MUSA Collections Centre - Creating an Open Access Store for Recognised Collections

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This project is an excellent example of how strategic, planned and co-ordinated collections development and management can result in substantial business and audience benefits to an organisation and the sector through product development.

The MUSA Collections Centre aims to provide the best standards of museum practice in the management and care of collections and public service delivery. The project to create an open access store for Recognised Collections of National Significance was guided by the following aims:

• Improving public access to our Recognised collections in storage
• Achieving best practice in collections management of the University’s Recognised collections
• Increasing research use of the collections
• Extending the Museum Collections Unit’s learning and access programme
• Increasing the profile of our Recognised collections
• Undertaking conservation of items from the collections
• Using the open access store for teaching within the University
• Increasing access to the collections for the Unit’s curatorial staff – to facilitate inspired exhibitions and collections research
• Using evaluation work to inform any future development of the store and its use
• Integrating the development of the open access store with strategic developments and projects within the Museum Collections Unit, including the purchase of a new online collections database

The first Recognition Funded project allowed the fit out of the newly refurbished store area with a range of picture racking and flexible shelving to ensure that the objects on display would be as accessible as possible to both visitors and staff. To best inform this project, the Collections Unit staff visited a number of other openly accessible stores around Scotland to ensure best practice would be achieved. A tendering process ensured that the most competitive and suitable manufacturer was chosen and the fit-out of the area took approximately 6 weeks in total.

Following this project, a second successful Recognition Fund application allowed the Unit to appoint a temporary Project Officer (Stores) in May 2010 to manage the first year of operations in the open access store. As a result of the Project Officer providing maternity cover for another post, the position became vacant and a new Project Officer was appointed in October 2010. The new Project Officer has continued the work and will be in-post until July 2011.

Collections Care and Conservation
Following the project aim to improve access to the collections and achieve best practice in collections management, the Project Officer has set up collections management systems within the Collections Centre. This has involved unpacking and displaying objects and updating the Adlib collections database. The layout of the Collections Centre, including the labelling of bays and shelving, has been completed and location control systems introduced. Environmental monitoring and pest monitoring are conducted on a regular basis. A conservation programme has also been initiated within the Collections Centre, with estimates obtained from specialist conservators for the conservation of fragile and high-priority items. The Project Officer is pursuing match-funding to carry out conservation work (an amount was set aside in the Recognition Fund application towards conservation work).

Learning and Access
Guided by the aim to widen public access to the Recognised collections in the Collections Centre, the Project Officer has been working with the learning and access team to develop and deliver a learning and access programme. The Collections Centre has already hosted several events, including public tours during Doors Open Day 2010 and a children’s storytelling session. University departments have been contacted to promote teaching use of the collections. The Project Officer has also conducted research into the specialist needs of academic researchers and has developed systems for the registration and supervision of researchers in the Collections Centre, including an evaluation system.

Volunteer Management
The Project Officer has recruited several volunteers to assist with collections management projects in the MUSA Collections Centre. Two volunteers have been cleaning the historic scientific instrument collection. Another volunteer, a postgraduate student on the Museum and Galleries Studies course at the University of St Andrews, has been working to store and display the textile and costume collection. Volunteers from NADFAS (National Association of Decorative and Fine Arts Society) have also been cataloguing a collection of sketches by the Forfar-born artist, James Watterson Herald (1859-1914). To date, the assistance of volunteers has been invaluable and the Project Officer is in the process of identifying future volunteer projects in the MUSA Collections Centre.

As part of our fundamental aim to increase public access to our Recognised collections in the MUSA Collections Centre, we have piloted different tour sizes to discover the optimum size of tour group. This was a valuable learning experience and we have determined that the ideal size of a tour group is around 8-10 people. This is perhaps fewer than was initially planned at the outset of the project. Consequently, this outcome has highlighted the importance of implementing a system of pre-booking for public tours, which is clearly stated in all promotional literature. The reduced capacity of the Collections Centre has also had an impact upon the
provision of an education service for local schools, with class sizes generally larger than the optimum group size. In response to this challenge, the learning and access programme within the Collections Centre has been specially developed to cater for individuals and family groups.

The open store is securing the future of previously unseen collections through high standards of stewardship but is also widening the accessibility and research potential and increasing capacity of the organisation. As Recognised Collection holders the University is setting a benchmark for others to learn from and is open to sharing their experience of the project.

The MUSA Collections Centre has already hosted several public events that have been advertised in regional events listings and within the local community, including public tours during Doors Open Day 2010 and a children’s storytelling session. As part of Museums Galleries Scotland’s Festival of Museums celebrations, the Collections Centre will unlock its doors for a special evening of behind-the-scenes activities on Saturday 14th May 2011. Young people and adults will have the opportunity to learn about the collections on a torchlight tour of the museum store and an object handling session. This will be followed by a screening of the film, ‘A Night at the Museum’ in MUSA: Museum of the University of St Andrews.

The Collections Centre has been promoted within the museum sector as an example of best practice in collections management. The Collections Centre has hosted Fife Museums Forum and Preventive Conservation Forum meetings and advised a number of museums on collections management issues. Specifically, staff from museums interested in developing their own openly accessible stores have visited to examine the picture racking and shelving, and to discuss logistical issues of operating this type of store. The Project Officer has also attended a number of sector events to promote knowledge of the Collections Centre. In addition, the Project Officer has worked closely with special interest groups, including the Scottish Society for Art History.

Currently, the Project Officer is working on a leaflet to advertise the MUSA Collections Centre and preparing text for the new Museum Collections Unit website, which will be launched at the end of April 2011.

What type of evaluation was done?
In addition to the evaluation that has already been conducted on the optimum size of group tours in the MUSA Collections Centre, evaluation will also be carried out to measure its effectiveness. This will be achieved by communicating and working with our target audiences; particularly members of the local community, families, special interest groups, and academic researchers, in order to increase our understanding of their needs, expectations and interests. This information will inform future developments in the MUSA Collections Centre and enable us to share our knowledge with other museums.

If you would like to find out any further information about the MUSA Collections Centre or visit the store on a guided tour, please contact: Tel: 01334 461699 or Email: cr67@st-andrews.ac.uk

Categories
Collections
Learning
Access
Recognition
Grants

Project Start
1st Apr 2009

Project End
1st Jul 2011

Published
3rd May 2011

Who Led?
Museum of the University of St Andrews

Who Paid?
Museums Galleries Scotland and University of St Andrews

How Much?
Museums Galleries Scotland's total was £80,000. The University of St Andrews’ £53,514.69