Mary, 

  I loved your reply to William.  Your advice and comparison to a marathon
were so right on.  Sorting to broad categories sounds like it would make the
cataloguing or re-cataloguing  much faster and probably better as someone
working on it can get immersed in the terminology and typical
characteristics of a group rather than brain-shifting from china to
blacksmith tools to something else.  That might depend, though, on whether
the objects had been numbered or not.  If not, I'd be cautious about moving
them at all until it was clear that juxtaposition with other items (possible
from the same source ) held no clues to their donor, date of acquisition or
provenance.

 

I too have been there and done that, though in both cases, while the records
were scanty, scattered, and took some finding, they were there and began to
be helpful as I got in to the mindset of the people who had created them. 

 

Another possible approach, if the storage situation is not damaging the
collection, might be to start with the records -getting into the database
everything that you are "supposed" to have, even if it's just a number and
object name, and those word documents, so when you start to work on there is
a place to immediately update location, and also to have at least a keyword
search ability to see what you have when someone needs something for exhibit
or research, if something turns up without a number.  That might be
something a volunteer could help with, as more and more people are computer
literate enough to do that. 

 

Every situation is a little different though, so deciding the best approach
is doing what you are doing - assessing where things stand now,  and triage
what most needs to be done to secure the health and welfare of the
collections and best meet the needs for collection use.   What can be done,
realistically, with staff and volunteers available will be part of that
equation, probably.

 

William, Good luck, it's a great challenge and requires perseverance, but as
you work it is SO satisfying to know what you are accomplishing for the
collection and for those who come after. 

 

Lucy Sperlin

 

 

From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf
Of Mary Helen Dellinger
Sent: Thursday, November 12, 2015 6:24 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [MUSEUM-L] Collections Audit/Rebirth

 

Good morning William!  It seems you find yourself in a situation that other
museum professionals have faced over the years.  When I took the job I
currently hold back in 2012 at a small local history museum, I was told that
one of my primary objectives was to "get a handle on the museum collection."
This institution has been collecting since the early 1970s and has all
manner of objects in the collection.  In the early years, there was
professional staff that did a great job of documenting everything (only on
paper of course) and my most recent predecessor also did a good job of
documenting.  In the intervening years, unfortunately, there were a series
of collections managers/curators who either did not understand what they
were supposed to be doing, or were not properly trained.  Records were lost,
collections broken apart, objects went missing. 

 

In addition to these issue, I inherited a collection that was housed in a
non-climate controlled space with no security measures in place, a leaking
roof (there were BUCKETS in the collection area to catch water as it came
through the roof), little to no documentation on some of it, and that was
packed in a haphazard manner that was not good for any of the objects.  I
couldn't even get into the back of the storage area - you had to stand on a
chair and peer over piles of stuff into the back of the room - for eight
months I had no idea what was back there.

 

My first step was to find a climate controlled, secure space and move
everything.  The move took a team of six people one week to effect.  We just
moved boxes as they were and placed everything on shelves in the new
location.  During the move I diverted all archives to the research library
space at the museum and all textiles and related accessories to another
secure location.  The goal was to sort the collection into broad categories
(transportation, tools, military, toys, etc.)  Once we got the top level
sort done, I found a willing volunteer that devotes one afternoon every week
to assisting me with the collection.  Beginning in with toys, we properly
packed each piece, created a label for the box so we would know what was in
it, and put everything onto the computer.  Once we finished with toys, we
moved on to railroads, then military, etc.  We've been at it for two years
now and have about 30% of the collection properly packed, boxes labeled and
everything on the computer.  I figure we have at least 3 more years of work
to do.  Then I will turn my attention to photographing everything, cross
checking the files against the computer, etc.  Eventually, it will get
sorted out.  It's just going to take some time.  Bottom line here - and some
others have alluded to this - break your work up into manageable chunks -
small goals that will help you get some stuff accomplished.  It's a
marathon, not a sprint.  Set up a method of going about it that works for
you and just start picking away at it.  You will be amazed how soon you
start to see progress.

 

Good luck!

 

Mary Dellinger

 

From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf
Of William Shepherd
Sent: Monday, November 09, 2015 3:28 PM
To: [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]> 
Subject: [MUSEUM-L] Collections Audit/Rebirth

 

*Apologies for cross posting.*

Hello,

 

                I'm recently started in a new position at a new institution
managing their collection. My predecessor, while a very nice person, fell
far behind on management of the collection. I'm seeing about seven years of
buildup. Everything needs to be rehoused/needs proper storage, virtually
every database record updated with correct locations and information,
hundreds or thousands of records entered into the database that are typed
out in a Word file but not entered into the database, paperwork and
documentation located and updated, as well as rearranging objects in storage
areas. The archives collection is in a bit better condition so this will
only focus on the Museum's mixed physical collection consisting of the usual
human created items, natural history items, photographs, etc. My guess is
there is somewhere between 12,000 and 20,000 collection items to be dealt
with.

                As I'm making a plan to tackle this massive project I'd be
very interested in hearing from anyone else that has gone through this or a
similar process. I'm tossing around ideas as I sort through things and of
course it all depends on available funds, but I'm thinking the only way to
go is physically shelf by shelf, one by one, try to locate a database or
Word record, update as necessary and rehouse as necessary, rearrange where
possible then move on. This is obviously going to be a huge amount of work
so hopefully I'll come across some funding to get some recent grads but any
success' and pitfalls others care to share would be much appreciated. Thank
you.

 

William Shepherd

Collections Officer

Swift Current Museum

44 Robert Street West

Swift Current, Saskatchewan

S9H 4M9

Phone: 306-778-4815

Fax: 306-778-4818

 

 

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