disability, please discuss with your lecturers whether there is any way in which they can help you. Students with dyslexia should indicate it on each coursework cover sheet. COURSEWORK LATE SUBMISSION: Late submission will be penalized in accordance with current UCL regulations, unless formal permission for late submission has been granted. The UCL penalties are as follows:

The marks for coursework received up to two working days after the published date and time will incur a 10 percentage point deduction in marks (but no lower than the pass mark).

The marks for coursework received more than two working days and up to five working days after the published date and time will receive no more than the pass mark (40% for UG modules, 50% for PGT modules).

Work submitted more than five working days after the published date and time, but before the second week of the third term will receive a mark of zero but will be considered complete.

GRANTING OF EXTENSIONS: Please note that there are strict UCL-wide regulations with regard to the granting of extensions for coursework. You are reminded that Module Coordinators are not permitted to grant extensions. All requests for extensions must be submitted on a the appropriate UCL form, together with supporting documentation, via Judy Medrington’s office and will then be referred on for consideration. Please be aware that the grounds that are acceptable are limited. Those with long-term difficulties should contact UCL Student Support and Wellbeing (SSW) to make special arrangements. Please see the IoA website for further information. Additional information is given here

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/srs/academic-manual/c4/extenuating-circumstances/

RETURN OF COURSEWORK AND RESUBMISSION: You should receive your marked coursework within one month of the submission deadline. If you do not receive your work within this period, or a written explanation, notify the Academic Administrator. When your marked essay is returned to you, return it to the Module Co-ordinator within two weeks. You must retain a copy of all coursework submitted. CITING OF SOURCES and AVOIDING PLAGIARISM: Coursework must be expressed in your own words, citing the exact source (author, date and page number; website address if applicable) of any ideas, information, diagrams, etc., that are taken from the work of others. This applies to all media (books, articles, websites, images, figures, etc.). Any direct quotations from the work of others must be indicated as such by being placed between quotation marks.

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Plagiarism is a very serious irregularity, which can carry heavy penalties. It is your responsibility to abide by requirements for presentation, referencing and avoidance of plagiarism. Make sure you understand definitions of plagiarism and the procedures and penalties as detailed in UCL regulations: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/current-students/guidelines/plagiarism RESOURCES MOODLE: Please ensure you are signed up to the module on Moodle. For help with Moodle, please contact Charlotte Frearson (c.frearson@ucl.ac.uk) INSTITUTE OF ARCHAELOGY COURSEWORK PROCEDURES General policies and procedures concerning modules and coursework, including submission procedures, assessment criteria, and general resources, are available on the IoA Student

Administration section of Moodle: https://moodle.ucl.ac.uk/ It is essential that you read and comply with these. Note that some of the policies and procedures will be different depending on your status (e.g. undergraduate, postgraduate taught, affiliate, graduate diploma, intercollegiate, interdepartmental). If in doubt, please consult your module co-ordinator.

GRANTING OF EXTENSIONS: Note that there are strict UCL-wide regulations with regard to the granting of extensions for coursework. Note that Module Coordinators are not permitted to grant extensions. All requests for extensions must be submitted on a the appropriate UCL form, together with supporting documentation, via Judy Medrington’s office and will then be referred on for consideration. Please be aware that the grounds that are acceptable are limited. Those with long-term difficulties should contact UCL Student Support and Wellbeing to make special arrangements. Please see the IoA Student Administration section of Moodle

https://moodle.ucl.ac.uk/ for further information. Additional information is given here

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/srs/academic-manual/c4/extenuating-circumstances/