#collections-management — Public Fediverse posts

Managing Previously Unmanged Databases - what to do when you inherited a mess of a #database from your predecessor or want a new one. The article was originally written for the Registrars Committee Western Region and is now available on Registrar Trek in English https://world.museumsprojekte.de/managing-previously-unmanaged-databases/, Spanish https://world.museumsprojekte.de/como-organizar-bases-de-datos-desorganizadas/?lang=es and German https://world.museumsprojekte.de/chaotische-datenbanken-in-den-griff-bekommen/?lang=de
#MuseumDocumentation #Museums #Heritage #datacleanup #databases #CMS #CollectionsManagement #CollectionsManagementSystem #datamanagement

What does a jet have to do with managing previously unmanaged collections?

Simple answer:

Nothing.

More complex answer:

I am in the process of translating the book into German and sometimes there are hiccups. In chapter 4, I talk about the difficulties of enforcing access policies to your storage area. A process which, as we all know, comes with all sorts of difficulties, the problem of taking the key from someone being a humiliating gesture in our Western culture not being the least of it.

In the English original, there is the sentence:

“Enforce the access policy with the three ps: persistence, patience, and politeness.”

Needless to say, such sentences don’t translate well. Usually you just rephrase them and let go of the idea that you can find three words starting with the same letter in the other language. However, I think I did find a way this morning:

“Halten Sie mit „Drei G“ an Ihren Zugangsbeschränkungen fest: mit Geradlinigkeit, Geduld und Gutem Benehmen.”

Finding three words starting with the letter G with the same meaning like the original (although the third one is cheating a bit, using two words) was already a big win. But the even bigger win was that this way I now have the double meaning of 3 G in it, alluding to the g-forces in physics.

I could of course take that analogy and run with it, saying that when we change longstanding processes and habits like we inevitably do when we start improving things in our collections, it means that we accelerate things and take people out of where they are used to go and expecting to go. And as we know from physics, if we accelerate things, a force is applied to the one being accelerated, which can have unpleasant side effects.

But I don’t want to overburden that little sentence. Instead, just imagine me giggling slightly when you come across it reading the book. 🙂

Angela

#AccessControl #collectionsManagement #documentation #museum #MuseumDocumentation #registrar

Uncovering AI bias in digital collections

Museums are using data science and NLP to detect and contextualize derogatory language in legacy catalog records. A case study from the Harvard University Herbaria shows how digital stewardship can promote ethical access and institutional transparency.

https://www.aam-us.org/2025/06/29/improving-the-search-uncovering-ai-bias-in-digital-collections/
#DigitalStewardship #MuseumTech #EthicalAI #GLAM #BiasDetection #AIethics #CollectionsManagement #DataScience #NaturalLanguageProcessing #DigitalHumanities #Museums

XDA: This free, self-hosted app is basically Jellyfin for comics and books, and I absolutely love it. “At its core, Kavita is a self-hosted utility that helps you organize your collection of ebooks, specifically comics, webtoons, manga, and graphic novels. I say that because it’s compatible with CBR, CBZ, CB7, CBT, and a host of other comic-oriented file formats, and comes with a stylish UI […]

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/07/24/xda-this-free-self-hosted-app-is-basically-jellyfin-for-comics-and-books-and-i-absolutely-love-it/

Let’s talk about data security: How to back-up your TMS database

This is a step-by-step guide on how to backup your database if you are using a product of The Museum System (TMS) by Gallery Systems. If you use a different system it will work differently. Ask your vendor about it.

Step 1: Log into your database server and open Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio

You usually find it fastest if you start typing “SQL Server Management…” into the Windows search box.

Step 2: Enter your credentials

You will be prompted to enter your login credentials. If you are on NT Authentication usually all you have to do is click on “Connect”. If you have another form of authentication you will have to enter those login details. Your IT will tell you what to enter in that case.

Step 3: Find your database

In the tree hierarchy, open the folder “Databases” and find your database. It is usually called something like “TMS”. In my case it is called “Leer”.

Step 4: Navigate to the backup menu

Right click on your database, choose “Tasks” and then “Back Up…”

If that option is greyed out, you might not have the rights to do this. in which case you should talk to your IT so you get those rights.

