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: [email protected]
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-
[email protected], 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/
29
___________________________ 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 ([email protected]) 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/