Today I went to the institution för kulturvård and listened to Alissa Andersson's presentation to the textil-papper students (and there are only seven of them, 3 of them in the textile stream). Alissa talked about how RAÄ has translated the Spectrum standard from English, how she has used this standard at Vadsmo Museum, how it is applicable at Nationalmuseet where she is working now and how the standard is built up.
Spectrum is available to download here and was developed in the UK by Collections Trust. It is a branch specific standard for collections management and defines good practice for museums, providing common frames of reference, a means to communicate with colleagues and between museums and countries. The translation work, and adaptation for Sweden was carried out by RAÄ in cooperation with reference groups including the "små samlingar nätverket for samlingsförvaltning" - of which the Vadsbo museum is a member. Larger museums consulted included the National Museum.
Spectrum is built up of a wordlist, descriptions of 21 processes each with a definition, minimum requirement, process diagrams and database guidelines.
Alissa was commissioned by Vadsbo museum to write a policy for collections management. The starting point for such is to describe the organisations purpose and goals. The museum had no defined mission from the kommun and so the first step was to propose a mission to the local politicians. Once this was accepted they had to explain and convince them of the importance of culture, explore why there should be a museum at all, and what collections management was all about. With the RAÄ endorsed Spectrum standard as background, and by referring to the council's own goals for sustainability they were able to demonstrate that without a conservator not even the minimum levels of good collections management would be met - and so Mariestad kommum agreed to employ a conservator!!
You can read the handlingsplan here, and the collections management policy here.
At the Nationalmuseum procedures and routines have been in place for a while, and in many cases go further than the guidelines in Spectrum, they are used to international relations, have a large staff and the conservator is just one in chain of actors. Routines and policies make communication easier between the different professions within the museum.
Other tips for developing a policy from RAÄ here.
Spectrum is available to download here and was developed in the UK by Collections Trust. It is a branch specific standard for collections management and defines good practice for museums, providing common frames of reference, a means to communicate with colleagues and between museums and countries. The translation work, and adaptation for Sweden was carried out by RAÄ in cooperation with reference groups including the "små samlingar nätverket for samlingsförvaltning" - of which the Vadsbo museum is a member. Larger museums consulted included the National Museum.
Spectrum is built up of a wordlist, descriptions of 21 processes each with a definition, minimum requirement, process diagrams and database guidelines.
Alissa was commissioned by Vadsbo museum to write a policy for collections management. The starting point for such is to describe the organisations purpose and goals. The museum had no defined mission from the kommun and so the first step was to propose a mission to the local politicians. Once this was accepted they had to explain and convince them of the importance of culture, explore why there should be a museum at all, and what collections management was all about. With the RAÄ endorsed Spectrum standard as background, and by referring to the council's own goals for sustainability they were able to demonstrate that without a conservator not even the minimum levels of good collections management would be met - and so Mariestad kommum agreed to employ a conservator!!
You can read the handlingsplan here, and the collections management policy here.
At the Nationalmuseum procedures and routines have been in place for a while, and in many cases go further than the guidelines in Spectrum, they are used to international relations, have a large staff and the conservator is just one in chain of actors. Routines and policies make communication easier between the different professions within the museum.
Other tips for developing a policy from RAÄ here.
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