Step 5: Chose your backup method

You will get to this screen:

Here you can choose if you want to do a full or differential backup (we talked about that here). You select that in the drop-down “Backup type”. We chose “Full” for this backup.

As a destination, usually “Disk” is fine, since you probably want to have the backup on your computer first and then transfer it to a cloud later.

Sometimes you will see a backup file already in the screen below that. If that’s the case, remove it, first.

Then click on “Add…”

Step 6: Add the file you want to back up to

By default, Microsoft suggest a rather cryptic sub-folder for your backups. I’d recommend adding a folder in a more prominent place that you can easily find and back up to there. You can see mine being “M:\Backups”.

Enter a file name for your backup. This can be the date you took it (Best Practice is to note the date in a year-month-day format so you can easily sort by date if you have multiple backup files) or a significant pointer to when you took it, for example “BeforeUpgradeTo995” if this is your backup before upgrading to a new version. Don’t forget to add “.bak” as a file ending, otherwise you might run into difficulties to restore it, later.

You can see that I called mine “AfterCI2025.bak” because it is the backup I took after adding a significant amount of information from our user conference.

Once you entered the name, hit “OK”.

Step 7: Take your backup

After that you just need to click on “OK” and your backup will be taken. If you have enough disc space in your chosen location, all is fine, otherwise it will throw an error message.

That was it. Wasn’t too hard, was it? And now you are good to go and bring your database to a safe location. I will do another post on how to compress the backup and restore it on another server.

Take your backup and take care!

Angela

#backup #cataloging #collectionCare #collections #collectionsManagement #dataSecurity #database #DatabaseCareIsCollectionsCare #howTo #museum #museums #security

Data security isn't sexy, I'll give you that. But in this climate, knowing how to do a backup of your database and storing it somewhere safe might be crucial to make sure what you know about your collection is preserved for future generations.

Start of a new series on #RegistrarTrek: Let's talk about Data Security

https://world.museumsprojekte.de/lets-talk-about-data-security-backups/

#museums #museum #databases #MuseumDocumentation #CollectionsManagement #KeepYourDataSafe

Let’s Talk About Data Security – Backups

As collections professionals we are trained to think about security. We constantly make sure that nothing gets damaged and lost, may it be in our own storage or while on loan, perhaps traveling from continent to continent for a new exhibition. But when it comes to data security we often rely on our IT departments and database managers. In a changing world we need to add data security to our registrar’s toolkit because if we don’t care about it, perhaps no one will be left to care about it. So, I am planning on writing a series of short articles on that topic.

Now, I am not an IT expert by any means. I am basically pulling together what I have learned over the years, drawing from resources I have at hand, ready to stand corrected and update you if something I wrote could be done better, easier, and/or more secure. I am thinking in this day and age, any guidance and ideas on how to safeguard our intellectual heritage is better than doing nothing at all. Feel free to contribute with your own sources and ideas.

I am starting with what I feel most comfortable writing about: Backups.

How often should I back up my database?

This is a risk analysis: How serious will losing all your data since you backed up the last time be? In some cases, once a week can be sufficient if you are the only person who works with it, you have all your changes tracked in another medium (for example written notes on paper), and you don’t enter more than just a few records a day. But if multiple people enter and change data during the day? Well, once a day seems highly recommendable, then.

What is the difference between full backup and differential backup?

A full backup stores ALL data of your database. A differential backup only records the changes to the last time you did a full backup. Which one to use when is about analyzing the risks associated with it. A database can get compromised without you noticing right away. In this case it is good if you can revert back to a full backup of an earlier stage, before it became corrupted and then try to extract the data that was added at a later stage from the other backups.

What backup method should I choose and how many backups shall I retain?

There are no hard rules and usually it is best to talk to experienced users of the same collections management system and to the vendor about what makes sense in your use case.

My rule of thumb: If I know I am entering more than ten records each day and do a lot of updating of other records, I will go with a differential backup every day and a full backup once a week. I will keep the backup of the last three days and a full backup from each of the previous four weeks.

