managing conservation in museums

Suzanne Keene

Butterworth Heinemann: 2005: ISBN 0750656034

This book shows how techniques from mainstream management can be used to facilitate a holistic and professional approach to collections conservation and preservation.

Digital preservation

'Now you see it, now you won't: preserving digital cultural material'. Website demonstration in: Museums and the Web 2002. Selected papers from an international conference. Pittsburg, PA: Archives & Museum Informatics.

Moving the collections of the National Museum of the American Indian, Washington. Step by step, how they did it.

Examples of conservation and scientific research

British Museum: Conservation
http://www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/conservation/consobjs.html
http://www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/conservation/discovery.html

British Museum scientific research
http://www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/science/index.html

Science Museum Exhibition Online: Preserving the Panhard
http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/on-line/panhard/reviving.asp

Smithsonian: textile storage in different climates
http://www.si.edu/scmre/geotex.html

Canadian Conservation Institute Before and After gallery
http://www.preservation.gc.ca/gallery/index_e.asp

Government policy and strategy

MLA: the Council for Archives, Libraries and Museums (UK).
http://www.resource.gov.uk

Various policy and strategy papers

UK Museum Needs Assessment (jointly with the Heritage Lottery Fund) http://www.cr.nps.gov/museum/publications/MHI/mushbkI.html

Renaissance in the Regions: a New Vision for England's Museums
http://www.resource.gov.uk/action/regional/00renaiss.asp

Benchmarks in Collection Care for Museums, Archives and Libraries
(in my view, an incredibly bureaucratic and unwieldy plan - SK)
http://www.resource.gov.uk/documents/benchmarks.pdf

Preserving the Past for the Future (the Stewardship report - a damp squib!) http://www.resource.gov.uk/action/stewardship/00stew.asp

General information, collections care and conservation

Lots of links at CooL, Conservation Online,   
http://palimpsest.stanford.edu/

AMOL, Australian Museums & Galleries OnLine / Heritage Collections Council, lots of useful conservation and collections management information, http://amol.org.au/craft/craft_index.asp

Especially resources for conservation and collections care: beautifully produced with colour pix. http://amol.org.au/craft/conservation/conservation_index.asp and ReCollections,  http://amol.org.au/recollections/

The Canadian Conservation Institute (CCI) has for years been the world's preeminent research instute for conservation and collections care. New website with wonderful resources:
http://www.cci-icc.gc.ca/

Preserving My Heritage: information for the general public about what conservators do, how to look after things
http://www.preservation.gc.ca/index_e.asp

The US National Park Service has a very good and informative website for their Museum Management Program.
http://www.cr.nps.gov/museum/

The NPS Museum Handbook is very good for collections care, management, and documentation. http://www.cr.nps.gov/museum/publications/

NPS Conserv-O-Grams: brief guides to conservation http://www.cr.nps.gov/museum/publications/conserveogram/conserv.html

Lots of useful publications from the UK Museums and Galleries Commission before it turned into part of Resource (unfortunately mostly not on line, but useful to know what there is)
http://www.resource.gov.uk/information/publications/mgclist.asp

East Midlands Museum Service (EMMS) (2001). Preventive conservation.
EMMS website. (printout in the TEACHING COLLECTION)
http://www.emms.org.uk/Preventive%20Conservation.htm

Caring for archives: guideance and advice from New Hampshire Record Office
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~nhlrep/

Collections surveys, standards, preservation surveys

>Moser, William; Reed, Karen and Bright, Cheryl. Collections profiling. Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History website. and printout in TEACHING COLLECTION
http://www.mnh.si.edu/highlight/profiling/profile_p1.html

South West Museum Service have detailed range statements, museum mapping programme etc, very good, if you can hack through their terrible website! Hints: use Internet Explorer, not Netscape, sadly. Navigate: Front page > museum development > museum mapping > Collections care standards Self-Assessment Pack.
http://www.swmuseums.co.uk/welcome/front/

US National Park Service. Museum Handbook Part I
http://www.cr.nps.gov/museum/publications/MHI/mushbkI.html
Appendix F: NPS Museum Collections Management Checklists. 2001.
http://www.cr.nps.gov/museum/publications/MHI/AppendF.pdf