Collections Stewardship Resources
Effective collections stewardship ensures that objects the museum owns, borrows, holds in its custody, and/or uses are available and accessible to present and future generations. By possessing collection objects, the museum has legal, social, and ethical obligations to the public to properly store, manage, and care for these objects, and their associated documentation. Below, are various areas museum professionals should be familiar with related to collections stewardship.
Standards
The Alliance shares the core standards on Collections Stewardship.
Collections Management
This section has information about access to collections (including digitization); acquisitions & accessioning; appraisals; cataloging (including collections management software); categories of collections; couriering; deaccessioning; inventories; loans; marking; old loans and objects found in collections; packing, moving & shipping; and writing a collections management policy.
- Access to Collections
- Acquisitions and Accessioning
- Collections Management
- Deaccessioning & Disposal
- Decolonization
- Digitization
- Documentation and Cataloging
- Library and Archives
- Loans
- Object Marking
- Old Loans and Objects Found in Collections
- Packing, Moving and Shipping
Collections Planning
This section provides resources to assist museums with writing and implementing a collections plan.
Collections Care
This section has information on collections care by type, condition reporting, conservation treatment, historic preservation, planning, preventive care, storage, and handling.
- Collections Care
- Collections Care by Type
- Conservation Planning
- Conservation Treatment
- Historic Preservation
- Cyclical Maintenance and Housekeeping
- Integrated Pest Management
- Light
- Temperature and Relative Humidity
- Storage and Handling
Ethical and Legal Collections Issues
This section addresses access to collections records; ownership and protection of cultural and natural resources; rights and reproductions; and tax issues.