But this is tailored for the case where only I enter data and nobody else. If you have a lot of people entering data there are more options of something going wrong, therefore you will want to do backups more often. This is of course also a question of how much storage space you can afford, but then again, you have to factor in the costs of losing data and the hours it takes to re-enter it. Do a proper risk analysis for your institution, then set up a fitting backup routine.

Where shall I store my backup?

Storing your database backup on the same computer you took it is as good as having not stored it at all! When your computer is destroyed either physically pr by a virus, you will have lost both your original database AND your backup.

Best practice is to have three instances of your data:

• the original
• a backup on site
• a backup offsite

A cloud storage might be a good idea for the latter. In this day and age, maybe even a cloud storage outside of your own country. That way, if you are forced to delete data from your database (if this sounds like a far-fetched idea, let me remind you of this https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/07/military-images-trump-dei) your data will still be somewhere safe and unchanged.

You can also use an external hard drive that you store somewhere safe, preferably outside of the town or city your original database is situated because if there is a catastrophe in this area, your data might still be safe somewhere else. It has the advantage that you pretty much can control where your data goes and that it can’t be hacked, but the disadvantage is that if something happens to that hard drive, the data is lost.

In comparison, a cloud usually has its own backup routines that make sure that your data is safe. Ask the provider about it. Also ask them about their security measures and what data they share with third parties. Only you should have access to your data, nobody else.

Heads up: Make sure your data is actually backed up!

Just because you have taken a backup doesn’t necessarily mean you have a working backup. Once you have created a backup file, try if you can restore it. Caution: Restore it to a separate space, don’t use it to restore your actual database because you risk damaging a working database with a corrupted backup. Check this regularly and don’t assume that just because you can see a backup file on your drive your data is actually fine.

Final thoughts on when to delete backups

As said before, it is good to retain some backups because not all problems are discovered right away and it might take weeks to discover them. This is about keeping your current data safe and retrievable.

But you also might want to preserve the state of your current research. In the future, you might want to come back and compare how facts were recorded in 2024 and how that changed going forward. Your past records may become sources for future scientists and historians. So, it might be a good idea to take a backup NOW and keep that backup in a safe space for the future.

Next up I will be showing you how to take a backup if you are using TMS or TMS Collections. The way it is done in your software might be different, but perhaps it is a bit similar.

Take a backup now and take care!

Angela

#backup #collectionsManagement #data #dataSecurity #documentation #howTo #museum #restore #safeguardingData

Focus on what you CAN do, not what you CAN’T

In these past few weeks it seems that there were so many horrible things happening that just making a list of them feels overwhelming and exhausting. Some of the decisions of the current U.S. government have an impact on the global level, others hit people personally, some of whom are close friends. And then, there are those who seem to target the very core of our profession, like the shutting down of the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and the termination of grants already awarded by the National Endowment of the Humanities (NEH).

It is hard not to lose all hope in this climate. And yet, aren’t we, as museum professionals, used to things not really looking pretty? Haven’t we battled budget and staff cuts before? Haven’t we brought uncomfortable truths in front of the eyes of our visitors and politicians before? Maybe the current crisis is not comparable to what we were confronted with before. But just as well, we are well trained in going against adversarial circumstances.

We have always done so with resilience, creativity, and, most of all, a sense of community. We might be spread out across the world and we might have spread ourselves thin by taking on too many responsibilities, but we are not alone. I have reached out to my network over the past few days to check in on some people, see how they are coping, and getting ideas of what can be done, because, in the end, focusing on what can’t be done never made anything better.

Turns out that John E. Simmons had already started collecting what can be done to prepare for what is coming at us in something we registrars love: A list.

I contributed a few of my thoughts to it and we also asked some more colleagues to add to it. What I am posting here today is by no means a comprehensive and finalized list of what to think about and what to do, but it is a start. Feel free to add more ideas in the comments section, just like we enhance it going forward.

What Can We Do?

