Using SPECTRUM to sustain collections. Case studies in collections management

Transcription

1 Using SPECTRUM to sustain collections Case studies in collections management

2 Contents Introduction 3 SPECTRUM: the UK museum collections management standard SPECTRUM and the sustainability of collections Driving organisationl change 4 The Fusilier Museum Improving working practice 5 Museum of Computing Creating accountable and efficient services 6 Lancashire County Museum Service Capturing user experience 7 London Transport Museum Sharing knowledge 8 The Egypt Centre Links 9 Acknowledgements 10 This report has been created and published by the Collections Trust as part of its representation of good practice in the management of UK cultural collections and was written by Alex Dawson and Nick Poole, with contributions from five UK museums. Published under a Creative Commons 2.0 Attribution-Non-commercial license. February 2013

3 Introduction SPECTRUM: the UK museum collections management standard SPECTRUM is a freely available collections management standard. It was launched in 1994 after an extensive collaborative development project, and is now widely recognised, nationally and internationally, as the primary specification for collections management activity in museums. SPECTRUM is actively developed and maintained through collaboration with museum professionals and brings together the knowledge, expertise and experience of hundreds of museums, from nationals to volunteer run societies. It supports good practice and accountability in the management and use of museum collections in a way that is proportionate to the resources and aspirations of individual museums. SPECTRUM is more than just the SPECTRUM publications: when museums refer to SPECTRUM they are referring to a way of working with museum collections which is represented by: The SPECTRUM Standard - this is currently in its fourth edition, and consists of SPECTRUM 4.0, and SPECTRUM 4.0, Appendix 1. Both are free to download from Collections Link for all registered users of the site. SPECTRUM has also been translated by users in other countries. SPECTRUM Resources - this consists of a series of free online fact sheets, under the banner of SPECTRUM Advice, available on Collections Link. The SPECTRUM Community - this includes anyone who uses the standard or contributes to its development. They may work with collections, use SPECTRUM as a benchmark to assess collections management processes, or use SPECTRUM to create SPECTRUM Compliant collections management software through the SPECTRUM Partner Scheme. SPECTRUM and the sustainability of collections The case studies in this publication, illustrate how SPECTRUM is used to improve and sustain the management of UK museum collections. Improving working practice through the use of SPECTRUM 4.0 is often evidenced through reviews of strategy, policy and practice, and through the use of software which is SPECTRUM Compliant. However, collections are managed so that they can be used by people, and the case studies illustrate the link between the use of SPECTRUM as an improvement tool and the resulting opening up of museum collections and services to users. In this publication, we have described how museums use of SPECTRUM has provided a base from which to improve and build relationships with existing and new communities of users, and encourage collections use. A collection which is well used by a committed community of users is far more sustainable than a collection which is underused, and has few people who care about it: it is this deeper level engagement with collections which contributes towards their sustainability.

4 Driving organisationl change The Fusilier Museum The Fusilier Museum (FM), London, is a charitable trust managed by a board of trustees, and funded by the Ministry of Defence. The museum is an Accredited Museum, and tells the story of a British infantry regiment, the Royal Fusiliers, from 1685 to 1968, and of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers from 1968 to the present day. In 2011 the FM re-opened after a major capital redevelopment project, which was part funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund. The focus of the redevelopment was the re-design of the museum, and a re-display of the collections, however, the museum also wanted to apply for Museum Accreditation, so the project also provided Fusilier Museum 2013 the trustees with the opportunity to review and improve the management of the collection. The review which used SPECTRUM in conjunction with the Accreditation standards requirements has helped to drive organisational change, improve efficiency, and create a deeper level of engagement with the collection. Throughout the project SPECTRUM was used as a framework for a policy and practice review, with far reaching benefits to the museum, its audience and its collections. Initially, SPECTRUM provided the FM with a starting point for the creation of the collections management policies which they needed to implement for Accreditation. The museum created Acquisition and Disposal Policies: both have been useful in communication with the trustees, and have provided greater clarity for everyone in the development of the collections. The museum receives Fusilier Museum 2013 many offers of donations on a daily basis, and staff and volunteers now have a strategic direction, agreed at senior management level, and clear guidelines to follow when they are talking to members of the public about new donations. This has improved the dialogue with visitors about how the museum develops the collections, and the rationale for accepting or not accepting objects: communication with potential donors is consistent, transparent and professional. We have identified knowledge of SPECTRUM in the required skillset of new collections staff, and will use knowledge of the standard as a requirement when recruiting new collections staff. Dale Copley, Museums Officer, Fusilier Museum The museum did not have formal collections management procedures in place, and part of the project focussed on the creation of a procedures review using SPECTRUM. The review has resulted in a procedures framework, used by all staff and volunteers, which has had a significant impact on the efficient use of time and resources. The Museum s Officer believes that less time is wasted, because everyone is working within a common system, which is linked into their policy and mission. In addition there has been an impact on the quality of the museum s collections management work: as a small museum with limited resources the FM cannot employ collections management specialists, however, working with the SPECTRUM based framework has enabled generalist staff and volunteers to work together and implement much higher standards of collections care. The FM is now using SPECTRUM to contribute to a collections care training programme for volunteers, and as a result staff and volunteers are becoming more confident about sharing their skills with each other, and with other museums. They feel that they can communicate with colleagues across the sector about collections management practice, and that they have acquired a transferable knowledge which will open up new working and learning opportunities. Fusilier Museum 2013 Because SPECTRUM 4.0 represents collections management as separate workflows, museum staff and volunteers can work on different parts of procedures, without duplicating each other s work. Dale Copley, Museums Officer, Fusilier Museum 4

