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 be used to focus the organisation’s forward plans and priorities.
To be effective, it ought to be regularly reviewed and needs to be adopted by all, from the governing body to front of house staff. The MLA and Museums Galleries Scotland have produced a model policy which meets requirements for museums in Scotland undertaking Accreditation which can be found here.
Some museums publish their policies on-line. For a good example, see the North-East Scotland Museums Concordat.
Who has what?
Collections need to be widely shared and easily accessed. From online catalogues to digital photographs 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 pulls together information from the thousands of museum, archive and library websites and databases It then 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 see The Culture Grid on Collections Link.
Interested in developing collections collaboratively with other museums? Collections Link contains specialist subjects and other networks information.
If you have undertaken active collecting or made new acquisitions which have greatly enhanced your collections and you want to share your experience with us, contact our Collections Development Manager.