1. Apply the lessons that museums learned from Covid

• A museum should have a plan for suddenly shutting down or having to reduce staff for a prolonged long period of time.
• The plan should include cross-training for all staff so that a reduced staff can keep the institution functioning and care for the collections. Every staff member should be trained to do tasks that are normally not part of their duties so that they can help in the event of a prolonged emergency.
• The plan should include what the museum can do to remain a destination for visitors during a crisis. This might include regulating the number of visitors in the museum at the any one time during a pandemic, reducing or eliminating admission fees for visitors during a prolonged financial crisis, and how responsibilities could be handled by a reduced staff. It is worth noting that a recent study revealed that art museums that charge admission spend an average of $100 per visitor but attract smaller audiences than free museums, and that there are costs associated with collecting admission fees that may not be recovered by the fee. Details can be found at https://news.artnet.com/art-world/us-museums-visitors-report-2622358).

2. Prepare the collections for long-term, low maintenance storage by preparing the most sustainable and passive storage environment possible:

• Improve the effectiveness of the collection storage furniture, containers, and supports to protect the collections (e.g., replace gaskets on doors, eliminate acidic materials, reduce lighting and UV in storage).
• Keep the collection in order (each object in its proper place in storage) at all times (do not allow a backlog of out-of-place objects to build up).
• Improve environmental controls and environmental monitoring procedures.
• Maintain storage environment equipment in good order (e.g. replace filters, service equipment regularly, replace aging HVAC systems).

3. Protect the databases

• Make sure that you have a fully up-to-date, readable copy of all important museum databases stored somewhere outside of the building, preferably in a hard format as well as electronic.
• Make sure that both on-site and off-site databases are protected so they cannot be accessed by unauthorized personnel. Renew passwords and other project on a frequent, regular basis.
• If the institution is forced to close, and you have a good backup copy, consider removing databases from the museum servers to protect confidential information.
• When possible look into storing backup copies of your databases that are not only readable in a proprietary format of one vendor (who might be forced to hand your sensitive data over or might go out of business). If you database allows for it, export your important data as SQL tables or as comma separated values (.csv). Excel formats such as xlsx, xls, or ods are fine, too.
• When possible move your sensitive data to trusted servers outside the U.S. that don’t belong to U.S. based companies who might be forced to hand your sensitive data over or delete your data. (This one is of course controversial, but at this point I wouldn’t trust AWS for example)
• As a rule of thumb: make access to your data for your trusted staff as easy as possible, but make deleting data from your database hard by setting up a robust rights management and whenever possible enable procedures to revert to earlier data entry points.

4. Update the institutional emergency preparedness plan to include procedures for coping with sudden, prolonged shutdowns of the building.

5. Stock up on critical supplies

6. Download anything needed from federal websites (such as the NPS Museum Handbook and Conserve O Grams or IMLS reports) immediately, while the information is still available. Store this data in a safe place that is only accessible to authorized personnel and make deleting those resources as hard as possible.

7. Keep in mind that most serious problem going forward will probably not be the cuts in federal funding to the NIH, NEA, NSF, IMLS, etc., because most of this money goes to projects which can be postponed or funded by other sources (such as donations). The most serious problem will be the lack of funds resulting from damage done to the economy due to a combination of the rising deficit, increasing unemployment (e.g., the mass reductions in the federal workforce and corresponding loss of jobs in sectors that serve the federal workforce), and decreased tax revenues due to tax cuts for the wealthy, tariffs on imports, and cuts to social services. In other words, the predicted problems with the US economy are far more likely to be a bigger problem for museums than the loss of federal grant funds.

Words of Cheer:

• Museums existed long before the IMLS and other federal granting agencies, so they can survive this period, although many worthy projects and much research will be halted unless alternative funding can be found.
• With preparation, museums can survive the coming crisis as they have survived other crises. There will be staff reductions and loss of opportunities, but with any luck, the situation will change within a few years.
• Take a good look at your policies and procedures and investigate new laws and executive orders you are confronted with. Laws that are passed in a great hurry often contain contradictions and loopholes. Often asking for clarifications by authorities can slow processes down and work to your advantage. Often stalling a process in good faith can be much more effective than open opposition which puts you and your staff at risk.
• Be prepared to be patient. Lawsuits and judicial decisions challenging the proposed changes will take time to go through the courts.
• In the longer term, climate change and its effects on museum operations, the economy, and the behavior of the public is the greatest challenge to the future of museums, so the present crisis should be used to prepare for the future.

