www.ucl.ac.uk/museums
C
30 C REDITS
Turnitin Class ID: 2971026 Turnitin Password: IoA1516
Course Co-ordinator:
Email: georgios.alexopoulos@ucl.ac.uk
Tel: 02076794935, internal ext. 24935
IoA Room: 102
Moodle site: https://moodle.ucl.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=5921

The management of collections is the foundation for many other museum activities. The aim of this course is to provide students with a thorough knowledge of the principles and practice of collections management and care, and familiarity with established professional standards concerning collections development, documentation, care, and use. The course is structured around the ‘life-cycle’ of a museum object, and covers key areas of museum practice as outlined in the summary below. Having taken the course students should understand why collections management is important, have a good practical idea of how to go about the different aspects of it, and understand some of the ethical issues involved. The course is taught in association with UCL Museums & Collections through a series of workshops.
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Wk
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Date
Tue, 06 October
Tue, 13 October
Tue, 20 October
Tue, 27 October
Tue, 03 November
Tue, 17 November
Tue, 24 November
Tue, 01 December
Tue, 08 December
Tue, 15 December
Topic
Introduction, Life-Cycle of Museum Objects, Acquisition
Handling and Examining Objects
Museum Documentation, Accessioning, Object Labelling
Object Cataloguing, Collection Management Systems
Photographing Museum Objects
READING WEEK
Environmental Conditions and Monitoring
Storing Collections, Pest Management
Preventive Conservation and Condition Reporting
Loans, Packing and Moving Objects
Disposal, Museum Ethics
Ambrose, T. & Paine, C. 1993. Museum Basics . London: Routledge.
Cassar, M. 1994. Environmental Management: Guidelines for Museums and Galleries . London: Routledge.
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Fahy, A. (ed.) 1995. Collections Management . London: Routledge.
Harrison, M. & McKenna, G. 2009. Documentation: A Practical Guide . Cambridge: Collections Trust.
Hillhouse, S. 2009. Collections Management: A Practical Guide . Cambridge: Collections Trust.
Keene, S. 2002. Managing Conservation in Museums . Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann.
Keene, S. 2008. Fragments of the World: Uses of Museum Collections . Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann.
Matassa, F. 2011. Museum Collections Management: A Handbook . London: Facet Publishing.
National Park Service. 1990. Museum Handbook . Washington, DC: National Park Service. Updated version available online at www.nps.gov/museum/publications/handbook.html
Pinniger, D. 2008. Pest Management: A Practical Guide . Cambridge: Collections Trust.
Thompson, J.A. (ed.) 1992. Manual of Curatorship . Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann.
The course is assessed by means of a portfolio (equivalent to 8,000 words, 30 credits or 16.7% of total MA mark), which must be submitted no later than Tuesday, 12th January 2016. The portfolio assignment is described in the Aims, Objectives and Assessment section of this handbook and will also be discussed in class. If students are unclear about any assignment, they should contact the Course Co-ordinator.
The course is taught through a series of ten three-hour workshops, which take place weekly in Term 1. The workshops are taught in association with
UCL Museums & Collections staff and as much time as possible is spent working with UCL’s collections and in its museum environments. The workshops typically include introductory lectures, practical sessions, and opportunities for discussion. Additional small group practical sessions may be arranged as necessary, particularly in relation to Portfolio tasks. Students are expected to undertake a considerable amount of self-directed learning preparing for the workshops, conducting research and working on their Portfolios. It is particularly important that students keep up to date with portfolio activities and come to the workshops suitably prepared, having familiarized themselves with the recommended readings, as they will be expected to apply this knowledge in class. Students will be often asked to undertake portfolio related research between workshops and asked to report back on this in class.
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In addition to approximately 30 formal contact hours of workshops, you are expected to spend 140 hours on private reading, research and preparation for the course, as well as 130 hours working on Portfolio assignments. This adds up to a total workload of 300 hours for the course.
There are no prerequisites for this course. It is a Term 1 core course available only to MA Museum Studies students.
The aim of this course is to provide students with a thorough knowledge of the principles and practice of collections management and care, including the acquisition; object handling and observation; museum documentation; accessioning and cataloguing; object labelling; collections management systems; photographing museum objects; storage; environmental conditions and monitoring; pests; preventive conservation and condition reporting; loans; packing and moving collections; disposal; and ethical frameworks. Having taken the course students should understand why collections management is important, have a good practical idea of how to go about the different aspects of it, understand the wider picture of some of the ethical issues involved, and gain a sense of what interesting things a museum can do if its collection is in good order.
On successful completion of the course students should:

Understand why collections are important to museums, that good management of them is essential to making them a useful resource, and that they should be seen as the basis for services to be delivered

Be conversant with the practices of managing the handling, acquisition, documentation, protection, storage, and accessibility of museum collections

Understand the typical ‘life-cycle’ of a museum object

Be familiar with established professional standards relating to collections management, care and documentation
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 Understand the role of preventive conservation and the care of collections

