Collections Management Policy and Collections Software Recommendations Project
Client: Niagara Aerospace Museum
According to the AAM’s (American Alliance of Museums) Ethics, Standards, and Professional Practices, the following describes a Collections Management Policy:
Collections advance the museum’s mission while serving the public. Because collections are held in trust for the public and are made accessible for the public’s benefit, the public expects museums to maintain the highest legal, ethical and professional standards. To demonstrate these standards, museums should create a collections management policy that outlines the scope of a museum’s collection, explains how the museum cares for and makes collections available to the public, and clearly defines the roles of the parties responsible for managing the museum’s collections.
The Niagara Aerospace Museum’s policy was reviewed and recommendations were made to ensure the policy remains relevant and effective for the current collection.
PROJECT ELEMENTS
01. Collection Management Policy
The museum’s Collection Management Policy was reviewed and recommendations were made to update the policy to ensure relevancy to the current collection.
02. Collections Software Recommendations
Choosing the right Collections Management System (CMS) for your institution is essential. It is often an expensive and time-consuming project to implement, especially when migrating existing data.
03. Collections Tracking Software
The Niagara Aerospace Museum’s collection and archives are being tracked using an Excel spreadsheet. While this can be an effective tool for smaller museums, as the collection grows, a more robust tracking system can be implemented to make collection access more readily available to employees, researchers and visitors. A comparison was made of software options including Omeka S, PastPerfect, Axiell, CatalogIt and Proficio Elements.