5 Improving working practice Museum of Computing The Museum of Computing (MoC) in Swindon is governed, managed and operated by volunteers. The museum is devoted to the history of computing and digital development, and is the first museum of its kind in the UK. The collections consist of around 6,000 objects from an abacus to games consoles and tablets, from computer manuals to pamphlets and magazines. All objects are acquired by donation supplemented by some loans. The museum offers highly interactive, hands on experience, appealing to a wide range of visitors, including children and young people. Museum of Computing, Swindon 2013 The museum is not simply a repository of artefacts, but has active displays as well as Museum of Computing, Swindon 2013 providing a forum for the provision of lectures. There is a mixture of permanent and temporary displays, and many objects have been loaned by companies and other collectors. The museum is keen to show former products of commercial computer companies, and welcomes such offers. essential route to describing and implementing good practice. Finding their own routes into good practice was particularly important for the museum because as Swindon is a unitary authority, until recently they had no Museum Development Officer support. As a result they needed to be self-sufficient in supporting themselves to identify and implement good practice. In this respect they found SPECTRUM 4.0 very useful, because of the workflow format, the plain English and the on-line support materials. The Collections Manager at MoC views SPECTRUM as integral to the sustainability of the museum and collections. It provides a way of capturing good practice within the museum, and passing it on to new volunteers. SPECTRUM contributes to succession planning: if volunteers stand down, the framework is still in place, so the need to reinvent practice is minimised. This ensures that time isn t wasted, and makes communication around collections management easier from the start: SPECTRUM forms part of induction and training for all new volunteers. SPECTRUM also supports collections management processes in the museum. The volunteers work in teams, with people working in the areas of collections management that they enjoy. Having SPECTRUM as a framework for all of their work provides cohesion across all of the teams, and helps people to understand how the work they are doing fits into the bigger picture. The museum has recently achieved Accredited Museum status, and has worked hard to meet Accreditation requirements as a route to implementing good practice, and raising the profile of the museum. The Collections Manager at the museum views SPECTRUM as an integral part of the Accreditation process, and as an SPECTRUM is created by someone who knows why it should be done that way. It s not doing it for the sake of doing it. It comes from experience. It s a reasonable authority. Dianne Reuby, Collections Manager and Volunteer Co-ordinator, Museum of Computing Museum of Computing, Swindon 2013 We needed to professionalise ourselves, SPECTRUM was a route into good practice. It is professional guidance. Dianne Reuby, Collections Manager and Volunteer Co-ordinator, Museum of Computing 5

