Hi Kelsey,
This is what Museum-L is for! Some of us have, indeed, "been there and done
that."  Me? More than once!

First, the great news is that you use PastPerfect. You can keep all of your
collection items linked, no matter which of the collections it is in, by
collection name, accession number and by donor name as well as by using the
"Related" field, where you can make note of related materials in a different
collection category.

You're correct to use one collection name and one accession number (an
accession traditionally being everything received from a single donor in a
single day) with the object number added.  (e.g. 2014-015 accession #;
2014-015-0001 thr 0456 as object numbers) With the donor's name in the
'Accession' list and one accession number everything will be listed when you
look the Accession record. If you have different numbering systems for the
different types of collections, it would be best to have some prefix called
"Accession Number" that's the same for all.

Inevitably, because for a number of reasons you can't store everything
together, when you have mixed collections such as you describe, you do have
to emphasize keeping the Location field in PP up to date. Researchers will
totally understand why things aren't all together, and others will accept
the collection care issues that dictate not storing fragile paper documents
or textiles in with 3 dimensional objects. 
 
Since, as you note, most people coming in are looking by subject or
geographic location, I revised the PP fields for Classification and Search,
using Search for the geographical location and Classification for what is
perhaps more a glorified Subject listing.  (One could also revise the
Subject data field.)  I can make available the framework outline for the
revised Classification or Subject field --it's adaptable to any geographic
location and circumvents the problem that keyword searches are so dependent
on someone having actually entered the word you are searching on.

As for dealing with the backlog, I'd suggest focusing first on doing new
items right, and as volunteers are available revamping the backlog as you
can. In both of my experiences with huge backlogs, it did involve some
re-cataloguing but you can decide to deal with things as they are handled,
and surprisingly it will begin to get done. And, as you do it, you are
continually making things more accessible. I've been working 8 years
part-time (as a retired volunteer) at current location. Not done yet, by any
means, but folks are really thrilled at how much we can find for them when
they come researching something.  When I came there had been no good way to
store paper materials and important items have been found in files where no
one would have thought to look for them, and we have found them by accident.
Now we have an extensive "Numerical Document File" with everything stored by
number in acid-free folders in document boxes. It is SO easy and quick to
retrieve them after looking them up in PP.  [Storing by number means that an
item that covers several subjects is not filed by one and lost to the
others.]

Good luck, you have our support and hooray to you for trying to get your
collection organized and retrievable.

Lucy Sperlin
Butte County Historical Society
Oroville, CA


-----Original Message-----
From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf
Of Kelsey
Sent: Wednesday, February 19, 2014 3:06 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [MUSEUM-L] Mixed Object, Manuscript, and Archival Donations in
Small Museums

Hello brain trust-

I am the only staff member (part-time) at a very small volunteer-run museum.
As with many small museums, we are a mix of archives, objects, books, and
who knows what else? For the past 100 years or so, we have served as a kind
of "attic" for the community. I just got a new collections management policy
approved and am working to gain intellectual control over our large
collection. Of course, as I'm doing this, new potential donations are
arriving weekly, and I am trying to keep up with those while back-processing
our current collection at the same time. An age-old tale, to be sure.

Many of the donations we receive have mixed object, manuscript, and archival
materials, and I would like advice on how best to process these donations so
that the system is both in line with best practices but also accessible to
and replicable by future volunteers and community members, most of whom have
no museum training. We use PastPerfect for our library, archives,
manuscripts, and object collections. Researchers and community members
generally come in looking for information by subject or geographic location
rather than by person, but donations are often made as a large group of
objects and archival material mixed together but meticulously collected and
arranged by a resident who has been planning this donation for a number of
years. (A museum is known around here as the place to deposit all one's old
stuff when one, well, passes on.)

To help give you an idea of this, say John Night donates his collection of
parade fliers and memorabilia, mummer's costumes, and committee
agendas/notes from the Jonestown Mummer's Group. He has collected these as a
group, but obviously the fliers and costumes cannot be stored together. If a
community member who knows John wants to come and look at his collection, my
volunteers shouldn't have to go on a wild goose chase to to figure out which
parts of the collection are in the archives, which parts are in clothing
boxes, etc.

Therefore, should these items share a collection name and accession number
and have object and/or series numbers according to their material? Does it
make more sense to completely split these donations into two or more
collections based on their material? I can create related records in
PastPerfect, but is splitting up the donation into multiple collections and
only relating them by PastPerfect interfering with original order and
respect des fonds?

I realize that this last component is more of an archival concern, but since
the donations generally include both object and archival material, I feel
that it is a relevant issue. My volunteers are fantastic people and very
enthusiastic, and they shouldn't need years of study to continue to process
the collection on a basic level. Ultimately, the system I develop here must
be relatively simple, as I do not want future volunteers to need a museum
studies degree in order to navigate and perpetuate the system if a museum
professional in unavailable.

I hope that I have explained this adequately and that there is a simple
solution. If we were a larger institution (or one more comfortable with
enforcing a collections policy) it might be easier to accommodate these
mixed collections. As it is, our main focus is on accessibility.

Any advice you have on the matter is greatly appreciated.

Thank you,
Kelsey

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