Be familiar with the ethical issues surrounding collections and collecting, such as acquiring and disposing of objects
 Have a working familiarity with UCL’s museums and collections
On completion of the course, students should be able to apply the principles of managing and caring for collections in practice. They should be able to take on a wide range of collections management tasks and propose (and in some cases apply) appropriate methods of preventative care. Students should be able to analyse and discuss ethical issues in a professional way.
As noted above, the course is assessed by means of a portfolio (equivalent to 8,000 words), which must be submitted by Tuesday, 12 th
January 2015.
Throughout the course a series of ten ‘portfolio tasks’ are set, which relate to issues and skills explored in the workshops. These must be completed during or after the respective workshops, and then compiled and submitted in a folder or other kind of binding. Exercises may include a variety of activities: writing short reports, cataloguing objects, documenting practical exercises, etc. The length for each exercise will vary depending on the activity, but on average this will be about 800 words per workshop (i.e. 10 x 800 = 8,000 words). In addition to written work, students are strongly encouraged to be creative and supplement their texts with images, drawings, sketches, diagrams, photographs, and other materials documenting their workshop activities (bring a camera along to the workshops). It is important that students keep up-to-date with their portfolio exercises and ensure that they catch up if they miss a workshop through illness. Completed portfolios must be submitted no later than Tuesday 12 th
January 2016.
If students are unclear about the nature of a portfolio task, they should contact the Course Co-ordinator, and students are encouraged to ask questions and discuss tasks in class.
Word-length
The following should not be included in the word-count: title page, contents pages, lists of figure and tables, abstract, preface, acknowledgements, bibliography, lists of references, captions and contents of tables and figures, appendices.
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Due to the nature of the portfolio task it is understood that an exact word count may be difficult to estimate. However students are encouraged to aim at an average of 800 words per task, with a total word count of approximately 8000 words.
Workshops take place between 14:00 and 17:00 on Tuesdays in Term 1. Unless otherwise stated, each week the workshop will start in Room 209 on the second floor of the Institute of Archaeology, but activities will often take place at other locations across campus.
Workshop Topic Location(s) Tutor(s)
1 Tue 06 Oct Introduction to the Course, Life-cycle of
Museum Objects, Acquisition
2 Tue 13 Oct Handling and Examining Objects
3 Tue 20 Oct Museum Documentation, Accessioning,
Object Labelling
4 Tue 27 Oct Object Cataloguing, Collection Management
5 Tue 03 Nov
Systems
Photographing Museum Objects
IoA Room 209
IoA Room 209
Conservation Lab 615
IoA Room 209
IoA Room 209
IoA Photographic Laboratory (405)
Georgios Alexopoulos
Dean Sully, Marcos Martinón-Torres, Ian Carroll,
Georgios Alexopoulos
Jack Ashby, Ian Carroll, Georgios Alexopoulos
Rachael Sparks, Georgios Alexopoulos
Kris Lockyear, Georgios Alexopoulos
READING WEEK – no workshop
6 Tue 17 Nov Environmental Conditions and Monitoring Paolo Viscardi, Ian Carroll, Georgios Alexopoulos
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Tue 24 Nov
Tue 01 Dec
Tue 08 Dec
Tue 15 Dec
Storing Collections, Pest Management
Preventive Conservation and Condition
Reporting
Loans, Packing and Moving Objects
Disposal, Museum Ethics
IoA Room 209, Flaxman Gallery, Grant
Museum
IoA Room 209
Collections Storage spaces
IoA Room 209
IoA Room 209
IoA Room 209
Paolo Viscardi, Ian Carroll, Georgios Alexopoulos
Susi Pancaldo
Ian Carroll, Paolo Viscardi, Georgios Alexopoulos
Subhadra Das, Georgios Alexopoulos
Tue 12 Jan Deadline for submission of portfolio
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DATE: Tuesday, 06 October 2015, 14:00-17:00
VENUE: IoA Room 209
TUTOR: Georgios Alexopoulos <georgios.alexopoulos@ucl.ac.uk>
SUMMARY
In this first workshop students are introduced to the course, the topics and skills it seeks to cover, and the approach to teaching that we employ. Students are introduced to the idea of the life-cycle of the museum object, from acquisition to disposal. This provides a structure for the entire course and we will be exploring each stage in the life-cycle over the coming weeks. Workshops are led by a various staff members from across UCL Museums and Collections and the Institute of Archaeology. This week we will consider the need for establishing guidelines and codes of best practice relevant to museum collections management and care. Museums are required to demonstrate their adherence to such standards in order to acquire
‘accredited’ status. In England, the Accreditation Scheme for Museums and Galleries is run by the Arts
Council, and aims to encourage all museums and galleries to achieve agreed standards in how they manage their collections and reinforce a shared ethical and professional basis for museum practice. Students will be introduced to the accreditation guidelines relating to collections management and care, which will provide an important framework for this course, embedding it in a professional context.
After a short coffee break, we focus more specifically on the first stage in the life-cycle of a museum object: acquisition. Museums acquire objects through various means, but it is important that they do so in a coherent and ethical manner according to an institutional acquisitions policy. This is part of a broader collections development policy, which should accord to the over-riding mission statement of the museum.
We will examine examples of such mission statements and policies. Finally we will discuss the portfolio assessment method for the course, including this week’s task.
PORTFOLIO TASK 1
Before undertaking the first portfolio task, you will need to decide how you would like to organise and present your portfolio. This could be as simple as filing each week’s tasks in a ring binder, but students are also encouraged to be creative (you could submit a scrap book or sketch book for instance). You are also encouraged to use photographs and other illustrations to document the tasks, and to incorporate these in your portfolios to complement and illustrate your written text. You will need ten sections in your portfolio, corresponding to the ten portfolio tasks, a cover page, and a contents page.
There are three parts to this week’s task:
(1) Following on from our discussions in class students should research three different museums’ mission statements and acquisitions policies. These can usually be found online.
(2) Students are then asked to write a brief mission statement and acquisition policy for their own imagined museum (choose something specialized and close to your personal interests).
(3) You will then acquire an object in accordance with the mission statement and acquisitions policy that you have drawn up (including its ethical dimensions). Suggestions for where you might collect your object are given below. You might team up with colleagues for this task. It is essential that all students acquire their object before the next workshop. Choose something relatively portable
(you’ll be bringing it into class regularly) and which genuinely interests you. Make a record of where you acquired your object, how much you paid, and whatever information you can obtain about the object at the time of acquisition. You should spend no more than £15. Be sure to obtain a receipt.
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RESOURCES
Arts Council England. 2011. ‘Accreditation Scheme for Museums and Galleries in the United Kingdom:
Accreditation Standard’ ( Moodle )
Arts Council England. 2011. ‘Accreditation Scheme for Museums and Galleries in the United Kingdom:
Guidance for Section Two – Collections’ ( Moodle )
Arts Council England. 2011. ‘Accreditation Scheme for Museums and Galleries in the United Kingdom:
Template – Collections Development Policy’ ( Moodle )
Collections Trust. 2011. ‘ SPECTRUM Advice Factsheet: Acquisition’ ( Moodle )
Heritage Collections Council (Australia). 1998. ‘ReCollections: Managing Collections’ ( Moodle )
Matassa, F. 2011. Museum Collections Management: A Handbook . London: Facet Publishing. (Chapter 8:
Acquisitions, pp.145-167)
Morris, J. 2007. ‘Making the Case for Collecting’, Museum Practice 40: 50-51 ( Moodle )
Morris, J. 2007. ‘Collecting from Specialist Dealers’, Museum Practice 40: 55-57 ( Moodle )
Museums Association. 2004. ‘Acquisition: Guidance on the Ethics and Practicalities of Acquisition’ ( Moodle )
National Park Service. 2006. Museum Handbook . Washington, DC: National Park Service. (Appendix
B: Accreditation) ( Moodle )
Museum Accreditation (International Contexts)
UK: Arts Council - www.artscouncil.org.uk/what-we-do/supporting-museums/accreditation-scheme/
USA: American Association of Museums - www.aam-us.org/museumresources/accred/standards.cfm
WHERE TO COLLECT YOUR OBJECT
A few well-known antiques/flea markets in London. Note, however, that your object doesn’t have to be an
‘antique’ as such.
Bermondsey Square Antiques Market (Caledonian Road Market) www.bermondseysquare.co.uk/antiques.html
Friday morning, 4am to 1pm (best to get there at 5am!)
Bermondsey Square, Southwark, London SE1 4QB
Underground: London Bridge
Portobello Road Market www.portobellomarket.org/
Saturday, 8am to 5pm
Portobello Road, London W11 1LJ
Underground: Notting Hill Gate
Old Spitalfields Antique Market www.oldspitalfieldsmarket.com/antique-market.html
Thursday, 8am to 7pm
16 Horner Square, Spitalfields, London E1 6EW
Underground: Liverpool Street; Shoreditch; Aldgate East
Alfies Antique Market http://alfiesantiques.com/index.php
Tuesday to Saturday, 10am to 6pm
13-25 Church Street, Marylebone, London NW8 8DT
Underground: Marylebone; Edgware Road
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DATE: Tuesday, 13 October 2015, 14:00-17:00
VENUES: IoA Room 209, IoA Conservation Laboratory (6 th
floor)
TUTORS: Dean Sully <d.sully@ucl.ac.uk>
Marcos Martinón-Torres <m.martinon-torres@ucl.ac.uk>
SUMMARY
Ian Carroll <i.carroll@ucl.ac.uk>
Georgios Alexopoulos <georgios.alexopoulos@ucl.ac.uk>
Important: Students will be split into two groups prior to the workshop. The first group should meet in the
IoA Conservation Laboratory at 14:00, the second group in IoA Room 209. We will then swap around at
14:50. At 15.50, the whole class will reconvene in IoA Room 209. Please also bring along the object you have acquired.

