Proper collections care, planning, and conservation is an essential responsibility for a museum of any size, but funding for these obligations often falls to the bottom of funding priorities because its constituencies are the quietest. Small museums need affordable ways to provide basic care for their collections and the tools to lobby for additional funds for the long-term health of collections. Small museums often do not have staff expertise on the maintenance and preservation of these large and expensive pieces of history. This book offers practical tips for collections care, including preservation strategies for historic properties and a primer on managing potential harms to your artifacts.
Small museums need affordable ways to provide care for their collections and the tools to lobby for additional funds for their long-term health. In this book, we offer practical tips for collections care, including preservation strategies for historic properties, strategies for managing collections, developing policies, and planning for the future of your museum's holdings.
"As a small museum staff person, you are responsible for a lot, including areas outside of your expertise or training. You need a quick reference that makes the process of becoming a sustainable, valued institution less overwhelming. The Small Museum Toolkit is a collection of six books that serves as a launching point for small museum staff to pursue best practices and meet museum standards. These brief volumes address governance, financial management, human resources, audience relations, interpretation, and stewardship for small museums and historic sites." --Amazon.
Collections Care and Stewardship: Innovative Approaches for Museums considers best practices and innovations related to documenting collections with regard to movement and safe handling of items for transport, display, photography, and treatment; collections storage; and information-sharing within and beyond the museum. The case studies in this volume examine best practices and innovations related to collections with regard to display, interpretation, engagement, storage, conservation treatment, and preservation. Several chapters address undergraduate and graduate coursework and internship experiences in a variety of contexts to offer best practices as well as evaluation of such training opportunities. All of these case studies ask us to think about the responsibilities that we have, as museum professionals, to be stewards—a challenge for all of us in terms of the obligations and responsibilities therein, but also in terms of the challenge to frame our collections as having the capacity to reflect as well as inspire. The Innovative Approaches for Museums series offers case studies, written by scholars and practitioners from museums, galleries, and other institutions, that showcase the original, transformative, and sometimes wholly re-invented methods, techniques, systems, theories, and actions that demonstrate innovative work being done in the museum and cultural sector throughout the world. The authors come from a variety of institutions—in size, type, budget, audience, mission, and collection scope. Each volume offers ideas and support to those working in museums while serving as a resource and primer, as much as inspiration, for students and the museum staff and faculty training future professionals who will further develop future innovative approaches. Contributions by: Jennifer Schwarz Ballard, Terry A. Barnhart, Rebecca E. Bria, Marlena Cannon de Mendez, Robert P. Connolly, Mary Coughlin, Elizabeth K. Cruzado Carranza, Katherine A. Johnson, Michael Jones, Allison McCloskey, Nicolette B. Meister, Carrie Wieners Meyer, Eileen Prendergast, Marjorie Schwarzer, Glori Simmons, Shari Stout, and Kelly Tomajko
Good storage is the foundation of effective collection care, advancing conservation while at the same time promoting accessibility and use. Preventive Conservation: Collection Storage covers the storage of all types of collections, including science, fine and decorative art, history, library, archive, and digital collections. It concentrates on preventive conservation and emphasizes a risk management approach. Reflecting the breadth of its scope, the new book is collaboration between The Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections; the American Institute for Conservation of Historic & Artistic Works; the Smithsonian Institution; and the George Washington University Museum Studies Program.
Collection ethics – the third rail of the museum profession. What are the encompassing issues museum face regarding how they acquire, keep and work with their collections? Museum Collection Ethics discusses the complexities inherent in preserving and interpreting the extraordinary range of culturally significant objects entrusted to museums. The book presents an encompassing look at every aspect of the intellectual and stewardship duties museums by definition assume. The differences between ethics, laws, customs, and expectations are discussed. They are not synonymous. Ethics vary widely and are fluid. Essential factors include: Defining a museum as an ethical pursuit The role of museum governing authorities regarding ethics The ethics of collection authority: who is responsible for collection truths How museums collect and how ethics influences that activity The ethics of assuring collection authenticity The ethical access to collections, be it physical or digital Ethics and conservation Exhibition ethics The ethics of collection removals be they voluntary or involuntary This is the first book devoted solely to the ethical concerns museums face regarding their collections.
Historic sites celebrate defining moments in history, memorialize important events and people, and contribute to the character of the locations where they are situated. Heritage designation, both globally and nationally, is an inherently contested issue. As detailed in this volume, concerns of politics and identity, criteria for designation, impacts on communities and sites, and challenges to management planning are central to any understanding of the process by which heritage sites are created, developed, and maintained. The idea for this volume originated at a symposium hosted by the Savannah College of Art and Design. Contributors address such topics as the need to revamp criteria for designation, the effect historic site recognition has on local communities, the challenges encountered in maintaining a site, and issues linked to specific political climates or actions and group identity. The contributors constitute an international cast of leading scholars, employees, and policy-makers, all of whom have had extensive experience with World Heritage and National Register site stewardship. The work will be an invaluable reference for historians, architects, and those committed to the preservation of national monuments.
This essay collection draws upon work presented at three national conferences on women and historic preservation held at Bryn Mawr College in 1994, Arizona State University in 1997, and at Mount Vernon College in 2000.
The idea of stewardship - the ownership of an historical automobile during ones lifetime - has recently gained the focus that it has always deserved. This selfless consideration of preserving the original machines that have contributed significantly to our collective human experience, is presented by the foremost authors, museum directors and ......
As a small museum staff person, you are responsible for a lot, including areas outside of your expertise or training. You need a quick reference that makes the process of becoming a sustainable, valued institution less overwhelming. The Small Museum Toolkit is a collection of six books that serves as a launching point for small museum staff to pursue best practices and meet museum standards. These brief volumes address governance, financial management, human resources, audience relations, interpretation, and stewardship for small museums and historic sites. The Small Museum Toolkit, written by thirty-four experienced museum professionals, helps you define the questions you should be asking, gives you tools to achieve your goals, and guides you where to go for help.
