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Documentation Timescales

This document was written, and licensed for publication by the Collections Trust.

How long will it take to clear our backlog?

This fact sheet provides general advice and guidance for estimating timescales for clearing documentation backlogs. It is based on the experience of museums who have been through the documentation planning process. The Collections Trust is gathering information about documentation timescales and would like to hear of your experiences of dealing with backlogs. We have included a questionnaire at the end of the fact sheet to make it easy to get in touch.

Why do we need to estimate timescales?

Section 4.4 of the Accreditation application asks for the:

Creation of a written Documentation Plan, setting out actions, including the timescale, for dealing with any backlog

Timescales are an essential part of a documentation plan. The Collections Trust factsheet on Documentation Planning says:

In order to bring your documentation into line with current standards, major changes will often be needed … All of this may involve a substantial commitment of staff time, materials and probably computers. In these circumstances you cannot afford to make mistakes or run out of time, money or enthusiasm.

Define your project

You will find it much easier to estimate a timescale for your project if it is tightly defined. The process of dealing with backlogs usually consists of different stages, involving different types of work. The four stages outlined below are needed in dealing with most backlogs. Your museum may need to undertake all the stages or only one but estimating a timescale will be easier if you are very clear about what your project is to achieve. The case studies in this factsheet fit into these categories which makes it easier to compare projects:

  • Inventory - physical listing

    This is usually the first stage in any retrospective documentation project and is also a requirement of Accreditation. It is the process of physically working through your stores and listing every item with a brief catalogue record. The Accreditation Standard say:

    4.4.3 When addressing backlogs, a museum should have an accession record and a location record for all items, or group of items, in its collection. If it does not, then it must start by making an inventory of all items in its care. The inventory will enable an overview of the museum's position relating to documentation backlogs to be established and should be completed within a short time span. Each inventory entry must contain an accession number (if this has already been allocated) or a temporary number, a simple object name or brief description, and the object's location. Every unnumbered item, or group of items, listed in the inventory must be labelled with a temporary number …

    The process of carrying out an inventory is outlined more fully in the Collections Trust factsheet Retrospective Documentation and Making an Inventory

  • Inventory - reconciliation

    This stage follows the physical inventory. It involves matching items found with no numbers to existing documentation. The Collections Trust factsheet describes the process:

    You will now have objects with accession numbers that match information in the accession registers, objects with temporary numbers and records for objects when no objects have been found.

    Go systematically through any existing documentation, such as old accession registers and catalogues. Try to match each object described in the old records with a corresponding entry in the new inventory. Look for a match by searching indexes, such as classified name. If a positive match is found, transfer any additional data given in the old record. Replace any temporary inventory number with the true identity number.

    This stage is also required by the Accreditation Standard:

    4.4.3 Having created an inventory, the museum must then compare the inventory with existing documentation records to identify and resolve any anomalies and see if any unnumbered items match existing documentation

  • Accessioning

    Accessioning unnumbered items can be only part of a backlog project. You can only go ahead and accession items when you know that they have definitely not been accessioned before and simply lost their numbers. Accessioning involves making sure that all objects are listed in an accession register. This could be a written or a computer-generated register. For more information on accessioning see the Collections Trust Accession Records factsheet.

  • Computerising manual records

    Cataloguing is the stage of capturing more detailed information about objects. It could be done at the same time as accessioning or as a separate project. For more information see the Collections Trust Cataloguing Objects factsheet.

    However capturing detailed information about collections should not be a priority in a retrospective documentation project, although, transferring information from manual documentation systems to a database can be important. Using existing documentation in a database can make both an inventory and reconciliation much easier.

Case Studies and Plans for different documentation projects

Inventories:

Reconciliation and Accessioning:

Computerising manual records:

Types of collection

The type of collection will also be a factor in how long a project will take. There are some common factors to take into account depending on the type of object you are dealing with. For example, in documenting industrial collections you would need to allow for the time it takes to physically move and get at objects. Photograph collections will be much easier to access physically but can involve very large numbers of items.

Case studies for different types of collection

The following are case studies of documenting different types of collections which show some of the different issues involved.

Social history:

Archaeology:

Photographs:

Industrial:

Natural history:

Some basic guidelines

  • Use your own knowledge
    This is a very important place to start. The staff at a museum are usually the people who knows those collections best. They will know what documentation already exists about collections, where it is, what is missing and what needs doing.

  • Clarify the project
    Be sure you know what you want your project to achieve. Will it be just a physical inventory. Will you also carry out reconciliation with existing records. Will you carry out accessioning and computerise manual records?

  • Agree who is going to do the work
    Decide who is going to carry out the project and when. Who is doing the documentation is an important factor in working out timescales. Someone with more experience of documentation or the collection will be able to work much faster than someone who has less experience and is learning as they go.

  • Run a trial project
    This can be a very useful tool when estimating timescales. When you've decided what your project is to achieve carry out a trial over a couple of hours, half day, day or longer and work out what can be achieved in that timescale.

  • Estimate object numbers
    Although estimating object numbers can be a very hit and miss it is worth doing. Make an approximation of the numbers of objects you are going to deal with. For example, check several boxes to get an average of the number of items per box and then how many boxes are in your store.

  • Talk to other people
    The experience of colleagues, who have undertaken similar work, is often useful for informing your project. Colleagues within your organisation and those in other organisations can be sources of valuable information.

How long is too long?

A good documentation plan should aim to achieve minimum documentation standards within a reasonable timescale. So, what is a reasonable timescale? Inevitably, in some cases it will take years to completely sort out documentation in a museum. However, there does come a point when the timescale is too long and the plan becomes unachievable.

If you find that your estimates for documentation are for more than 10 years then it is worth thinking again:

  • Scale down projects
    Try to scale down projects as much as possible. Aim for the absolute minimum standards. This will usually be an inventory capturing the minimum information. See the Collections Trust factsheet on Retrospective Documentation and Making an Inventory.

  • Look for more resources
    The bottom line is that for many museums the only way to get to grips with their documentation is with more staff.

Number crunching

The following figures are very very approximate. They have been worked out as rough averages from the case studies above:

  • Inventory - an average of 100-150 objects per day
  • Computerising manual records - an average of 50-100 objects per day

Have your say

The Collections Trust would like to know about your documentation projects. We are interested in case studies to share on our website. We would also like to carry on collecting information about timescales to build up a better picture of how long projects take. If you would like to provide a case study please contact us at: alex@collectionstrust.org.uk

Version 1.2 - July 2008