Many curatorial activities, including cataloguing, photographing, housekeeping, research, etc., require staff to handle and engage closely with objects. It is thus important for students to learn good handling techniques and to become confident at handling objects. Indeed, there are many things that we can learn about objects only through picking them up and examining them closely. This workshop is therefore concerned with developing appropriate object handling skills and learning about what objects can tell us. The workshop will be comprised of three parts: (1) an introduction to handling collections and thinking critically about how this changes the way we are able to engage with objects led by Dean Sully, Lecturer in Conservation; (2) an exploration of approaches to examining objects and understanding artefact biography led by Marcos Martinón-Torres, Professor of Archaeological
Materials; and (3) the development of handling guidelines for different kinds of objects and collections led by Ian Carroll, Collections Manager at the Institute of Archaeology. As noted above, students will be divided into two groups for the first two parts, reconvening as a whole for the final part in IoA Room
209.
PORTFOLIO TASK 2
There are three parts to this week’s portfolio exercise:
(1) Draft a set of handling guidelines for your newly acquired object. These should take account of such issues as the material(s) that the object is made from, manufacturing techniques, its design, weight, and so on. It should also take into account the kind of museum you are, and whether you consider handling an important part of your practice for staff and visitors.
(2) Complete an object examination questionnaire for your object. A template is available via Moodle .
Think carefully about how you know what you know about the object. What knowledge can you derive exclusively from examining the object itself? What information can’t you access from such an examination? What information are you unable to ascertain? How might you go about acquiring this knowledge? Annotate your questionnaire as indicated in the template.
(3) Following on from (2) conduct some basic research on your object to fill in some gaps in your knowledge. Use online and library-based resources.
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RESOURCES
Candlin, F. 2010. Art, Museums and Touch . Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Caple, C. 2006. Objects: Reluctant Witnesses to the Past . London: Routledge.
Chatterjee, H. (ed.) 2008. Touch in Museums: Policy and Practice in Object Handling . Oxford: Berg.
Heritage Collections Council (Australia). 1998. ReCollections: Handling, Transportation, Storage and Display
( Moodle ) – see pp.2-14 on Handling
Kingery, W.D. 1996. Learning from Things: Method and Theory of Material Culture Studies . Washington, DC:
Smithsonian Institution.
Kopytoff, I. 1986. ‘The Cultural Biography of Things: Commoditization as Process’ in A. Appadurai, A. (ed.)
The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective . Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, pp.64-91.
Lemonnier, P. 1986. ‘The Study of Material Culture Today: Towards an Anthropology of Technical Systems’,
Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 5: 147-186
Longstreth-Brown, K. 1998. ‘Handling’ in A. R. Buck & J. A. Gilmore (eds) The New Museums Registration
Methods . Washington, DC: American Museums Association, pp.45-48.
Morris, J. 2007. ‘Handling Stored Collections’, Museum Practice 37: 65-67 ( Moodle )
National Park Service. 1990. Museum Handbook . Washington, DC: National Park Service. (Chapter 6:
Handling, Packing, and Shipping) ( Moodle )
Pearce, S.M. 1993. Museums, Objects and Collections: A Cultural Study . Washington, DC: Smithsonian
Institution Press. (Chapter 2: ‘Objects Inside and Outside Museums’, pp.15-35)
Pye, E. (ed.) 2007. The Power of Touch: Handling Objects in Museum and Heritage Contexts. Left Coast
Press.
Oddy, W. A. 1992. The Art of the Conservator . London: British Museum Press.
Schlanger, N. 2005. ‘The Chaîne Opératoire’ in C. Renfrew and P. Bahn (ed.) Archaeology: The Key Concepts.
London: Routledge, pp.25-32.
Smithsonian Institution Education, n.d. ‘Looking at Artifacts, Thinking about History’ - www.smithsonianeducation.org/idealabs/ap/essays/looking.htm
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DATE: Tuesday, 20 October 2015, 14:00-17:00
VENUE: IoA Room 209
TUTORS: Ian Carroll <i.carroll@ucl.ac.uk>
Jack Ashby <j.ashby@ucl.ac.uk>
SUMMARY
Georgios Alexopoulos <georgios.alexopoulos@ucl.ac.uk>
Important: Please bring along both the object you have acquired and an object of personal significance to you to the workshop.
Museum documentation comprises all the recorded information that a museum holds about the objects in its care. In this workshop, which is led by Ian Carroll, Collections Manager at the Institute of Archaeology, and Jack Ashby, Manager of the Grant Museum of Zoology, we begin by identifying why documentation is so important and for whom. We will then consider the kinds of documentation that are appropriate at different stages throughout the life-cycle of the museum object: object entry, accessioning, loans, location and movement control, object exit. Students will be introduced to SPECTRUM , a nationally-recognised standard in museum documentation procedures published by the Collections Trust. The need for such standards is discussed. Students are encouraged to download an electronic copy of SPECTRUM , which can be accessed via Moodle (SPECTRUM 4.0). Having introduced the broader context of museum documentation, we shall then focus on object entry and accessioning using SPECTRUM compliant forms and procedures. These are the procedures which record an object’s entry into a museum collection and establish the museum’s title to the object. At this stage it is important to record detailed information about the object, for example from the object’s donor. Students will complete two accessioning activities in the workshop: firstly accessioning the object they have collected for the course, and, secondly, working with a colleague to collect information about a more personally significant object in their possession. (Students will be given a unique identifying number for their object. We have invented an MDA code for the course of
MAMUS.)
After a quick coffee break, we turn our attention to labelling objects. It is important that all objects in a museum collection are marked or labelled with the unique identifying number given to the object in the process of accessioning. This ensures that each object is linked with the information that the museum holds about it. Students will be shown a variety of techniques appropriate to different objects and materials.
Students will then label their objects using an appropriate technique.
PORTFOLIO TASK 3
There are four parts to this week’s portfolio exercise:
(1) Complete an object entry form for your acquired object (include a photocopy of your receipt)
(2) Complete an accession register entry for your acquired object
(3) Complete an accession register entry for the object you discussed in the workshop with your colleague, paying especial care to succinctly summarising related information
(4) Compare the information you have collected relating to your acquired object and the object you discussed with your colleague in class. Discuss qualitative differences in the information you have recorded. Comment on the value of the knowledge and how this might be useful. Are there kinds of information that are not appropriate for inclusion in your register entry?
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RESOURCES
Collections Trust. 2012. MDA Codes. http://www.collectionstrust.org.uk/item/623-mda-codes
Collections Trust. 2011. ‘ SPECTRUM Advice: Acquisition’ ( Moodle )
Collections Trust. 2011. ‘ SPECTRUM Advice: Labelling and Marking Museum Objects’ ( Moodle )
Collections Trust. 2011. ‘ SPECTRUM Advice: Numbering’ ( Moodle )
Collections Trust. 2011. ‘ SPECTRUM Advice: Object Entry’ ( Moodle )
Collections Trust. 2011. SPECTRUM: The UK Museum Collections Management Standard , Version 4.0.
( Moodle )
Collections Trust. 2011. SPECTRUM: The UK Museum Collections Management Standard , Version 4.0.
Appendix 1: Information Requirements. ( Moodle )
Harrison, M. & McKenna, G. 2009. Documentation: A Practical Guide . Cambridge: Collections Trust.
Holm, S.A. 2002. Cataloguing Made Easy: How to Catalogue Your Collections , 2nd Edition. Cambridge: MDA.
Matassa, F. 2011. Museum Collections Management: A Handbook . London: Facet Publishing. (Chapter 5:
Documentation, pp.67-93)
National Park Service. 2000. Museum Handbook . Washington, DC: National Park Service. (Chapter 2:
Accessioning) ( Moodle )
National Park Service. 2000. Museum Handbook . Washington, DC: National Park Service. (Appendix J:
Marking) ( Moodle )
Pedley, M. 1998. Standards in Action.
Cambridge: MDA.
VIDEO RESOURCES
Share Museums East. 2012. The Contents of a Museum Labelling and Marking Kit - http://youtu.be/osEIQsqG3CU
Share Museums East. 2012. Labelling and Marking Paper Objects in Museum Collections - http://youtu.be/BF2olxg1hmc
Share Museums East. 2012. Labelling and Marking Textiles in Museum Collections - http://youtu.be/zCXNphTv0U
Share Museums East. 2012. Marking Museum Objects Using the Starch Paste Method - http://youtu.be/XB30xTpYJ00
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DATE: Tuesday, 27 October 2015, 14:00-17:00
VENUE: IoA Room 209
TUTORS: Rachael Sparks <r.sparks@ucl.ac.uk>
Georgios Alexopoulos <georgios.alexopoulos@ucl.ac.uk>
SUMMARY
Important: please bring along your object to the workshop.
Following on from Workshop 3, having been accessioned into a museum’s collection, the next task is to catalogue the object. This is the process of recording detailed information about individual items or groups of items. Cataloguing is important for many reasons, including collections management (recording information such as an object’s location, loans history and valuation for insurance purposes), research
