Organization in storage also depends on how you plan to access and use
stored items. For us, the storage system is our search engine. Since
most of our records are not electronic, and the card catalogue is in
numerical order, finding collections items by object type rather than by
number is possible only because of the way in which the items are
stored. With some exceptions, most of our cultural collections are
stored by cultural groups, and within each culture group, objects are
stored by function. So I know that if I'm looking for shoes from Sweden
or from China, I can go to the same function-code section in each part
of the room where Swedish or Chinese artifacts are stored.
If we were to change storage furniture we would need to rethink the
whole system. I'm not sure we would change it much though - it works
well for us.
Lindsey Richardson
Curator of Collections
Boston Children's Museum
300 Congress Street
Boston, MA 02210
Tel. 617 426 6500 x366
Fax 617 426 1944
www.bostonchildrensmuseum.org
-----Original Message-----
From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Timothy McShane
Sent: Wednesday, October 24, 2007 11:17 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [MUSEUM-L] Artifact Organization
>>> Heather Pozun Watson <[log in to unmask]> 10/22/2007 3:02 PM >>>
My question is: What is the best way to organize my artifacts in
storage? By
accession number (we don't have those for many objects)? By material
type? By subject? By collection?
Don't know if I can tell you the "best" way--that will really depend on
your specific situation. I can tell you that we organize our database
by accession number (and by default, also by collection), and our
collections storage by material type. We try to avoid classifying by
subject because that can be, well, subjective.
With artefacts massed by material type, we feel we have a better chance
of noticing if environmental conditions are adversely affecting the
collections (ie., splits developing in wood from changing RH; biological
infestation, etc.) Also, if we should get a infestation of moths, for
example, if we keep all our woolens all in one place, we have a better
chance of containing the infestation, rather than it spreading all
through our storage vault.
We do make some exceptions to maximize storage on shelves--for example,
all our chairs are stored together, whether they be wooden or metal.
But generally, all our glassware is in one area, ceramics in another,
silver is all stored together, etc.
------------------------------------------------------------
Tim McShane, Assistant--Cultural History
Esplanade Museum
401 First Street SE
Medicine Hat, AB T1A 8W2
Tel: (403) 502-8587
[log in to unmask]
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