Meghan Sylvester, Iberville Museum
Proposal Type
Panel
Seeking
- Seeking Additional Presenters
- Seeking Specific Expertise
- Seeking General Feedback and Interest
Related Topics
- Archives
- Museums/Exhibits
- Teaching and Training
Abstract
In connection with next year’s theme, Repair Work, I propose a session focusing on how to repair a museum’s collection that has been neglected, specifically in smaller museums that are lacking the funds and staff of larger institutions. It seems that, way too often, a collections manager or registrar will come into a new institution and realize exactly how bad off their collections are, and it becomes up to them to sort through the mess and bring it up to museum standard. I would be interested in talking with other museum professionals who have come across a similar problem and discuss what steps they took to get their collections on track.
Description
There needs to be more conversation on collections that have been mismanaged or neglected. It is not uncommon for small local history museums to develop disorganized collections as these museums tend to have limited staff and lack the proper funding. However, I know there are ways to work around these problems and repair a mangled collection.
My goals for this session are to address the challenges these smaller institution face, but also offer solutions. As someone who is currently finding herself in this situation, I would love to present the progress I have made, but also speak and learn from others who are a few steps ahead of me. We need a dialogue focused on “what to do when you find yourself in the position of repairing a collection.”
For example:
What to do with mix matching accession numbers and object-ids?
What to do when you have stacks of un-accessioned photographs in your storage?
How to figure out what in your displays are catalogued and what are not?
What to do when you do not have or cannot afford official collections management software?
I’ve been in touch with a registrar for another local history museum in Louisiana who is facing similar challenges and is interested in being a part of this session. We would love to connect with other professionals from other states to maybe compare and contrast the challenges we face—if it’s nationwide or differs from state to state because of funding opportunities, etc.
Additionally, connecting with someone who is interested in elaborating on the topic—maybe you face challenges that do not have anything to do with funding and staff, and it involves your climate and weather?
I think this conversation can be a great way to learn from each other and perhaps point out things that will not have appeared so obvious to the person repairing the collection.
If you have a direct offer of assistance, sensitive criticism, or wish to pass along someone’s contact information confidentially, please get in contact directly: Meghan Sylvester, [email protected]
All feedback and offers of assistance should be submitted by July 1, 2018. If you have general ideas or feedback to share, please feel free to use the comments feature below.
Glad to see this focus on the nitty-gritty of collections repair – that’s a great way to connect with the conference theme.
I would suggest not broadening it to include weather etc, as the discussion seems likely to be more valuable if it stays centered around the specific issues relating to transitions in management and stewardship of collections. In addition to the physical/material problems, there are usually questions of relationship, too (eg what happens when a paid curator or collections manager is brought in for the first time to an organization that has formerly been run entirely by nonpaid staff? There are important questions about expertise, local authority, and often age/generation hidden in this situation!).
Katherine Crosby’s proposal is very similar to yours, so it probably makes sense to try to connect with her. I would suggest you might also get in touch with someone at Mass Humanities (maybe Abbye Meyer or Melissa Wheaton), as their Research Inventory grant program is explicitly intended to help small organizations upgrade their collections management. Including someone with a wide experience of supporting these kinds of efforts could be a useful component for a panel like this.
Most Public History professionals in Connecticut work at small house museums with modest collections. Such individuals would likely be interested in this topic for a panel. They need help to match their mission statement directly to the artifacts in their collections. Also to understand the evaluation and deaccessioning processes. Questions of cost benefit analysis, structural integrity, determining future usage of an item, and the expense of preserving or relinquishing artifacts can also be investigated. This panel can help institutions to modernize and understand how to edit their collections and to possibly eliminate objects out of alignment with their objectives. While historical institutions like to hold onto items, some have run their course, would benefit from being placed at other museums, or from simply being sold to the interested public. Great!