(providing detailed information about an object, its provenance and history), and public access (increasingly selected ‘public fields’ in a catalogue system feed open access online catalogues).
This week’s workshop will be led by Rachael Sparks, Keeper of Collections at the Institute of Archaeology.
We will discuss the kinds of information that it is important to record for different types of objects, and the importance of data consistency and terminology control. In particular we will refer to SPECTRUM standards regarding data consistency and control, and explore the requirements of database interoperability. We explore some examples of museum object and materials thesauri. The majority of museums now use computer-based collection management systems. There is a great variety of systems available – we will discuss the basic features common to all systems as well as some of the more advanced features. In particular, we will explore the online eHive system as preparation for this week’s portfolio task. During the workshop students will have an opportunity to practice cataloguing skills with a variety of museum objects.
PORTFOLIO TASK 4
Using Vernon Systems’ eHive collections management system, students will create a full catalogue entry for their objects. You will need to create your catalogue entry this week, but will be able to edit and add new images of your object subsequently. Please note that you will have access to each others’ entries, but please ensure that you do not edit your colleagues’ catalogue entries. Once you have made a satisfactory catalogue entry you will be able to print a report that you will need to incorporate into your portfolio.
To access our online collection, go to http://ehive.com
. You will need to sign in using the below details: eHive ID: UCLMuseumStudies
Password: ma-mus-1415
Once signed in, take time to familiarise yourself with the system (please do not edit the profile or any other settings!). There is a detailed set of ‘Help’ guidelines at http://en.wiki.ehive.com/wiki/Main_Page , which includes information about creating, viewing and editing records and descriptions of each of the catalogue fields. Note that eHive is not itself a SPECTRUM compliant system, so some of the field names may not be standard.
Having familiarised yourself with the system, click on ‘Create’ in the top menu and then select a object catalogue type that corresponds with your object (the choice is limited to Archives; Archaeology; Art;
History; Library; Natural Science; Photography and Multimedia). A cataloguing screen will be generated
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with a series of fields for you to complete. You will have already created a unique object number for your object as part of the accessioning process, and dates should be entered in the following format
YYYY.MM.DD. There are different types of fields (text fields, number fields, pick list fields). With pick list fields you will need to either choose an existing term from the pick list or, more likely, enter a New Term into the pick list before selecting it. Follow the online instructions (and please don’t delete anyone else’s pick list terms!). You will need to refer to our discussions in class, and to the resource list below, regarding data consistency, terminology hierarchies, etc. Complete as many fields as possible in the main ‘Detail
Fields’ screen, and also enter acquisition details in the ‘Acquisition’ screen. Ensure that you add your name in the Cataloguer field (this is a pick list field).
You will be able to upload a photograph of your object. You can upload a temporary image of your object now, but you may wish to replace this with a more professional image after the ‘Photographing Museum
Objects’ workshop in week 5. Please edit your image so that it is approximately 1Mb in size (approx. 1000 x
750 pixels). You should also ensure that you name your image file with your object’s unique object number.
After you have completed your catalogue entry it is essential that you save your record (or you will have to do it all again!). When clicking ‘Save’ you will be prompted whether you wish to make your entry public.
Please deselect this option – records should not be made public. Having saved your catalogue entry, you will be able to view it by selecting the ‘Search’ option from the top menu and searching for your unique object number on the ‘My objects’ section.
To generate a pdf report, search for your object as indicated above and from the resulting ‘Object
Summary’ page select ‘Create Report’ under the ‘Tools’ menu. A ‘Report Designer’ window will open. Type your name in the Report Title field, then select the ‘Portable Document Format (PDF)’ radio button. A drop down list will appear below. Select the ‘Detailed Report’ radio button, then select ‘Normal’ image resolution. Finally click on ‘Create’. Once the report has been generated (it takes a couple of minutes) you will be able to access it by clicking the ‘Reports’ link at the top right of the screen.
You will be able to continue to enhance your catalogue entry until the submission date of the portfolio, after which you should not make any further changes, since this is part of the assessment for the course.
RESOURCES
Blackaby, J. & Greeno, P. (eds) 1988. The Revised Nomenclature for Museum Cataloging: A Revised and
Expanded Version of Robert G. Chenhall’s System for Classifying Man-made Objects . Nashville: AASLH
British Museum Materials Thesaurus - www.collectionslink.org.uk/assets/thesaurus_bmm/matintro.htm?phpMyAdmin=OYNyINPdn3sQmo
XugKH1gcCLSW0
British Museum Object Names Thesaurus - www.collectionslink.org.uk/assets/thesaurus_bmon/Objintro.htm?phpMyAdmin=OYNyINPdn3sQmo
XugKH1gcCLSW0
Collections Trust. 2011. ‘ SPECTRUM Advice: Cataloguing’ ( Moodle )
Collections Trust. n.d. ‘Terminology Control’ factsheet ( Moodle )
Harrison, M. & McKenna, G. 2009. Documentation: A Practical Guide . Cambridge: Collections Trust.
Holm, S.A. 2002. Cataloguing Made Easy: How to Catalogue Your Collections , 2nd Edition. Cambridge: MDA.
Matassa, F. 2011. Museum Collections Management: A Handbook . London: Facet Publishing. (Chapter 5:
Documentation, pp.65-94)
Museums Australia. 2009. ‘The Small Museums Cataloguing Manual: A Guide to Cataloguing Object and
Image Collections’ ( Moodle )
National Park Service. 2000. Museum Handbook . Washington, DC: National Park Service. (Chapter 3:
Cataloging) ( Moodle )
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National Park Service. 2000. Museum Handbook . Washington, DC: National Park Service. (Appendix C:
Cataloging Guidelines) ( Moodle )
Roberts, D. (ed.) 1990. Terminology for Museums: Proceedings of an International Conference Held in
Cambridge, England . Cambridge: Museum Documentation Association.
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DATE: Tuesday, 03 November 2015, 14:00-17:00
VENUE: IoA Photographic Laboratory, Room 405
TUTOR: Kris Lockyear <k.lockyear@ucl.ac.uk>
Georgios Alexopoulos <georgios.alexopoulos@ucl.ac.uk>
SUMMARY
Please also bring your object and a memory stick along to the workshop.
This week’s workshop will take place in the Photographic Laboratory and be led by Kris Lockyear, Senior
Lecturer in Archaeology at the IoA. The workshop will introduce students to techniques for producing professional quality digital photographs of two and three-dimensional museum objects, including basic
Photoshop image enhancement methods, and approaches to managing images and associated metadata.
The session will address issues of exposure, depth of field, lighting types and controls, background, and scales, and introduce students to more advanced imaging systems that museum and conservators are beginning to use. In the second half of the workshop, working in groups, students will be given the opportunity to photograph the objects they have acquired, accessioned and catalogued. It is important that students bring along a USB memory stick so that they can access their images.
PORTFOLIO TASK 5
There are three parts to this week’s portfolio exercise:
(1) Each student should draw an annotated diagram and describe the basic camera and lighting set-up that they used to photograph their object. Students should discuss the particular challenges that their object presents (e.g. surface reflectivity, separation from background, etc.) and how these are addressed in the set-up.
(2) Students should then create a lower resolution version of their photograph suitable for uploading to their eHive catalogue entry (image size approx. 1 Mb, approx. 1000 x 750 pixels). Students will then need to produce a pdf report of their complete catalogue entry and include a print out in their portfolio. (Students may continue to refine their catalogue entries until they submit their portfolio.)
(3) Students should familiarise themselves with the Workshop 6 resources concerning museum environments, agents of deterioration and standards of collections care. There will be a test at the beginning of the workshop to quiz students’ knowledge.
RESOURCES
Bigras, C. Choquette, M. and Powell, J. 2010. Lighting Methods for Photographing Museum Objects .
Ottawa: Canadian Conservation Institute.
Dorrell, P.G. 1994. Photography in Archaeology and Conservation . 2 nd
edition. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press
Edwards, E. 2001. Raw Histories: Photographs, Anthropology and Museums . Oxford: Berg
National Park Service. 2000. Museum Handbook . Washington, DC: National Park Service. (Appendix K:
Photography) ( Moodle )
Shanks, M. 1997. Photography and Archaeology, in Molyneaux, B. (ed.) The Cultural Life of Images: Visual
Representation in Archaeology , p. 73-107. London: Routledge
Share Museums East. 2011. ‘Point and Shoot: Collections Photography using Digital Cameras’ ( Moodle )
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VIDEO RESOURCES
Museums Australia. 2012. Photographing Collection Items - http://youtu.be/oUgG7HEpvyo
16

