Managing Previously Unmanaged Collections: A Survival Guide for Messes Great and Small

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What would you do if faced with a dark, gloomy shack crammed with innumerable objects and you needed to bring it all to a best practice museum collections storage? At first, this might seem like an impossible task. The sheer amount of work, the variety of tasks that all seem to be top priority can be mind-boggling and daunting. Worse, what if you are the only museum professional within a few hundred miles and your budget is next to zero? How do you begin tackling problems like a leaking roof, the intense smell of mice and bats, dresses crammed in acidic boxes, and more objects deep down in the piles that might or might not contain hazardous material? Take a deep breath – this is not an impossible task. How do you begin?

This webinar will give you the pathway to tackle this type of situation. The focus is on the management for the overall project and not the care for single artifacts. It will help you to define what to do first, how to lay out and design a strategy, how to find help and, most importantly, how to take care of yourself during the process. We will also define “logical exits,” or points at which it is safe to stop working on a collection for a time without risking the progress and work you have done so far. Even if the situation of your collection is not as bad as the scenario described above, this webinar will provide you with ideas about how to proceed with a partly managed or neglected collection or how to integrate a large, chaotic collection into a well-managed existing one.

Angela-KippAngela Kipp is the Collections Manager of the TECHNOSEUM in Mannheim, Germany and an independent museum consultant with a special focus on science, technology, farming and history collections. She holds the German Museum Studies degree of Diplom-Museologin (FH) and has worked in the museum field since 1998. She specializes in logistics, project management and the adaption of technology for the special needs of museums.

She is especially interested in finding affordable ways to improve collections care in smaller institutions. One way she does that is through her blog project Registrar Trek, aimed at raising awareness for collections care in general and fostering exchange between collections specialists around the world. Another way is the book Managing Previously Unmanaged Collections (Rowman & Littlefield, 2016) with accompanying webinars and online courses.
 

Recorded: Thursday, September 22, 2016
Duration: 1 Hour 23 minutes

 
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Additional Comments from Angela Kipp

 

Relevant Past C2C Care Webinars

 

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