6 Creating accountable and efficient services Lancashire County Council Museum Service SPECTRUM is used by museums nationally and internationally to measure and benchmark standards of collections management. It is a statement of agreed good practice, and is often used by museums as a way to plan improvement, and demonstrate good practice to governing bodies and external organisations. Although museum audiences may not be aware of the standard, the clarity that it brings to the dialogue between museum and audience, for example when an object is donated to a museum, also builds confidence in the professionalism of the museum. Lancashire County Council Museum Service (LCCMS) manages 14 sites across Lancashire, ranging from historic houses, mills, museums, a conservation studio and an offsite store. LCCMS owns some of the sites, and manages others on behalf of other local authorities, and trustee bodies. Lancashire County Council Museum Service, 2013 The aim of LCCMS is to preserve the heritage of the historic County of Lancashire and increase public awareness and understanding of that heritage, through the use of the collections. The breadth of collections, the geographical spread, and the number of sites pose a real challenge to balancing the needs of the collections with their use by audiences. The service achieves an economy of scale by using SPECTRUM as a tool to co-ordinate collections management procedure across the entire service, and as a result ensures that the management of collections is accountable, consistent and transparent. In Lancashire, as in many UK museums, SPECTRUM is applied within the context of the Museum Accreditation Scheme, which requires that the 8 SPECTRUM Primary Procedures are present in the collections management of all Accredited museums. For the museum, this achieves a minimum standard of accountability: basically museums will know what they have in the collections, where it came from, and its current location. LCCMS has used SPECTRUM to develop a Collections Management Procedural Manual, which is used across all sites, and co-ordinates procedures for all staff. The renewal and reissue of SPECTRUM, together with the need to re-apply for Accreditation, provided the opportunity to re-visit the procedural manual and rewrite some procedures. The project began with a review of the SPECTRUM Primary Procedures, particularly Loans in, Loans Out, Disposals, and Acquisition, which have been benchmarked against SPECTRUM, and now form the core of the Procedurals Manual. The procedures were developed in consultation with the staff Collections Management Group, who reviewed current practice against the SPECTRUM standards. Because the service also uses SPECTRUM Compliant collections management software, KE EMu, staff know that they are able to collect the collections information they need as they apply procedures. The Procedural Manual is a living document which is continually reviewed and improved. Staff are currently working on the development of a collections exhibition procedure, which uses the SPECTRUM Use of Collections procedure as a baseline. The service has also decided to use the SPECTRUM 4.0 flow diagram format in their manual. Using SPECTRUM in this coordinated way across the service, has resulted in an economy of scale as well as an increase in confidence that procedures across the service are fit for purpose. It is bringing a consistency to the management of the collections, and with it the ability to track and improve workflows. As a result public money is spent more efficiently, and staff are confident that the use of collections can be managed in a way that is both accountable and a solid foundation to the use of the collection. Lancashire County Council Museum Service, 2013 SPECTRUM procedures are the bones to help us flesh out the procedure. It is the foundation of solid good practice, and allows us to develop a robust internal procedure. - Lis Chard, Curator of Industrial Heritage & Technology, LCCMS SPECTRUM provides us with a wealth of knowledge and experience from the museum sector. Procedures are developed by the sector, and have been through a vigorous process of feedback. - Joanna Hayward, Registrar, LCCMS 6

7 Capturing user experience London Transport Museum SPECTRUM is an evolving standard created by the people who use it, so that they can provide better services for their audiences. The dialogue between museums and their audiences is changing rapidly: audiences today have an expectation, accelerated by the growth of social media that have relevant knowledge to add to museum collections. The Revisiting Collections methodology supports museums to open up their collections for scrutiny by community groups and external experts and to build and share a new understanding of the multi-layered meaning and significance of objects and records. Its starting point is that collections hold a richness that reflect and reveal the shared experience of all humanity: many museums are located at the heart of communities whose members can bring a wealth of new understanding and expertise to the interpretation of their collections. Revisiting Collections provides a mechanism for tapping into that rich, multi-layered seam of knowledge and is supported by recent changes to the SPECTRUM standard. When the methodology was being created, its development was closely tied to changes made to the SPECTRUM standard. Units of Information in SPECTRUM were adapted to enable London Transport Museum, 2013 museums to record community knowledge about museum objects in their SPECTRUM compliant software. Other changes were made to the SPECTRUM workflows to recognise that in the SPECTRUM procedures that there are specific points in the lifecycle of a museum object where museums have the opportunity to capture new knowledge. London Transport Museum (LTM) is a registered charity, governed by a Board of Trustees, which exists to advance the heritage of transport in London and educate the public about the history of transport in London. LTM was an enthusiastic early adopter of the Revisiting Collections. The museum played a part in the development of the methodology and has since embedded its use in everyday practice. LTM is integrating newly captured information about the meaning and significance of objects into the museum s collections management records and have adapted their system to allow the capture and attribution of multiple voices to sit alongside the museums catalogue record. The museum is proactive about engaging with audiences and gathering this new knowledge. London Transport Museum, 2013 As well as opening up existing collections, Revisiting has also allowed LTM to develop their collections by collecting new and contemporary material, through multi-media, collaborative artworks and co-created content. Revisiting has also enabled LTM to collect ideas as well as objects, particularly in areas such as passenger experience and notions of identity. The museum s curators and learning staff work with groups to capture ideas, feelings and memories related to the collections, and a Share your Memory feature on the LTM website invites people to add their own knowledge about objects from the collection. Having the ability to capture content created by our audiences is transforming the way that we use our collections. Our recent Young Consultants project is just one way that we are working with communities to open up our collections and capture new stories - Martin Harrison Putnam, Head of Collections, London Transport Museum 7