Best Advice:

If your institution does not have a plan for long-term survival during a financial crisis, the next pandemic, or climate change, get busy now to correct this deficit.

Helpful Information

• Learnings museums made from the Covid-19 pandemic, https://www.ne-mo.org/news-events/article/learnings-museums-made-from-the-covid-19-pandemic

• PEAS Resource Library (Promoting Exhibit Access and Safety), https://ncp.si.edu/PRICE-PEAS

• Snider, Julianne. 2024. The Wheel is Already Invented: Planning for the Next Crisis. Collections: A Journal for Museum and Archives Professionals 20(2):347-359, DOI: 10.1177/15501906241232309

• Living in a Wild Future (Center for the Future of Museums blog), https://www.aam-us.org/2025/03/04/living-in-a-wild-future/

• Decrease in Public Funding? A Worldwide Answer from Museums (ICOM), https://icom.museum/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/IRAPFM-A4-Format_FINAL.pdf

• Susana Smith Bautista (2021)—How to Close a Museum. A Practical Guide (Rowman & Littlefield)

• Christopher J. Garthe (2023)—The Sustainable Museum. How Museums Contribute to the Great Transformation (Routledge)

Some more notes

Share this resource freely with anyone you think needs to see this, no need to ask for permission. Add what applies to your special case. Let us know what we should add. Download, save, print, circulate.

Download List as PDF

Registrar Trek is hosted on a server in Germany and following EU laws. I am currently looking through all the plug-ins I use to make sure none of them collects and shares any personal data with the U.S. Or, in fact, anybody. I always was mindful not to collect any personal information but will double-check again if everything is safe.

Hang on in there, you are not alone!

#BudgetCuts #collectionsManagement #documentation #grantErasure #grants #IMLS #museum #NEH #preparingForShutdown #registrar

Heads up: Bug when buying Managing Previously Unmanaged Collections from Amazon

Two things happened today:

I finally got my author’s copies of Managing Previously Unmanaged Collections and I was notified that there is a problem with ordering the book from Amazon:

When you are ordering from Amazon.com and you are on the website of the paperback https://www.amazon.com/Managing-Previously-Unmanaged-Collections-Practical/dp/1538190648/ and then click on the “Kindle” version you are directed to the old 2016 edition of the book.

Conversely, if you go to Amazon in Germany or the UK and are on the “Kindle” version https://www.amazon.de/-/en/Angela-Kipp-ebook/dp/B0D7R1N7KC/ and then switch to the paperback version you get the old version of the paperback.

Just a heads-up, since I learned today that people bought the old version by accident that way.

I do, however recommend buying from your local bookshop or directly from the publisher (https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781538190630/Managing-Previously-Unmanaged-Collections-A-Practical-Guide-for-Museums-Second-Edition) anyway.

#book #bookstodon #collectionCare #collectionsManagement #museum #registrar

Egypt Calling is out!

You might remember that in my New Year’s post I announced that a friend of mine is working on a book with a collections manager as main character, right? Guess what? It is out!

I am low-key proud that me talking about our profession so passionately inspired it. Well, kinda, we were touching the topic every now and then. Like the conversations with him and two friends of us (one writes horror and mystery, the other a fantasy) often go, it derailed completely from how something disappearing from a museum is among a registrar’s worst nightmares to the thought of what would happen if you realize one bright, new, early morning that, well, a whole seven feet high statue has simply disappeared from your well-guarded grounds.

Paul tackled the topic with his usual sense of humor and unusual talent for creating quirky characters. I added some reality check to it while at the same time granting enough artistic license to let it stay a riveting tale instead of becoming a novel about museum policies, loan procedures, and conflict of interest that it probably had become if I had written it. It kept me on the edge of my seat and laughing out loud so I highly recommend it, although my view is of course not really neutral.

Fun fact: While he wrote it, it inspired me to write a few chapters of a spin-off story where another statue, Leonardo, finds himself suddenly alive as a collateral damage of the events in the book. It is written from Leonardo’s point of view and you can imagine that it is quite confusing to find yourself standing on a pedestal in the middle of a museum. Especially if you haven’t been alive before. Ever. And your head is marble. This makes thinking…hard. Leonardo and his friend Betty, barista extraordinaire, even make a guest appearance in Paul’s book.