DATE: Tuesday, 17 November 2015, 14:00-17:00
VENUES: IoA Room 209, Flaxman Gallery, Grant Museum
TUTORS: Ian Carroll <tcrnica@ucl.ac.uk>
Paolo Viscardi < p.viscardi@ucl.ac.uk>
SUMMARY
Georgios Alexopoulos <georgios.alexopoulos@ucl.ac.uk>
Workshops 6 and 7 are concerned with museum environments, including both the wider environments of museum store rooms or display spaces and, in Workshop 7, the micro-environments in which objects are stored (including mounts, boxes, sleeves, etc.). As instructed in Portfolio Task 5, students are expected to come to Workshop 6 having explored this week’s resources concerning best practice on environmental conditions in the museum. The workshop will start will a quiz using remote response equipment. Students will have a Q&A session on environmental conditions and control measures, which will introduce them to the various agents of deterioration, including light, relative humidity, pollutants, security and pests. This will be followed by an introduction to equipment used to measure the various environmental factors and gain experience using these instruments. Once students have gained a basic understanding of the equipment, they will be split into three groups and assigned to a different museum/collection: the Grant
Museum and Flaxman Gallery doing spot check measuring. Students will consider environmental conditions in exhibition spaces associated with the collections. Assisted by Paolo Viscardi, Curator of the Grant
Museum of Zoology (UCL) and Ian Carroll, students will fill in data collection sheets and will also be able to explore various storage techniques and practices. Students will then reconvene in IoA Room 209 to present their findings and make recommendations. This will facilitate discussion on methods of environmental control.
PORTFOLIO TASK 6
There are two parts to this week’s portfolio task:
(1) Students will write up the environmental survey exercise that they conducted in class, taking each factor explored in the workshop into account. Students are asked to highlight the risk of each factor, identify any high risk objects in the collection, report on evidence of any damage done, any monitoring equipment in place, and make recommendations for future collections care measures required in the spaces. (The curators will be on hand for this session to answer any queries that students may have and to open up storage relating to the portfolio task. Students can then visit the collections in their own time for further research before completing their surveys.)
(2) Students should then discuss how the different environmental factors explored in the workshop might affect their objects, identifying particular risks, and make recommendations for storage and display to mitigate environmental damage.
(3) Benchmarks
RESOURCES
Ashley-Smith, J. 1999. Risk Assessment for Object Conservation . Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann.
Canadian Conservation Institute, Ten Agents of Deterioration - http://www.cci-icc.gc.ca/resourcesressources/agentsofdeterioration-agentsdedeterioration/index-eng.aspx
Cassar, M. 1994. Environmental Management: Guidelines for Museums and Galleries . London: Routledge.
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Collections Trust. 2011. Benchmarks for Collections Care 2.0. ( Moodle )
Heritage Collections Council (Australia). 1998. ReCollections: Caring for Cultural Materials 1 ( Moodle )
Heritage Collections Council (Australia). 1998. ReCollections: Caring for Cultural Materials 2 ( Moodle )
Heritage Collections Council (Australia). 1998. ReCollections: Damage and Decay ( Moodle )
Institute of Conservation. 2012. Caring and Conservation of... (a series of factsheets on care and conservation of a range of different materials and objects, available online at www.conservationregister.com/PIcon-CaringFor.asp
)
Keene, S. 2002. Managing Conservation in Museums , 2nd Edition. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann.
(Chapter 8: ‘Preservation’, pp.114-37)
Matassa, F. 2011. Museum Collections Management: A Handbook . London: Facet Publishing. (Chapter 7:
Storage, pp.123-143)
Museum & Galleries Commission. 1992. ‘Standards in the Museum Care of Archaeological Collections’
( Moodle )
Museum & Galleries Commission. 1992. ‘Standards in the Museum Care of Biological Collections’ ( Moodle )
Museum & Galleries Commission. 1992. ‘Standards in the Museum Care of Larger and Working Objects’
( Moodle )
Museum & Galleries Commission. 1996. ‘Standards in the Museum Care of Photographic Collections’
( Moodle )
Museum & Galleries Commission. 1998. ‘Standards in the Museum Care of Costume and Textile Collections’
( Moodle )
Museum & Galleries Commission. 2004. ‘Standards in the Museum Care of Geological Collections’ ( Moodle )
Museum & Galleries Commission. 2005. ‘Standards in the Museum Curation of Musical Instruments’
( Moodle )
Museums Galleries Scotland. 2009. ‘Advice Sheet: Monitoring Light and UV Radiation in Museums’
( Moodle )
Museums Galleries Scotland. 2009. ‘Advice Sheet: Monitoring Temperature and Humidity in Museums’
( Moodle )
Museums Galleries Scotland. 2009. ‘Advice Sheet: What is Environmental Monitoring?’ ( Moodle )
National Park Service. 1999. Museum Handbook . Washington, DC: National Park Service. (Chapter 4:
Museum Collections Environment) ( Moodle )
Re:Source: The Council for Museums, Archives and Libraries. 2003. Security in Museums, Archives and
Libraries: A Practical Guide . ( Moodle )
Staniforth, S. 1992. ‘Control and Measurement of the Environment’ in J.A. Thompson (ed.) Manual of
Curatorship: A Guide to Museum Practice . Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann, pp.234-245.
Thomson, G. 1994. The Museum Environment , 2 nd
edition. London: Butterworth-Heinemann.
Waller, R.R. 2003. Cultural Property Risk Analysis Model: Development and Application To Preventive
Conservation . Göteborg: Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis.
VIDEO RESOURCES
Museums Australia. 2012. Organising Your Collection Store - http://youtu.be/GGeYd1ivRSg
Share Museums East. 2012. Calibrating a Thermohygrograph - http://youtu.be/kKowgsle1L0
Share Museums East. 2012. Calibrating a Dial Hygrometer - http://youtu.be/zq3xMMGMH8A
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DATE: Tuesday, 24 November 2015, 14:00-17:00
VENUE: IoA Room 209, Collections Storage spaces
TUTORS: Paolo Viscardi < p.viscardi@ucl.ac.uk>
Ian Carroll <tcrnica@ucl.ac.uk>
SUMMARY
Georgios Alexopoulos <georgios.alexopoulos@ucl.ac.uk>
Important: please bring along your object to the workshop.
In workshop 7, we continue to explore issues around the monitoring and control of museum environments, with a particular focus on pest management and storage. We discuss common pests that damage museum collections, including beetles, moths, silverfish and rodents. We consider how we can identify different pests from the damage they do, and what kinds of collections are most vulnerable. We then explore methods for monitoring for pest infestation, including the use of traps and trapping plans, and the visual identification of common pests using reference examples. Students will inspect some traps that have been used in the Grant Museum and IoA and will identify any pests present and complete a monitoring sheet.
We will discuss a range of approaches to dealing with infestation. Having examined some commercially available pest traps, students will then have a go at making their own, which they will then deploy at home!
In the second part of the workshop, students will consider storage with a brief visit to the stores at the IoA, the Grant Museum, and the Art Museum where they assess the suitability of collections storage and consider some of the practical constraints.
They will then move on to devise a storage solution for their object taking into consideration its particular vulnerabilities. Students will work with a variety of materials and commercially available products, and try their hand at plaztazote cutting.
PORTFOLIO TASK 7
There are two parts to this week’s portfolio task:
(1) Students should prepare a ‘trapping plan’ of the room where their object is kept, indicating the position of their insect traps. Over the remaining 3 weeks of term, they will monitor the traps and log their findings (e.g. once a week). Students should identify any insects they trap and explain what conclusions they can draw from their findings.
(2) Write up the storage exercise we undertook in the second part of the workshop, illustrating and discussing the storage solution you have devised for your object. You might like to use annotated photographs and sketches. Ensure that you explain the rationale behind your storage solution.
RESOURCES
Canadian Conservation Institute. 2011. Six Steps to Safe Shipment - www.cci-icc.gc.ca/caringforprendresoindes/articles/sixsteps-sixetapes/index-eng.aspx
Canadian Conservation Institute. 2012. Combatting Pests of Cultural Property - www.cci-icc.gc.ca/caringforprendresoindes/articles/10agents/chap06-eng.aspx
English Heritage. n.d. Insect Pests found in Historic Houses and Museums poster ( Moodle )
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Heritage Collections Council (Australia). 1998. ReCollections: Handling, Transportation, Storage and Display
( Moodle ) – see pp.30-34 on Storage and Display
Heritage Collections Council (Australia). 1998. ReCollections: Damage and Decay ( Moodle ) – see pp.39-58 on Biological Pests
Hood, A. 1993. ‘Storage’ in D. Fleming, C. Paine & J.G. Rhodes (eds) Social History in Museums: A Handbook for Professionals . London: HMSO, pp.311-316.
Integrated Pest Management Working Group - www.museumpests.net
Matassa, F. 2011. Museum Collections Management: A Handbook . London: Facet Publishing. (Chapter 7:
Storage, pp.123-143)
National Park Service. 1998. Museum Handbook . Washington, DC: National Park Service. (Chapter 5:
Biological Infestations) ( Moodle )
National Park Service. 2001. Museum Handbook . Washington, DC: National Park Service. (Chapter 7:
Museum Collection Storage) ( Moodle )
Pinniger, D. 2009. Pest Management: A Practical Guide . Cambridge: The Collections Trust.
Winsor, P. (ed.) 2011. Integrated Pest Management for Collections . Swindon: English Heritage.
Zycherman, L. (ed.) 1988. A Guide to Museum Pest Control . Washington, DC: American Institute for
Conservation.
20

