A brief history
SPECTRUM is maintained and published by the Collections Trust (previously the Museum Documentation
Association/MDA/mda) in the UK. SPECTRUM is a guide to good practice for museum collections management, and is
developed in partnership with the national and international museum community. It contains procedures for managing
museum objects and the processes they undergo, as well as identifying and describing the information which needs to be
recorded to support the procedures. As such, it is both a metadata standard for museum collections information, and a
procedural standard.
1970s and
1980
1991
MDA Data Standard developed in
consultation with the museum
community
A data model defining data content (fields and relationships
between fields) and data values (syntax rules and vocabulary).
Designed to support designers of documentation systems as the
basis for software design of museum information systems and to
enable information exchange between databases.
MDA Data Standard revised version, 130 fields divided into Entities (item, person); Group fields
published
(production, place) and common fields (recurring concepts with
more than one entity)
1994
1997
Facts and Artefacts: how to
A guide to basic museum documentation systems – a precursor to
document a museum collection ,
the SPECTRUM procedures
Stuart Holme, Museum
Documentation Association,
published
SPECTRUM: the UK Museum
Documentation Standard, editor
Alice Grant, published.
SPECTRUM: the UK Museum
Procedures:
Documentation Standard, editor Jeff
- Condition checking becomes Object condition checking and
nd
Cowton, 2 edition, Museum
technical assessment, and is improved
Documentation Association,
- Conservation becomes Conservation and collections care and
published
is improved
- Exhibitions and displays becomes Use of collections and is
improved
Units of information:
- Extended to support the procedures, especially for
Cataloguing
- Introduction of the concept of Common Units
- Definitions of some units widened
Legal and management issues:
- Updated
Presentation:
- New Advice section
- At a glance pull out section
- Navigation by colour coding
1997 to Publication of fact sheets by
Frequently revised over the years, and now published on
present Museum Documentation
Collections Link as SPECTRUM Advice
day
Association/MDA which support the
application of SPECTRUM
Delivery of documentation training
days which support the application
of SPECTRUM, by MDA staff and
later trainers affiliated to the
Collections Trust
1998
Most of these are published on Collections Link
Development of various thesauri,
which were sometimes badged as
‘SPECTRUM terminologies’.
Standards in Action Book 1: a guide A guide to using SPECTRUM focussing on the 8 Primary Procedures
to using SPECTRUM, editor Maggie
Pedley, Museum Documentation
Association. Published.
SPECTRUM is referenced as a
minimum standard for museum
documentation in the Museums and
Galleries Registration Scheme for UK
museums (later the UK Museums
Accreditation Scheme, now
maintained by the Arts Council for
2000
2001
2002
2004
2005
England)
SPECTRUM Advisor Network formed A network of museum practitioners UK wide with an interest in the
development and application of SPECTRUM, who also acted as
advocates for the standard.
SPECTRUM Essentials is published.
A simplified version of SPECTRUM for smaller museums – used
workflows, focussed on practical application of SPECTRUM and the
Primary Procedures
Standards in Action Book 3: working A guide to using SPECTRUM for archaeology collections
with archaeology, editor Matthew
Stiff, mda, published.
SPECTRUM Knowledge: standards
A stand lone publication, in SPECTRUM format, which expanded the
for cultural information
Use of collections procedure, and enabled the capture,
management. Editors Helen Ashby, management and use of knowledge about collections, rather than
Gordon McKenna, and Matthew
simply information
Stiff, Museum Documentation
Association, published.
Standards in Action Book 4:
managing archive collections in
museums, editor Peter Elliott, mda,
published.
An XML DTD has been produced for
SPECTRUM
SPECTRUM: the UK Museum
Documentation Standard, editor
Gordon McKenna, 3rd edition,
A guide to using SPECTRUM to manage archive collections in
museums
Serves as a system-neutral interchange format for museum data
that is based on SPECTRUM. (not certain that this date is correct)
Procedures:
- Reproduction deleted and merged with Use of collections and
Rights management
Collections Trust, published.
2007
Introduction of the SPECTRUM
Partner Scheme, and the testing of
partner software for SPECTRUM
Compliance
SPECTRUM: the UK Museum
Documentation Standard, editors
Gordon McKenna and Efthymia
Patsatzi, 3rd edition, version 3.1,
Collections Trust, published.
- Indemnity management and Insurance management are
merged and become Insurance and indemnity management
- Despatch becomes Object exit
- Loss becomes Loss and damage
- New procedure – Pre-entry
- New procedure – Rights management
- New procedure – Transport
Presentation:
- Before you start section introduced
- Units of information now appear within the procedure at the
relevant point
Units of Information:
- Enhanced and expanded to support changes procedures
- Fold out Overview replaced by Information groups section
The SPECTRUM Partners Scheme allows collection & digital asset
management software vendors to have a licence for the
commercial use of SPECTRUM with their products.
Additions and amendments made to Units of Information to
accommodate the Revisiting Collections methodology
for collecting and managing User Generated Content
Additions and amendments made to accommodate new
government guidance requiring due diligence, with reference to
acquisition and illicit trade.
Advisory text removed and published in relevant fact sheets on
Collections Link
2008
2009
March 2011
German version of SPECTRUM
published
http://www.agsammlungsmanagement.de/images/Gesamtdokument/Stand_Maerz_2013/spectrum3-1-de_2013-03-26.pdf
Documentation: a practical guide,
Margaret Harrison and Gordon
McKenna, Collections Trust,
published.
SPECTRUM: the UK Museum
Documentation Standard, editor
Gordon McKenna, 3rd edition,
version 3.2, Collections Trust,
published.
Dutch and Flemish versions of
SPECTRUM published
SPECTRUM 4.0: the UK Collections
Management Standard, editors Alex
Dawson and Susie Hillhouse
SPECTRUM 4.0 Appendix 1
published
An replacement for Facts and Artefacts, focussing on the
application of the Primary Procedures
Further additions and amendments made to Units of Information to
accommodate the Revisiting Collections methodology for collecting
User Generated Content
http://www.faronet.be/download-spectrum
Published as the UK collections management standard
Procedures and units of information published separately. No
changes made to the Units of Information.
Advisory text removed and incorporated into SPECTRUM Advice
fact sheets. Procedures are represented as workflows.
2012
SPECTRUM Advice fact sheets
published on Collections Link
Portuguese translation begins of
SPECTRUM 4.0
First SPECTRUM Roadmap Meeting
held at Open Culture 2011
SPECTRUM Group formed on
Collections Link
SPECTRUM 4.0 and Appendix 1
published as a MODES XML file
SPECTRUM Schema published
Second SPECTRUM Roadmap
Meeting held at Open Culture 2012
Alex Dawson
Programme Manager: Standards
Collections Trust
July 2012