Overview

As a museum operator, learn how to comply with the Collections Standard outlined in the Standards for Community Museums in Ontario.

Standards enable community museums to:

  • provide the appropriate care and management of collections
  • meet visitors’ expectations
  • be accountable and transparent to the community, funders and donors

Objective of the collections standard

A community museum’s artifacts represent their community’s heritage. To protect their value, the museum must maintain a well-organized, managed and documented collection.

The collections standard provides useful guidance about how museums should manage their collections. The policy a museum develops to meet the standard will depend on the type and size of the institution, its mission and its community.

Collections planning: a stewardship (public trust) responsibility

A museum’s resources include:

  • staff and volunteer time
  • finances
  • exhibits
  • storage space

Collections planning ensures that a museum considers these resources – and its ability to properly care for objects and provide public access – before accepting an acquisition or loan.

It also allows a museum to better determine whether a collection:

  • supports the museum’s mission
  • represents the needs and interests of the museum’s community
  • should be changed – by acquiring or deaccessioning artifacts

Collections policy

Under the Collections Standard, the museum’s collections policy must:

  • support the museum’s statement of purpose
  • support the museum’s mission
  • support the museum’s value statement
  • assign roles and responsibilities to the museum’s board, committee and staff
  • authorize staff to make decisions about the collection
  • describe the process for accepting or purchasing objects for the collection
  • describe the deaccessioning process for objects from the collection

A museum’s collections policy should:

  • focus on the museum’s governance and operational role
  • be concise and easy-to-read
  • recognize the difference between policy and procedure

A policy:

  • addresses the ‘what and why’ of the collection
  • focuses on long-term goals

A procedure:

  • addresses the ‘how, when and where’ of the collection
  • changes frequently

For example, the Guelph Museums Collections Policy indicates what the museum will do and why it will do it, such as issuing tax receipts for donated artifacts because Revenue Canada requires that the museum issue receipts at fair market value.

A museum can develop a single collections policy or create two distinct policies focusing on collections development and collections management.

A collection policy must:

  • identify the scope and use of the collection:
    • what the museum will collect consistent with its mission statement and its resources, (both human and financial)
    • existing collection strengths
    • community needs
  • identify priorities for collection development
  • commit board, staff and volunteers to follow:
    • the museum’s ethical guidelines for collecting and collections management
    • municipal, provincial, federal and international legislation that impacts collecting and collections management
  • commit the museum to:
    • developing, implementing and reviewing the procedures and documentation for acquiring and deaccessioning artifacts in the collection. Do not include procedures in the policy document
    • establishing conservation standards in the labeling (attaching accession number), care and handling of artifacts
  • ensure the museum has in place, and follows appropriate procedures to:
    • document incoming and outgoing loans
    • manage collections records
  • distinguish between objects in the collection that can be used (hands-on, education collection, operating collection) and those that are restricted for study or research. An operating collection might include equipment or vehicles in industrial collections that are maintained in working order for demonstration purposes or rides
  • commit to observing municipal, provincial and federal legislative requirements that impact collections management and documentation including:
  • require an emergency preparedness and disaster plan for the museum that is updated and tested on a regular, specified basis
  • ensure that the building and collection is appropriately insured or, at a minimum, that loaned objects, both incoming and outgoing, or objects in temporary custody are insured

Collections and museum ethical guidelines

A museum’s collections management policy should commit board, staff and volunteers to following a specific code of ethics, including personal collecting and conflicts of interest.

Staff should:

  • receive a copy of the museum ethics
  • verify that they have read and accepted the museum ethics

It is unethical to:

  • treat collection as a financial asset. Artifacts should not be listed as assets on financial statements
  • sell objects from the collection to support the museum
  • acquire objects with the intent of trading or selling them later

A museum can only sell objects from its collection for new acquisitions or collection care, in accordance with the section of the Collections Standard regarding deaccessioning. Collections cannot be identified as a source of income for the museum. It is unethical to sell objects from the collection to financially support the museum’s operations, facility management, or any other reason. Selling objects from the collection may make the museum ineligible for future funding.

Collections management practice: plans and procedures

Museum staff and volunteers must develop — and follow — procedures for:

  • cataloguing acquisitions (purchase, gift) – including clear guidelines on what the museum collects and the process of acceptance
  • the use of – and restrictions – on various categories of artifacts in the collection
  • deaccessioning objects from the collection. When it comes to deciding if objects are acquired or removed from the collection, it is advisable that these are made by a collections committee and approved by governing authority or the senior staff person. This adds a level of accountability in terms of the legal ownership of its collection and prevents theft or fraud. (Please see AMA Standards Handbook, p. 147)
  • incoming and outgoing loans
  • management of collections records
  • guidelines for conservation appropriate labeling (attaching accession number)
  • the care and handling of artifacts. Some museums may, for neatness or consistency, choose to put this in a conservation policy

A museum’s policy guides the development of plans and procedures for collections management.

Deaccessioning artifacts

In October 2012, Revenue Canada issued Consequences of Returning Donated Property related to its Income Tax Act.

Museums whose policy and procedures have not been reviewed and revised since October 2012 should revise them immediately to ensure that “Return to donor” is no longer identified as a deaccessioning option. Notifying the donor is also not recommended.

Recommended resources

General

  • Alberta Museums Association. Standard Practices Handbook for Museums, third edition. 2014. Excellent Collections Management resource for context, policy, practice, planning and procedures.
  • International Council of Museums. Code of Ethics for Museums. Paris: ICOM, 2013.
  • International Council of Museums. ICOM Guidelines for Loans. ICOM News 27, no. 3/4 (1974).

Collections

  • Buck, Rebecca A. and Jean Allman Gilmore, eds. The New Museum Registration Methods. Washington, D.C.: American Association of Museums, 1998.
  • Canadian Heritage Information Network. Making Up the Rules: New Documentation Standards for Canadian Museums. 2014.
  • Dietrich, Bev. Deaccessioning Good Practice. 2012
  • Gerrard, Richard. Archived OMA webinar and notes on Deaccessioning. 2013
  • Gerrard, Richard. An Introduction to the Deaccession & Disposal of Collections. 2013.
  • Guelph Museums. Collections Management Policy – Guelph Museums. 2012.
  • Canada Revenue Agency. Issuing Receipts.
  • Norris, Linda. The uncatalogued museum. Collection planning.
  • Saskatchewan Museums Association. Collections Documentation. Downloadable collections management forms

Conservation

  • CMOG Standards resources: conservation.
  • Be Prepared: Guidelines for Small Museums for Writing a Disaster Plan. Collections Australia Network.
  • Museum Note: Handling Museum Objects, Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport.

Physical plant

  • CMOG Standards Resources: Physical Plant
  • Nesbitt, Bill. Archived OMA webinar and notes on Emergency & Disaster Plans. 2013.
  • Nesbitt, Bill. Emergency Service Providers Checklist Template
  • Nesbitt, Bill. Emergency Supplies Inventory
  • Nesbitt, Bill. Emergency Team Job Descriptions
  • Nesbitt, Bill. Staff Emergency Procedures Template
  • Canadian Conservation Institute. CCI Notes 14/1 and 14/2: Emergency Preparedness for Cultural Institutions: Identifying and Reducing Hazards