Inventorying Cultural Heritage Collections

This two-part text opens with an argument few collections practitioners would contest: Regular inventories are central to meaningful, sustainable, and ethical collections preservation and access. But Vanderwarf and Romanowski argue that in practice—some 25 years working with diverse collections between them—inventories are uncommon: instead of functioning as a commonplace feature of collections care, they tend to be evoked as a last resort when a museum has lost control of its collection. Part I offers a flexible project management framework that illustrates strategies for reining in control of collections now. From identifying objectives that best serve the collection in question to securing stakeholder support and planning time and resources, Part I eliminates some guesswork around what may be an unprecedented and intensive project. To maintain the benefits of a project-style inventory, the authors then encourage practitioners to embrace inventory as an ongoing, evolving collections care function that reflects changing professional values and expectations from the communities museums serve. By centering computerized databases, barcoding, and digital collections, the authors further acknowledge these technologies as permanent, evolving features of collections and inventory practice that merit increased resourcing. Part II gives voice to practitioners around the world through case studies that affirm the vital role of inventories in regaining control of collections. Some of these inventories occurred during the course of everyday work, while others were responses to natural disasters and armed conflict. Still others may be seen as expressions of social justice. As much as the authors offer a guide to performing inventories, thereby filling a longstanding gap in the literature, they invite cultural heritage institutions to rethink how the stories held in collections can be better told and preserved through enhanced inventory practice. The book will benefit seasoned museum collections practitioners as well as those who lack access to formal museology education and training. The book targets stewards of cultural heritage and material culture collections with varying resources

Improved heritage management and the inclusion of heritage in planning and sustainable development processes necessitate inventory and documentation. More than mere scientific tools recommended in international agreements, inventory and documentation play a strategic role. The complexity of the heritage items that now have to be inventoried and their interaction with our everyday living environment require the clear definition and harmonisation of practices at the European level. Through its work in the 1960s, the Council of Europe helped to lay the methodological bases for inventorying architectural, archaeological and movable heritage. The efforts to systematise the process came in answer to the broadening meaning of heritage, and today new considerations lead us to address such notions as heritage groups. The guidelines proposed in this book reflect the work done so far and provide a basis for future research. It is part of a series produced under the Technical Co-operation and Assistance Programme to present the experience derived from the projects implemented by the Council of Europe.

Memory institutions such as libraries, archives, galleries and museums all share pressing concerns about preserving heritage, whether in the form of material and documentary cultural artefacts in collections, or in the form of new digitally born material. Recent incidents of natural disaster and cultural genocide, together with the global turn to digitization, have forced librarians, archivists and curators to rethink and restructure their primary modes of operation. Preservation management now sits at the top of the agenda for heritage institutions around the world, as collection development policies and practices are negotiated between libraries, museums, archives, funding agencies and governments. Historically separate cultural institutions are now converging to share limited resources, develop compatible ideologies and co-ordinate distributed collections. This forward-looking collection charts the diversity of preservation management in the contemporary information landscape, and offers guidance on preservation methods for the sustainability of collections from a range of international experts. The authors are connected to a wide international network of professional associations and NGOs, and have been selected not only for their specific expertise, but for the contribution they are making to the future of preservation management. The chapters cover: managing the documentary heritage: issues for the present and future preservation policy and planning intangible heritage: museums and preservation surrogacy and the artefact moving with the times in search of permanence a valuation model for paper conservation research preservation of audiovisual media: traditional to interactive formats challenges of managing the digitally born artefact preserving cultural heritage in times of conflict access and the social contract in memory institutions redefining 'the collection' in the 21st century. Readership: There is urgent need for heritage management initiatives and robust disaster planning that will safeguard our cultural heritage and recognize the right of the end-user to ownership of it. This is an informed and essential guide to managing collection and preservation strategies for anyone working in the library, archive, museum or broader cultural heritage sectors.

This book addresses the issue of valuing objects in cultural collections, ranging from high-value to low or no-value and featuring a range of collections including fine art, archives, science and photography. Practical advice is given on how to assign values and best practice examples are drawn from museums, libraries and archives. The subject of valuation has always been challenging for museums and public collections and is becoming more urgent as monetary values of many items continue to break records. There is an increase in lending, with more loans requiring a value for insurance. Cultural collections and exhibitions are expanding to all corners of the world, while, at the same time, lenders are becoming more risk-averse. Valuing Your Collection will address the issues and offer some solutions. Content covered includes: questions of valuing public and private cultural collectionsassigning values to individual objects or an entire collectionlegal and ethical considerationsdiscussion of authentication and attributionthe insurance business and valuationguides to valuing different types of collectionsa range of case studies showing valuation across multiple sectorssample templates with criteria for valuing different objects. This book will be useful for curators of cultural collections, professionals in museums, libraries and archives, cultural heritage students, private collectors, those involved with art insurance, art business and anyone requiring practical guidance on valuation.

While cultural heritage practitioners and caretakers are often intimidated by "best practices," Practical Approaches to Collections Care helps to alleviate those concerns, offering a stepped approach to preservation encompassing a variety of collections care programs. The author, drawing on over a decade of experience working in libraries, museums, archives, and other historic sites, and specifically building off of her work as a Preservation Specialist at the Conservation Center for Art & Historic Artifacts, discusses realistic, efficient, and sustainable approaches to collection housing, space planning, environmental management, facilities care, emergency preparedness, and much more. Giving examples of implementation and easy-to-follow guides that will allow readers to start from scratch or improve an already existing program, Forsko demonstrates how preservation can become a component of any collections care program. Encouraging the reader to start by taking small, manageable steps, the author shows that even the smallest of actions can make a difference that will ultimately help to preserve collections and ensure that the world’s heritage will remain intact for future generations. Practical Approaches to Collections Care takes an applied approach, making suggestions the reader can immediately implement no matter the size of their institution. It is an essential tool for stewards of cultural heritage collections, particularly collections managers, registrars, and preservation specialists. It will also be useful to students who are engaged in the study of collections care.

Museum collections are often perceived as static entities hidden away in storerooms or trapped behind glass cases. By focusing on the dynamic histories of museum collections, new research reveals their pivotal role in shaping a wide range of social relations. Over time and across space the interactions between these artefacts and the people and institutions who made, traded, collected, researched and exhibited them have generated complex networks of material and social agency. In this innovative volume, the contributors draw on a broad range of source materials to explore the cross-cultural interactions which have created museum collections. These case studies contribute significantly to the development of new theoretical frameworks to examine broader questions of materiality, agency, and identity in the past and present. Grounded in case studies from individual objects and museum collections from North America, Europe, Africa, the Pacific Islands, and Australia, this truly international volume juxtaposes historical, geographical, and cross-cultural studies. This work will be of great interest to archaeologists and anthropologists studying material culture, as well as researchers in museum studies and cultural heritage management.