Anyway, in these dire times I feel we can all use some lighthearted humor and Egypt Calling provides you with plenty of it. If you are up for it, I might even post Leonardo’s story here on the blog.

Egypt Calling is available here and in all bookstores: https://paulkater.com/egypt-calling.html

#AncientEgypt #book #bookstodon #collectionsManagement #collectionsManager #humor #museum #novel #registrar #RegistrarLife #statues #WhenYouWorkInAMuseum

Reasons to leave Twitter, why Bluesky isn't an alternative and stuff I learned about Mastodon:

Registrar Trek Goes Mastodon
https://world.museumsprojekte.de/registrar-trek-goes-mastodon/

#Museums #Museum #MuseumDocumentation #CollectionsManagement #SocialMedia #RegistrarLife #NieWiederIstJetzt #Mastodon

New episode! 🤖

Solange, Phedra, Jenny and guest host Luisa Casella explore the world of AI and what it might mean for conservation professionals. 🧠 (It's techy but not very, don't fret!)

Listen here: https://thecword.show/2024/05/15/s14e05-using-ai/

#TheCWordPodcast #podcasts #conservation #AI #conservators #CollectionsCare #ArtificialIntelligence #CollectionsManagement #museums #LLM #freelancers

The Collections Trust is looking for a #data wrangler: know anyone who'd be keen?

📢 Museum Data Officer
💰 £40,000
📍 Remote (within UK)
📜 37h/wk (FT), permanent (subject to funding)
⏰ Deadline noon April 29th 2024
🗣️ Interviews scheduled for May 2nd 2024 (online)

More info and application form here: https://collectionstrust.org.uk/vacancies/

:boost_ok:

#jobs #CollectionsTrust #MuseumJobs #MuseumDataService #DataJobs #museums #CollectionsJobs #CollectionsManagement

It might sound trivial at first that a beetle isn’t a household article but if you look closer, it isn’t. When a coffee cup breaks during a move you just go ahead and buy a new one. It gets annoying if it belonged to a set that went out of production a while ago. It becomes an irreplaceable loss if said coffee cup was connected to a special memory, for example because it belonged to your great-grandmother or because your child made it themselves.

Museum collections are pretty similar to the last case but now it isn’t just about the memory of one person or a family but about the history of humankind. Which means that the loss is far more grave.

Now, when it comes to collections of natural history an additional aspect comes into play: here, the loss of one object equals an irreplaceable loss of information that is important for current and future research. This is of course also true for art and history collections but in these cases at least the loss can be tempered if the object was well documented and digitized. Our beetle, on the other hand, is a repository in itself. Only this one specimen was collected at precisely that time and precisely that place and preserves all information about its environment at that time. No form of documentation and digitization can anticipate all the questions future generations of researchers will have. The preservation of that information is only possible by preserving the beetle itself.

Not all beetles belong in a collection

Because the preservation of the objects is so important generations of researchers tried to keep them out of harm’s way. Now, natural history collections are especially attractive to pests and therefore every biocide the chemical research and industry discovered in the last centuries was used in them. DDT with insect collections, arsenic with taxidermies, mercury in herbaria, from nerve toxins to organophosphates you are handling everything that can harm your health or even kill you.

In case of a collections move this means you have to deal with two aspects absent from a conventional household or office move:

• You have to prevent pests from getting to your objects during transit. This means that the items you are moving need to be packed the way no pests can get inside and that you have airlocks and quarantine stations on your transport routes so you can be sure nothing got infested.
• When planning the work to be done in preparation for the move you have to keep in mind that you are handling toxic goods. In the past the use of biocides was rarely documented and the only way to be sure what you are dealing with is gauging your collection before you actually start working. This will tell you which precautions you have to take previous to packing and moving and what you have to account for in the new storage.

On top of that there is another danger: the objects themselves. Some of them are toxic or radioactive and therefore you have to treat, transport, and store them differently than your common coffee cup.

