Active collecting and acquisition
Active collecting and acquisition is essential if collections are to remain relevant and useful. This requires confident decision-making based upon sound knowledge of collections, robust policies and access to appropriate resources.
Creating and sharing policies
An acquisition (collecting) and disposal policy is a key working document which can help to focus an organisation’s forward plans and priorities.
To be effective, it ought to be regularly reviewed and adopted by all staff from the governing body to front of house. The MLA and Museums Galleries Scotland have produced a model policy for museums in Scotland.
It meets the requirements for museums undertaking Accreditation and can be found here.
Publishing policies on-line is an effective way to share collections information and inform the public about what you collect and why. For a good example see the North-East Scotland Museums Concordat.
Who has what?
Collections need to be widely shared and accessible. From online catalogues to digital images of artifacts, museums are generating a huge amount of digital content and collections information, but much of it is still failing to reach a mainstream audience.
What does the Culture Grid do?
The Culture Grid amasses information from the thousands of museum, archive and library websites and databases. It serves this information up to media partners such as Google and the BBC.
If you already have or are planning to create an online catalogue then this is the next step in communicating your holdings to both the sector and wider afield. For more information go to The Culture Grid
Interested in developing collections collaboratively with other museums? Collections Link contains specialist subject networks and information and you can access advice on our Digital development web pages.
If you are actively collecting or making new acquisitions which have greatly enhanced your collections why not share your experience with everyone? Contact our Collections Development Manager.
