Lisa
We do three annual inventories. One of the Conner House (our historic home) one of the historic grounds (includes 18 buildings), and 1/3 of our collections storage. Roughly 75% of our collection is inventoried every year.
My suggestions:
1. Get organized. Have your changes of locations and loan forms updated before undertaking a large project like this. Also, have your inventory lists and pencils (sharpened) ready to go no later than a half hour before you are scheduled to begin.
2. Find a procedure and stick to it. Don't change horses in mid stream you can change procedures next time. It will only confuse you leaving you wondering what paperwork is correct and what isn't. The only way to straighten that out is to inventory again. (I have made people helping me re-inventory locations twice or thrice because they diverted from my instructions -inventing their own- or misread numbers.)
3. Lastly, there can only be one boss (the person who is responsible for tracking objects as a part of their job description, e.i. registrar, collections manager, curator, etc. Don't let three or four people be in charge. Someone must have the last say. Otherwise all of your help will be confused as much as you are. It disintegrates morale during a very stressful project. I would reccommend that you do your inventory in stages, spreading it out over the year instead of trying to tackle the entire collection in a short period of time. Even a small collection will be daunting as other responsibilies will come up, distracting you from this project.
4. Let everyone in your institution know you will be spending "X" amount of days/weeks doing an inventory. This will alert them to how occupied you will be and that if they have any requests they need to get them in before the project begins. I have invited other departments to join inventories and have gotten a good response. They often are amazed at what it takes to track a collection. They think it comes in and sits on a shelf for the rest of its life. It's a good opportunity to win support for yourself and the collection.
5. Re-evaluate for the next time. What could have been done better, who was good at what, get preffered types of equipment, etc.
The following is a description of what I do for our inventories.
For the Conner House and the collections storage area I have found the best thing to do is divide people into groups of 2. Give them the inventory list of objects with their locations (stored on Argus for Windows here) a clip board, and two sharp pencils. I tell them to put their initials in the top, right hand corner so if I have questions I know who to ask. One person reads the number on the object to the other person who then uses a check mark next to the number on the list. (They cannot use the numbers written on tags attached to the object - it may be the wrong number!) They are supposed to make sure that the object is what the list says it is. If it isn't, they are to mark the name on the list off and write in the correct name. If there is an object in a location that is not on the list for that location, they are to write in the number and the name of the object at the bottom of their list. Lastly, if a number on the inventory list is not marked off after all objects are inventoried for that location, it is to be left alone. Often what has happened is that the change of location did not get entered into the computer. (I do try to get this done before all inventories to avoid this - but. . . .) I try to partner up with someone to help get the job done, however, I have found I often run from one end of the place to the next answering questions, gophering for pencils or flashlights or ladders, explaining why I don't want it done that way, etc.
The historic grounds are more complicated. We work with a team of 7 or 8, including myself and our conservation technician, moving from building to building over a 4 week period. I check the numbers off the iventory while the others read the numbers to me and tell me what the object is. For example, "99.29.17, hammer," would be read to me. No one else can give me another number until I say, "O.K." Once we get started and people have learned to know where numbers are located (as a 1st person, living history museum we have to hide our numbers on the objects) things can go pretty quick. Then we clean all of the objects as well as the building's interior.
During and after inventories I set about solving problems - why do two repro mugs have the same number, the hammer's number is assigned to a hat in the computer and document file, where's this, where's that, this number is unreadable, etc. I also, compare/rectify the computer inventory list with a corresponding list stored in Word (sort out what is/isn't on both lists, what's missing on List A, what's missing on List B, etc.), the document file, the deaccessioned/redline files, and the card catalog files. All in all I spend about 350 hours a year doing some aspect of inventory. Checking the numbers off is easy - it's the rectifying that is really time consuming.
Lana Newhart-Kellen
Registrar
Conner Prairie Museum
>>> [log in to unmask] 01/29/02 02:07PM >>>
Thanks to all for responses to my question about different numbering
systems. Another question - we will soon undertake an inventory of our
collections - it has never been done in a complete way and was wondering if
anyone has experience with this - advice, procedures, etc...
Thanks again!
Regards,
Lisa Moellering
Archives and Research Services
Holocaust Museum Houston
5401 Caroline Street
Houston, Texas 77004
713.942.8000 ext. 110
713.942.7953 (fax)
[log in to unmask]
www.hmh.org
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