Packaged beetles – No package tourists

Transports get quickly done if things can be standardized. You know that from moving house: if you can use standard packing crates they will fit seamlessly into the truck. All you have to do is pack them in a save and reasonable way and avoid overloading.

In natural history collections there are many things that can be standardized: Our beetle will most likely be stored with a lot of its fellows in one drawer and this drawer can be neatly packed and moved with other, similar drawers. But a lot of other specimen don’t do their collections managers the same favor.

Many are stored in glass containers filled with alcohol or formaldehyde which means they are not only fragile but also sensitive to vibrations and their contents inflammable and noxious. You are also not allowed to transport them through a water protection area, which you have to account for when planning the shipment routes.

This is but one example of the many special, non-standard cases you have to deal with when planning the move of a natural history collection. Some specimens are so heavy you need to hire specialized riggers to move them. Others are so fragile you need to get special crates built for them. Many are both heavy and fragile. Then others are preserved by freezing them and if you want to move them you have to make sure the cold chain stays uninterrupted. A taxidermized giraffe or the skeleton of a whale can keep a whole team of experts occupied for days just to find the best way to move it.

Storing beetles – Not a case for your local furniture store

If you have read this far you already guessed it: if you want to store a natural history collection then this storage space needs to fulfill a lot of criteria. It has to deter pests, have a stable room climate, needs a good air circulation and has to be equipped with furniture that allows objects to sit in them for centuries without being damaged yet be easily accessible for research.

Different kinds of specimen collections can have very different requirements. High humidity is a problem for most of them because it enables mold and attracts pests but a room being too dry can cause problems as well. Fluctuations in temperature can rupture the skins on taxidermy specimens and cause fossils to break. An insufficient air ventilation might cause a high concentration of toxics in a room and/or introduce mold. Good collections storage provides the appropriate climate for each of its collections. They are built the way that even in case of an emergency that results in failure of all technology a good storage climate can be re-established by conventional means in such a short time that no permanent damage or even loss of objects happens.

Accessibility is part of a safe collections storage. You need to be able to remove one specimen in a way the other objects stored with it stay unharmed. Our beetle in its drawer is a real space saver, here. Other specimens need far more space. For example, it has to be possible to remove a specimen stored in a jar of liquid from its shelf without having to move other containers. This means you can’t fill your shelves to maximum packing density and you need more storage space but for a good collections storage this is inevitable.

For all these problems there are good solutions but they are not available in your local furniture or hardware store. There are experts and manufacturers who have specialized on these topics.

Whatever is planned for your final storage has consequences for your move: If your beetle is right now in a drawer that is contaminated by pesticides or simply doesn’t fit into your new storage furniture this beetle and its comrades have to move to a new clean and fitting drawer before the move. It is rather common that one big collections move means a lot of smaller moves beforehand.

Ask the beetle anytime

When art or history collections move they often put parts of their activities in collections, exhibitions, and research on hold. A natural history collection that is part of an international network of research institutions in most cases can’t afford this comparative luxury.

In effect, this means that the move has to be planned and executed very different from other moves. It isn’t possible to pack whole collections and store them in a compact and largely non-accessible way until the big move takes place. It must be possible to get access to every collection and every specimen at any given time.

In general, there are two ways of dealing with that: You can limit the time an object is actually crated and in transit, which means that preparation, packing, moving, unpacking, and storing is a matter of just a few days. Or you can crate the specimen in a way that access is possible at any time and without endangering the object itself and the objects packed with it even during the move. Both possibilities have advantages and disadvantages but they both mean that you need more space both in the location you are moving from and in the one you are moving to. It means as well that you need more time and more staff compared to other types of collection moves.

To sum up: Why moving beetles needs a sum of money

With your own experience of moving houses in mind the amount of time, money, and staff it takes to move a museum collection seems to be comparably high. An impression that quickly vanishes when you know the reasons.

Make no mistake, no museum collection is as such “easier” or “harder” to move. Every type has its own, unique challenges. But natural history collections are for sure among the most complex ones you will encounter. And they have a disadvantage: while everybody intuitively understands that you can’t just throw the Mona Lisa on the back of an old truck, a beetle is at first sight “just” a beetle. It isn’t at all obvious that this beetle is a repository that holds perhaps more important and undiscovered information than the well researched and documented artwork by Leonardo da Vinci.

