How about measuring the amount of time it takes to assess and accession artifacts and complete the necessary paperwork, or process incoming and outgoing loans?  How long does it take to respond to research requests or photo reproductions?  Numbers of artifacts, etc might not be a good measure for museums that are not actively collecting or doing much with loans, but efficient handling could be a great measure.

Also, if the collections department establishes annual goals (re-inventory and check condition of butterfly collection, cover shelves in store room B with Marvelseal, etc) and each goal has milestones and target dates along the way then performance can be checked against goals periodically during the year.

Dan Bartlett
Curator of Exhibits
Midway Village & Museum Center
Rockford, IL


---------- Original Message ----------------------------------
From:         Mary Oliver <[log in to unmask]>
Reply-To:     Museum discussion list <[log in to unmask]>
Date:          Wed, 27 Sep 2006 11:35:17 -0400

>Good Morning,
>
>We are creating a performance matrix for our organization which will become
>the measurement for success in given areas.  Easily quantified are areas
>such as programming, visitation and museum store sales have been included.
>We are having difficulty figuring out how to create quantifiable indicators
>of success for the collections department.  Are there any organizations out
>there who are able to do this?  
>
>Thank you,
>
>Mary
>
>Mary Oliver
>Director of Collections                                              
>
>Dayton History
>1000 Carillon Blvd.
>Dayton, Ohio 45409
>
>937-293-2841 x115
>[log in to unmask]
>
>
>
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If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).