Angela Kipp

Managing Previously Unmanaged Collections (eBook, PDF)

A Practical Guide for Museums

• Format: PDF

Produktbeschreibung

Managing previously unmanaged collections can be challenging. The process of securing the collection and making it accessible needs the mindset of a collections manager as well as the one of a project manager. The target audience are museum professionals with a basic training in collections care that are confronted with collections that are either large in numbers (1000+ artifacts) or stored confusingly, or both. The book is a step-by-step guide how to approach this situation, assuming that there's nothing to start with but a collection that has to be accessioned and the person who is assigned to do it. It is about how to bring order into the chaos, to define what is needed in terms of time, money, staff and material, to spot facility issues and potential dangers, and to use the power of networking to solve an otherwise unsolvable task. Many chapters conclude with "logical exits," the points at which the collection in a condition that allows you to leave it for the next curator to take over. A common issue is that time frames are often so tight that the target of having the collection in good shape at the end of a contract or at a fixed date can't be met. Another common scenario may be that other projects become more important and you have to stop working on the collection, which might sound familiar to many directors of small museums. "Logical exits" are the points you can do this without risking that everything you've done so far or since the last "logical exit" was a waste of time. For contractors those "logical exits" might serve as orientation points when negotiating the work that has to be done on the collection.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Bloomsbury eBooks US
• Seitenzahl: 202
• Erscheinungstermin: 17. Mai 2016
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9798765175293
• Artikelnr.: 74844525

Autorenporträt

Angela Kipp is currently professional services specialist at Gallery Systems helping clients transitioning their workflows into TMS Collections and an independent museum consultant. She graduated as Diplom-Museologin (FH) in Museum Studies from the Fachhochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft (University of Applied Sciences) in Berlin. Starting off as travelling database troubleshooter and project assistant for various exhibitions, Kipp has worked in the museum field since 1998 for museums of all sizes. Since then she has seen, worked for, and advised about many unmanaged or only partly managed collections. From 2004 until 2019 she was collections manager of the TECHNOSEUM, one of the three largest science and technology museums in Germany. Her job there encompassed optimizing storage and logistics and moving one third of the collection to two remaining warehouses when one had to be closed in 2006 and incorporating various large, previously unmanaged collections, each with more than 1,000 objects, into the existing collection.

Inhaltsangabe

Foreword Preface Acknowledgments List of Abbreviations Chapter 1:
Congratulations, It's Your Mess Now! Chapter 2: A First Glimpse Chapter 3:
Back at the Desk Chapter 4: Getting Organized Chapter 5: Diving into the
Collection Chapter 6: The Power of Coffee Chapter 7: Getting Stuff Done
Chapter 8: Storage Wants and Storage Needs Chapter 9: We Had Nothing
Chapter 10: Failing Successfully Chapter 11: Success Stories Bibliography
Index About the Author