DATE: Tuesday, 01 December 2015, 14:00-17:00
VENUE: IoA Room 209
TUTORS: Susi Pancaldo <s.pancaldo@ucl.ac.uk>
Georgios Alexopoulos <georgios.alexopoulos@ucl.ac.uk>
SUMMARY
Important: please bring along your object to the workshop.
This workshop will explore methods and aims in the conservation and care of museum collections. It is led by Susi Pancaldo, Senior Conservator at UCL Museums & Collections. Conservators contribute to an understanding of an object’s history, meaning and significance in a contemporary cultural context by developing an understanding of the nature of materials and techniques in manufacturing objects and on how materials and objects change through the influence of various agents. Equipped with this insight, a conservator designs strategies aimed at both facilitating use of objects and prolonging the lives of objects through preventive, and sometimes interventive, conservation treatment measures. Through talks and guided learning exercises, students will be introduced to preventative and interventive conservation principles and practices. The first half of the workshop will:

Examine how conservation principles and practices can be applied to develop strategies to care for collections of objects;

Introduce the concept of a condition survey;

Explore ways of understanding manufacturing techniques and assessing condition
In the second half of the workshop students will gain experience handling and examining objects, and gathering information which will be applied in this week’s portfolio task: writing a condition report on your own object. Working in small groups, students will apply close observation and critical thinking to gather evidence about the materials and method of manufacture of an object, and about possible agents of change in the physical or chemical condition of the object from the time of its creation to the present.
PORTFOLIO TASK 8
During the workshop you will have been introduced to the procedures and format for preparing a condition report on a museum object. Applying this knowledge, students should write a condition report on their own object using a standard form. Using glossaries and other resources (available via Moodle), ensure that you employ the correct technical vocabulary to describe evidence of deterioration of your object. Your report should be illustrated with photographs, annotated drawings, etc. and be fully referenced. Where appropriate, make recommendations for the treatment of your object. You will be able to draw upon the tutors’ advice during the workshop.
RESOURCES
American Institute for Conservation - www.conservation-us.org
Ashley-Smith, J. 1999. Risk Assessment for Object Conservation . Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann.
Buttler, C. & Davis, M. (eds.) 2006. Things Fall Apart: Museum Conservation in Practice . Cardiff: National
Museum Wales Books.
21

Canadian Conservation Institute, CCI Notes - http://www.cci-icc.gc.ca/resourcesressources/ccinotesicc/index-eng.aspx
Caple, C. 2000. Conservation Skills: Judgement, Method and Decision Making . London: Routledge.
Clavir, M. 2002. Preserving what is Valued: Museums, Conservation, and First Nations . Vancouver:
University of British Columbia Press.
Conservation Online - http://cool.conservation-us.org/
Corfield, M. 1992. ‘Conservation Documentation’ in J.M. Thompson (ed.) Manual of Curatorship . Oxford:
Butterworth-Heinemann, pp.229-233.
Corr, S. 2000. Caring for Collections: A Manual of Preventative Conservation . Dublin: Heritage Council.
Cronyn, J.M. 1990. The Elements of Archaeological Conservation . London: Routledge. (Chapter 1:
‘Introducing Archaeological Conservation’, pp.1-13; Chapter 2: ‘Agents of Deterioration and
Preservation,’ pp.14-42 ).
Dohne, E. and Price, C.A. 1996. Stone Conservation: An Overview of Current Research. Los Angeles: Getty
Conservation Institute (See especially Chapter 2) ( Moodle )
Henderson, J. 2000. The Science and Archaeology of Materials: An Investigation of Inorganic Materials .
London: Routledge.
Institute for Conservation - www.icon.org.uk
Koob, S.P. 2006. Conservation and Care of Glass Objects . London: Archetype.
Mann, P.R. 1989. ‘Working Exhibits and the Destruction of Evidence in the Science Museum’, International
Journal of Museum Management and Curatorship 8: 369-387.
Oddy, W. A. 1992. The Art of the Conservator . London: British Museum Press.
National Park Service, Museum Management Program, ‘Conserve O Grams’ (useful factsheets) - www.nps.gov/history/museum/publications/conserveogram/cons_toc.html
Pearce, S. (ed.) 1994. Interpreting Objects and Collections . London: Routledge.
Peters, R. 2008. ‘The Brave New World of Conservation’ in Diversity in Heritage Conservation: Tradition,
Innovation and Participation - Preprints of the ICOM-CC 15th Triennial Conference . New Delhi: Allied
Publishers, Vol. 1, pp.185-190.
Pye, E. 2001. Caring for the Past: Issues in Conservation for Archaeology and Museums . London: James and
James.
Richmond, A. & Bracker, A. (eds.)2009. Conservation: Principles, Dilemmas and Uncomfortable Truths .
London: Butterworth-Heinemann.
Sease, C. 1998. ‘Codes of Ethics for Conservation’, International Journal of Cultural Property 7: 98-114.
Share Museums East. 2011. Condition Reporting Crib Sheet ( Moodle )
Stanley-Price, N. et al (eds) 1996 . Historical and Philosophical Issues in the Conservation of Cultural
Heritage.
Los Angeles: Getty Conservation Institute.
Viñas, S.M. 2005. Contemporary Theory of Conservation . Oxford: Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann.
Ward, P. 1986. The Nature of Conservation: A Race Against Time.
Marina del Rey: Getty Conservation
Institute.
SAMPLE CONDITION REPORTS
Colchester and Ipswich Museum Service. 2011. Condition Report: ‘Still Life with Fish’ by Charles Keene.
( Moodle )
Ipswich Museum Service. 2005. Condition Report: Anglo-Saxon Hanging Bowl. ( Moodle )
22

