Hi Sara and other listers. We’re working on an inventory project in our historical society museum currently, and trying to guestimate how many years it will take (with volunteers and I working on a very part-time basis), so that we can tell the granters when to expect the job will be DONE. I have been in discussion with another museum professional (Ron Kley), on the “Connecting to Collections Online Community” discussion group – about estimating and streamlining inventory projects, so that it goes more quickly – and so I thought I’d like to get his take on your question. He is not on Museum-L, but he offered this reply and agreed to let me post it. I found it helpful, so hopefully you will too. Now, here’s Ron:

This is an interesting discussion. It's certainly true that the rate of any inventory/cataloging project can be very dependant upon the type and variety of object(s) being processed, and upon the amount of data that's required or desired for each object.

My business partner and I worked several years ago on a collection relocation project for the Strawberry Banke Museum in Portsmouth, NH,

in which we inventoried a very diverse collection of some 7,000 objects, packed the small objects (about 95% of the total), transported them to their new location, unpacked them, re-shelved them and re-inventoried them -- all in a bit less than 6 months. The very tight time frame was dictated by the fact that the Museum's old storage building had been sold, and had to be vacated by a fixed date. A key factor in making the process possible (aside from lots of long hours and hard work) was keeping the inventory data to an absolute minimum -- object number, object name & location.

Whenever we've approached a large cataloging or inventory project we've always proposed making a start in an "experimental sample" fashion -- e.g., a day's worth of effort that (a) gives us some sense of the "stuff" to be processed, as well as the physical and personnel setup in which work is to be done, and (B) gives the prospective client some idea of how we work, and what we can accomplish in a given block of time. The results provide some basis for projecting the time and effort required for the complete job, and for making some calculations regarding the time that might be saved by recording fewer data fields, or the time that might be required if more information is to be recorded.

Any contract agreement is then based upon the results of that initial "experiment," and includes an understanding that total project time and cost may vary if it turns out that the initial sample was not typical or representative (or if, as sometimes happens, a client wants to "move the goalposts" once the game is underway). So far, at least, that approach seems to have worked satisfactorily for both ourselves and our clients.

--Ron

Kathie Gow

Oral History Producer

http://www.wordspicturesstories.com

Curator, Hatfield Historical Museum

http://hatfieldhistory.weebly.com

Length of time varies insanely by type of artifact and how much the person knows about the pieces, 100 arrowheads can be catalogued and photographed in no time if the date and location they were found is known, 100 dresses from different eras however will take far more time, and require a degree of expertise to be done correctly since they are complicated to date/describe/pack/dress on a mannequin to photo. If you pay by the object you will likely be encouraging the person to spend less time and be less thorough on the more difficult objects. As a contractor  I would prefer contracts based on the collection and not on sheer numbers. 

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