This adds an additional challenge to a move that is already made complex by the variety and sheer masses of objects that have to be brought safely from A to B: the general public has to understand that a beetle is not a coffee cup.

Perhaps this article can help a bit with that.

Angela Kipp

https://world.museumsprojekte.de/a-beetle-is-not-a-coffee-cup-why-moving-natural-history-collections-is-not-like-moving-house/

#collectionCare #collectionsManagement #collectionsMove #documentation #insectCollections #naturalHistoryCollections

Cooles #Stellenangebot: die Staatlichen Schlösser und Gärten #Hessen suchen eine/n #Sammlungsdatenbank-Manager:in (E13, unbefristet). Jetzt bis 30.04.2024 bewerben.
https://www.schloesser-hessen.de/files/misc/SG-Ausschreibung-DB-Manager.pdf #digSMus #Museumsdokumentation #MuseumDocumentation #CollectionsManagement

Apply for the role of Collections Manager and Artwork Registrar to contribute to the management, conservation, and enhancement of the collections. Apply by March 8th
#MuseumJobs #ArtManagement #HumanitarianAction #CollectionsManagement #CulturalHeritage #JobOpening #Geneva #Museums

From: @infoclio
https://fedihum.org/@infoclio/111923103260464447

Amid Criticism, a Museum Says It Must Sell Its Cézannes to Survive https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/08/arts/cezannes-sale-museum-langmatt.html #museums #deaccessioning #ethics #CollectionsManagement #ArtMuseums

'The most sustainable and best security for collections is that they are widely known and widely used.' https://www.museumsassociation.org/museums-journal/news/2023/10/british-museum-was-victim-of-an-inside-job-says-osborne
Bei der Aufarbeitung des Diebstahls im #BritishMuseum wird erneut deutlich, wie wichtig #MuseumDocumentation und der öffentliche Zugang zu Sammlungsinformationen sind. #CollectionsManagement

Today I'm attending the #MuseumsAssociation one day conference on the #FutureOfDisposal, which is a hot topic for #museums everywhere.

I'm very pro-rationalisation, which often horrifies fellow #conservators, but we just can't keep everything.

I'd be curious to hear what my fellow GLAM folks on here think of pruning #collections - yay or nay?

Personally I think it's as much a part of good #CollectionsManagement as acquiring new objects and looking after them while they're in your care.

The reviews are in and we are really going towards a second edition of "Managing Previously Unmanaged Collections".
If there are #gaps in the first edition, please let me know.
Especially looking for real-world examples from #native and #digital #collections

Re-toots appreciated!

#museum #museums #archive #archives #RegistrarLife #MuseumDocumentation #CollectionsManagement #databases #CollectionCare #Conservation #Documentation #UnmanagedCollections #MuseumStudies

I am searching for people who have read "Managing Previously Unmanaged Collections" and have ideas what is missing or what should be improved.

https://world.museumsprojekte.de/managing-previously-unmanaged-collections-revisited-revised-revamped/

Also looking for additional real world examples.

Boosts are appreciated!

#museum #museums #archive #archives #collection #collections #MuseumDocumentation
#MuseumStudies #CollectionsManagement #CollectionCare #Conservation #cataloguing #UnmanagedCollections

Okay, I am trying the wolf thing to find my pack. #museum #museums #CollectionsManagement #CollectionsCare #IntegratedPestManagement #Conservation #MuseumDocumentation #Cataloguing #Documentation #Registrar #Registrars #RegistrarLife #MuseumLife #DataBases #StorageManagement #MuseumStorage #Arthandling #ExhibitionManagement
You are one of my people? Give me a wail!
Boosts appreciated.

Big News! We're #digitizing our Physical Objects Collection & now you can follow our work in realtime – visit 👉https://museumofportablesound.com/collections/physicalobjects to see our up-to-date Object List + our in-progress photo archive with 100 of our objects already posted!

#sound #audio #PortableSound #gear #objects #artefacts #archive #collections #photography #CollectionsManagement