Things to consider before you start

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: