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Conservation and collections care
This document was written, and licensed for publication by the Collections Trust.
Conservation and collections care is not a Primary Procedure for the Museum Accreditation Scheme, however the Accreditation Standard (Section 4.5.3, p38) states:
'... In addition to the above, Conservation Treatment Records as described in SPECTRUM Procedure: Conservation & collections care must be maintained at the SPECTRUM minimum standard for any items in the collection undergoing conservation treatment.'
Conservation and collections care is linked to the Object condition checking and technical assessment procedure.
Care of collections includes interventive conservation which may result from:
- A loan request;
- An acquisition;
- A display;
- A disaster;
- General degradation of an object.
Techniques may include actual treatment of an object to:
- Conserve it, minimising further decay;
- Restore it, with aesthetic and operational considerations in mind;
- Produce a support for display or packing.
Preventive conservation involves care of collection practices and procedures that benefit the collection as a whole. These may include the:
- Monitoring and control of environmental conditions;
- Improvement of storage conditions;
- Quarantine procedures;
- Training of staff or volunteers;
- Improvement in disaster procedures;
- Guidelines for contractors, film units working in museums and events etc.
Maintenance of these records helps contribute to the history of use of the object.
SPECTRUM defines Conservation and collections care as:
The documentation and management of information about interventive and preventive conservation activities.
The organisation must have a policy covering the management and documentation of care of collections including the conservation (interventive and preventive) of objects.
The procedure for managing and documenting conservation must:
- Ensure all conservation information is accessible via the object number, and is up-to-date;
- Ensure appropriate authorisation is received prior to conservation taking place;
- Ensure details of all interventive conservation work and preventive conservation measures are recorded, with the name of the person who performed the work, the organisation to which they belong and the date on which it took place;
- Ensure catalogue record is updated if any new information is established or information lost as a result of conservation;
- Ensure that after conservation treatment, call-back condition checks or periodic care activities are scheduled by date.
Getting Started
The best place to start is with the Collections Trust's publication Documentation: a practical guide (see ' Shop' for further information).
Guidelines and Factsheets
The Collections Link Conservation section has many useful resources.
SPECTRUM Standard Procedure
For the full procedure on Conservation and collections care, download SPECTRUM from: www.collectionstrust.org.uk/spectrum.