DATE: Tuesday, 08 December 2015, 14:00-17:00
VENUE: IoA Room 209
TUTORS: Ian Carroll <tcrnica@ucl.ac.uk>
Paolo Viscardi < p.viscardi@ucl.ac.uk>
SUMMARY
Georgios Alexopoulos <georgios.alexopoulos@ucl.ac.uk>
The borrowing and loaning of collections is a significant area of museum activity. Loans benefit both lenders and borrowers. They enable museums to reach wider audiences, reunite fragments of the same object, set collections in context and increase public awareness of museums. The process of both making and receiving a loan request can, however, be quite complex and there are established guidelines for the appropriate procedures. In this workshop students are introduced to the procedures and documentation relating to loans, including the use of loans policies and conditions typically encountered. In the second part of the workshop, we turn our attention to the related issue of object movement, whether internally within a museum or between institutions in the context of loans. Museum collections are most vulnerable to damage when being moved – even over short distances. Students will gain hands on experience in object movement and packing, and will work in teams to prepare a risk assessment/method statement for this week’s portfolio task.
PORTFOLIO TASK 9
The Institute of Archaeology and UCL Art Museum are collaborating on a joint exhibition, and some objects currently on display in the Institute’s Leventis Gallery need to be moved to UCL Art Museum for temporary display. Select two objects made from different materials (at least one of which must be ceramic, glass or metal) currently on display in the Leventis Gallery. Prepare a risk assessment/method statement for each of your objects, outlining how they can safely be transported to the Art Museum. The document should include a description and accession number for each object, and consider:
 what type of documentation you will need
 what type of packing material should be used
 how the object should be packed
 how the object should be transported between the two venues
 what hazards will be encountered en route, and how risks associated with these hazards will be minimised
Each statement should be supplemented with photographs, diagrams, route/access plans, etc.
RESOURCES
Berkow, R. 1998. ‘Import and Export’ in A. R. Buck & J. A. Gilmore (eds) The New Museums Registration
Methods . Washington, DC: American Museums Association, pp.147-150.
Britton, J. 2004. The Challenge of Moving Objects. Museum Practice 28:44-45. ( Moodle )
Collections Trust. 2011. ‘ SPECTRUM Advice Factsheet: Loans In’ ( Moodle )
Collections Trust. 2011. ‘ SPECTRUM Advice Factsheet: Loans Out’ ( Moodle )
Collections Trust. 2011. ‘ SPECTRUM Advice Factsheet: Location and Movement Control’ ( Moodle )
23

Cowan, S. 1998. ‘Preparation’ in A. R. Buck & J. A. Gilmore (eds) The New Museums Registration Methods .
Washington, DC: American Museums Association, pp.120-126.
Freitag, S. & Smallwood, M. 1998. ‘Packing and Crating’ in A. R. Buck & J. A. Gilmore (eds) The New
Museums Registration Methods . Washington, DC: American Museums Association, pp. 131-140.
Griffith, E. A. 1994. ‘Liability Risk Management For Museums’ in A. Fahy (ed.) Collections Management .
London: Routledge, pp.277-283.
Heritage Collections Council (Australia). 1998. ReCollections: Handling, Transportation, Storage and Display
( Moodle ) – see pp.15-28 on Transportation
Matassa, F. 2011. Museum Collections Management: A Handbook . London: Facet Publishing. (Chapter 6:
Movement, pp.95-121; Chapter 9: Loans, pp.169-200)
Museums Association. 2007. Collections for the Future: Simple Loans Administration ( Moodle )
Museums Association. 2012. Smarter Loans: Principles for Lending and Borrowing from UK Museums
( Moodle )
Museum of London. 2010. Loans from the Museum Collections. (Loan Conditions) ( Moodle )
National Park Service. 2000. Museum Handbook . Washington, DC: National Park Service. (Chapter 5:
Outgoing Loans) ( Moodle )
National Park Service. 1999. Museum Handbook . Washington, DC: National Park Service. (Chapter 6:
Handling, Packing, and Shipping) ( Moodle )
Rose, C. 1998. ‘Couriering’ in A. R. Buck & J. A. Gilmore (eds) The New Museums Registration Methods .
Washington, DC: American Museums Association, pp.151-156.
Share Museums East. n.d. Packing Museum Objects: A Collections Care How To Guide. ( Moodle )
Sixsmith, M. 1995. Touring Exhibitions: The Touring Exhibition Group's Manual of Good Practice . Oxford:
Butterworth-Heinemann. (See sections on loans, indemnity and couriering)
Stansfield, G. 1994. ‘Insurance and Indemnity’ in A. Fahy (ed.) Collections Management . London: Routledge, pp.284-287.
Stolow, N. 1987. Conservation and Exhibitions: Packing, Transport, Storage and Environmental Conditions .
London: Butterworth.
Taurins, I. 1998. ‘Shipping’ in A. R. Buck & J. A. Gilmore (eds) The New Museums Registration Methods .
Washington, DC: American Museums Association, pp.45-48.
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DATE: Tuesday, 15 December 2015, 14:00-17:00
VENUE: IoA Room 612
TUTORS: Subhadra Das <subhadra.das@ucl.ac.uk>
Georgios Alexopoulos <georgios.alexopoulos@ucl.ac.uk>
SUMMARY
In this workshop we explore museum disposal. Disposal is the permanent removal of an item from a museum collection and may thus be regarded as the end of the life-cycle of the museum object. Many people regard museums as places where collections are kept in perpetuity. As such the issue of deaccessioning and disposal of collections can be controversial. The disposal of collections may, however, be appropriate for a number of reasons: for example, due to resource limitations, a museum may not be able to care for parts of its collection, or certain parts of a collection may fall outside a museum’s broader mission, items may be damaged or have deteriorated beyond the museum’s ability to repair them, or certain collections may pose a threat to health and safety. The Museums Association has recently conducted research on the issue of disposal and has developed a ‘Disposal Toolkit’, providing an ethical framework for considering and carrying out disposal. Museums are now expected to include a disposal policy within their broader collections development policy. In 2009, UCL Museums and Collections staff curated an exhibition entitled ‘Disposal? Rethinking What to Keep in UCL Collections’, which addressed the dilemmas of deaccessioning explicitly. One of the exhibition’s curators, Subhadra Das, will guide us through this ethics and practicalities of this issue, including UCL’s own disposal protocols and the use of object exit forms.
We conclude the workshop – and the course – with a review of the life-cycle of a museum object that we have followed, and recap on the requirements of the portfolio, which must be submitted on the first
Tuesday of next term.
PORTFOLIO TASK 10
Using the Museums Association’s ‘Disposal Toolkit’ and other resources, produce a balanced discussion justifying the deaccessioning and disposal of your object (weighing up the pros and cons, and the ethical context). Make a clear case for why it is appropriate to dispose of your object, and then describe the method you will use to dispose of your object, explaining why this is the most appropriate method. Finally, complete an exit form for your object.
RESOURCES
Merriman, N. 2008. ‘Museum Collections and Sustainability’, Cultural Trends 17(1): 3-21.
Collections Trust. n.d. Disposing of Objects You May Not Own. ( Moodle )
Collections Trust. 2011. ‘ SPECTRUM Advice Factsheet: Object Exit’ ( Moodle )
Das, S. 2011. ‘Disposal?: A Democratic Exhibition at UCL Museums and Collections’, OnCurating.org
.
( Moodle )
Das, S., Dunn, J. and Passmore, E. 2011. ‘ Disposal?
How to Run a Democratic Exhibition’ in P. Davies (ed.)
Museums and the Disposals Debate . Edinburgh: MuseumsEtc. ( Moodle )
Besterman, T. 1992. ‘Disposals from Museum Collections: Ethics and Practicalities’, Museum Management and Curatorship 11(1): 29-44.
Leary, E. 2012. Collections Rationalisation: Planning for Action. ( Moodle )
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Lewis,G. 1992. ‘Attitudes to Disposal from Museum Collections’, Museum Management and Curatorship
11(1): 19-28.
Matassa, F. 2011. Museum Collections Management: A Handbook . London: Facet Publishing. (Chapter 3:
Ethical Considerations, pp.31-42)
Museums Association. 2008. Code of Ethics for Museums. ( Moodle )
Museums Association. n.d. Disposal Digest: An Introduction for Museums. ( Moodle )
Museums Association. n.d. Disposal Toolkit: Guidelines for Museums. ( Moodle )
Museums Association. 2012. Draft Due Diligence Guidelines Relating to Sales of Items from Museum
Collections. ( Moodle )
Museums Association. 2012. Find an Object. www.museumsassociation.org/collections/find-an-object
UCL Museums & Collections. n.d. Disposal Flowchart. ( Moodle )
UCL Museums & Collections. n.d. Disposal Form. ( Moodle )
VIDEO RESOURCES
Share Museums East. 2012. Collections Rationalisation. http://vimeo.com/46428186
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Museum Studies MA Moodle site - http://moodle.ucl.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=965
Collections Management & Care Moodle site - https://moodle.ucl.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=5921
Online Reading List - http://readinglists.ucl.ac.uk/lists/9A66C8B4-5742-2BB8-9D6D-AAB4BF38569E.html
The following libraries and other resources at UCL will be relevant for this course:
Institute of Archaeology Library - http://www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology/about/library/index
Main Library (especially Art section) - http://www.ucl.ac.uk/library/sites/main
UCL Museums & Collections - http://www.ucl.ac.uk/museums
In trying to make this course as effective as possible, we welcome feedback from students during the course of the year. All students are asked to give their views on the course in an anonymous questionnaire which will be circulated at one of the last sessions of the course. These questionnaires are taken seriously and help the Course Co-ordinator to develop the course. The summarised responses are considered by the Institute’s Staff-Student Consultative Committee,
Teaching Committee, and by the Faculty Teaching Committee. If students are concerned about any aspect of this course we hope they will feel able to talk to the Course Co-ordinator, but if they feel this is not appropriate, they should consult the Academic Administrator (Judy Medrington) or the
Chair of Departmental Teaching Committee (Karen Wright).
27

