Things to consider before you start
From Our Toolkit
Before embarking on a collection management project, it is best practice to do an initial assessment of where you are now, what you want to achieve, what resources you have at your disposal, and then outline a realistic timeframe for the work.
The types of questions you could answer ask include:
- What collections do you have?
- Who owns the object, archive or collection?
- Where is your collection – is it spread across different places?
- What resources are available to you – time, money, space and people?
- Is there already a level of collections management and/or documentation?
- Why do you want to do this?
- What outcomes would you like from this process?
You can use this template for your assessment:
Browse the toolkit
- Our toolkit
- Welcome to the toolkit
- How to use this toolkit
- Governance
- Financial planning
- Income generation
- Fundraising
- Collections
- What do we mean by collections?
- The difference between the museum and archive approach
- Things to consider before you start
- Accreditation schemes
- Collections at risk
- Digitising your collection
- Collection management
- Collection care
- Hear it from an expert – Brian Worrell
- Hear it from an expert – Dave Smith
- Audiences
- Learning
- Evaluation
- Access
- Staffing and volunteers
- Community engagement
- Coming soon!
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A one-page list of all the sections of the Toolkit.