8 Sharing knowledge The Egypt Centre SPECTRUM provides managers of collections with a structure for collecting information about objects. So, for example when an object enters a museum, SPECTRUM will suggest that particular units of information, such as object condition, date, object description, are collected and added to the museum s record for that object. These SPECTRUM Units of Information are represented in all SPECTRUM Compliant collections management software systems, and because this information is mapped against SPECTRUM itself, it is easy for museums to share their information nationally and internationally via services such as Culture Grid and Europeana, thus reaching wider audiences. Culture Grid is an online service developed by the Collections Trust, which helps users to step beyond the limitations of internet The Egypt Centre 2013 search engines, and enables them to search directly in and across the UK s databases of collections knowledge. There are currently over 3 million records in the Culture Grid and the number is growing daily. Culture Grid also feeds all of its data to the European cultural portal, Europeana, which aggregates collections information from across Europe. to the Culture Grid. The Egypt Centre is a museum of Egyptian antiquities attached to Swansea University, with over 5,000 objects including sarcophagi, bead necklaces dating from the time of Tutankhamun, and everyday objects from ancient Egypt such as pottery, weapons, tools and toys. The Egypt Centre 2013 Since the Egypt Centre opened in 1998 it has always aimed to make its catalogue as available as widely as possible, but its smaller collection was often ignored by scholars of Egyptian antiquity, as well as other audiences. The museum recognised that it needed to be part of a larger network, but with limited resources integrating their collections into a larger online database, where they could be found alongside other Egyptian objects, was not possible until they were able to use their SPECTRUM compliant software to connect to the Culture Grid and on into Europeana. The facility to export to the Culture Grid has also been welcomed by other museums who use Modes Complete, who are looking forward to providing content to the Culture Grid. Derby Museums and the University of Kent are Modes Complete early adopters: both are currently in the early stages of projects to submit digitised content to the Culture Grid. The Modes Users Association has developed a report feature in their SPECTRUM Compliant Modes Complete collections management software. The feature enables museums using Modes Complete to export data quickly and easily to the Culture Grid. This feature has been used successfully by the University of Swansea s Egypt Centre to join with hundreds of other UK cultural heritage organisations and connect The Egypt Centre 2013 The Egypt Centre 2013 As a curator with little knowledge of computers, I was genuinely amazed at how easy it has been to upload our collection onto the Culture Grid. I am hoping the rest of the museum world puts their collections online as I am convinced that this is the way forward. To sum up my feelings - at last! - Dr Graves-Brown, Curator, Egypt Centre 8

9 Links SPECTRUM 4.0, SPECTRUM 4.0 Appendix 1, and all supporting resources: - SPECTRUM Partners Scheme, and SPECTRUM Compliant software systems: - The Fusilier Museum - The Museum of Computing - Lancanshire County Museum Service - London Transport Museum - Egypt Centre - Egypt Centre on the Culture Grid - Derby Museums - University of Kent - Culture Grid - Europeana - 9

10 Acknowledgements This report has been created by the Collections Trust as part of its representation of good practice in the management of UK cultural collections. We gratefully acknowledge the support of the following in the creation of this report: Dale Copley - Museums Officer, Museum Officer, Royal Fusiliers Museum Dianne Reuby - Collections Manager and Volunteer Co-ordinator, Museum of Computing Joanna Hayward - Registrar, Lancashire County Museum Service Martin Harrison-Putnam - Head of Collections, London Transport Museum Dr Graves-Brown - Curator, The Egypt Centre Margaret Harrison, Heather Lomas, Susie Hillhouse - Collections Management Network Phill Purdy - Grid Manager, Collections Trust Please note that the acknowledgement of the above in no way represents an endorsement on the part of the people named or of their organisations of the content of this report. 10