UCL is home to four registered museums and ten smaller departmental collections. Together these comprise UCL
Museums & Collections, which manages and cares for these collections, provides education and learning services, leads many of UCL’s public engagement activities, and pursues collections-related research. See www.ucl.ac.uk/museums for further details.
Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology
Houses an estimated 80,000 objects, making it one of the greatest collections of Egyptian and
Sudanese archaeology in the world. It illustrates life in the Nile Valley from prehistory through the time of the pharaohs, the Ptolemaic, Roman and Coptic periods to the Islamic period.
Grant Museum of Zoology
The only remaining university zoological museum in London. It houses around 67,000 specimens.
Founded in 1828 as a teaching collection, the museum is packed full of skeletons, mounted animals and specimens preserved in fluid. Many of the species are now endangered or extinct including the Tasmanian Tiger, the Quagga, and the Dodo.
UCL Art Museum
More than 10,000 prints, drawings, sculptures, paintings, and media works dating from the 1490s to the present day.
Galton Collection
The Victorian scientist Sir Francis Galton F.R.S. bequeathed a collection of objects to University
College London on his death in 1911. These objects, which include Galton's personal effects, custom-made instruments used in his research and objects from the Galton Laboratory now compose the UCL Galton Collection. The Galton Collection is now a resource for teaching at UCL, for schools, and for researchers with an interest in the history of science.
Institute of Archaeology Collections
Collections include prehistoric ceramics and stone artefacts from many parts of the world as well as collections of Classical Greek and Roman ceramics. There are extensive collections of archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological material which act as a primary source for the identification of plant and animal remains. Collections of minerals and other materials form part of the teaching resource for the study of early technology. Western Asiatic material includes the famous Petrie collection of Palestininan artefacts excavated by Sir Flinders Petrie, and from
Jericho, material excavated by the renowned Kathleen Kenyon.
Geology Collections
The collection includes not only rocks, minerals and fossils collected over the last 175 years, but also individual collections of historical importance. The highlights include the Johnston-Lavis
Volcanological collection, the Planetary Science Collection (Regional Planetary Image Facility) and the internationally recognised Micropalaeontological collections.
Ethnography Collections
The UCL Ethnographic collections are used primarily as a teaching resource and are highly important since they are unique to universities in London, and rare within the context of UK universities. There are about 3000 artifacts in the collection, representing the areas of art, technology and material culture from a wide range of civilizations, mainly from the last several centuries but also some ancient material. This diverse and striking collection has weaponry, textiles, basketry, musical instruments, and fetish and charm objects.
Science and Engineering collections
Many scientific discoveries and engineering innovations have been made at UCL and these important collections demonstrate the enormous contribution UCL has made to the advancement of science.
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This appendix provides a short précis of policies and procedures relating to courses. It is not a substitute for the full documentation, with which all students should become familiar. For full information on Institute policies and procedures, see the following website: http://wiki.ucl.ac.uk/display/archadmin
For UCL policies and procedures, see the Academic Regulations and the UCL Academic Manual: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/srs/academic-regulations ; http://www.ucl.ac.uk/academic-manual/
GENERAL MATTERS
ATTENDANCE : A minimum attendance of 70% is required. A register will be taken at each class. If you are unable to attend a class, please notify the lecturer by email.
DYSLEXIA : If you have dyslexia or any other disability, please discuss with your lecturers whether there is any way in which they can help you. Students with dyslexia should indicate it on each coursework cover sheet.
COURSEWORK
SUBMISSION PROCEDURES : You must submit a hardcopy of coursework to the Co-ordinator's pigeonhole via the Red Essay Box at Reception (or, in the case of first year undergraduate work, to room 411a) by stated deadlines. Coursework must be stapled to a completed coversheet (available from IoA website; the rack outside Room 411A; or the Library). You should put your Candidate Number (a 5 digit alphanumeric code, found on Portico. Please note that this number changes each year) and Course Code on all coursework .
It is also essential that you put your Candidate Number at the start of the title line on
Turnitin, followed by the short title of the coursework (example: YBPR6 Funerary practices).
LATE SUBMISSION : Late submission is penalized in accordance with UCL regulations, unless permission for late submission has been granted. The penalties are as follows: i) A penalty of 5 percentage marks should be applied to coursework submitted the calendar day after the deadline (calendar day 1); ii) A penalty of 15 percentage marks should be applied to coursework submitted on calendar day 2 after the deadline through to calendar day 7; iii) A mark of zero should be recorded for coursework submitted on calendar day 8 after the deadline through to the end of the second week of third term. Nevertheless, the assessment will be considered to be complete provided the coursework contains material than can be assessed; iv)
Coursework submitted after the end of the second week of third term will not be marked and the assessment will be incomplete.
GRANTING OF EXTENSIONS : New UCL-wide regulations with regard to the granting of extensions for coursework have been introduced with effect from the 2015-16 session. Full details will be circulated to all students and will be made available on the IoA intranet. Note that Course Coordinators are no longer permitted to grant extensions. All requests for extensions must be submitted on a new UCL form, together with supporting documentation, via Judy Medrington’s office and will then be referred on for consideration. Please be aware that the grounds that are now acceptable are limited. Those with longterm difficulties should contact UCL Student Disability Services to make special arrangements.
TURNITIN : Date-stamping is via Turnitin, so in addition to submitting hard copy, you must also submit your work to Turnitin by midnight on the deadline day . If you have questions or problems with Turnitin, contact ioa-turnitin@ucl.ac.uk.
RETURN OF COURSEWORK AND RESUBMISSION : You should receive your marked coursework within four calendar weeks of the submission deadline. If you do not receive your work within this period, or a written
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explanation, notify the Academic Administrator. When your marked essay is returned to you, return it to the Course Co-ordinator within two weeks. You must retain a copy of all coursework submitted.
WORD LENGTH : Essay word-lengths are normally expressed in terms of a recommended range. Not included in the word count are the bibliography, appendices, tables, graphs, captions to figures, tables, graphs. You must indicate word length (minus exclusions) on the cover sheet. Exceeding the maximum word-length expressed for the essay will be penalized in accordance with UCL penalties for over-length work.
CITING OF SOURCES and AVOIDING PLAGIARISM : Coursework must be expressed in your own words, citing the exact source ( author, date and page number ; website address if applicable) of any ideas, information, diagrams, etc., that are taken from the work of others. This applies to all media (books, articles, websites, images, figures, etc.). Any direct quotations from the work of others must be indicated as such by being placed between quotation marks . Plagiarism is a very serious irregularity, which can carry heavy penalties. It is your responsibility to abide by requirements for presentation, referencing and avoidance of plagiarism. Make sure you understand definitions of plagiarism and the procedures and penalties as detailed in UCL regulations: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/current-students/guidelines/plagiarism
RESOURCES
MOODLE : Please ensure you are signed up to the course on Moodle. For help with Moodle, please contact
Nicola Cockerton, Room 411a (nicola.cockerton@ucl.ac.uk).
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