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Developing a Documentation Procedural Manual

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

The Accreditation Standard says that:

'4.2.3 The museum must have an up-to-date Documentation Procedural Manual to guide the work of staff involved in documentation at all levels. Such a manual will set out the documentation practices and procedures of a museum in order that information about documentation systems, both manual and computerised, may be available to all museum staff, ensuring consistency and continuity of practice. It must be reviewed on a regular basis to maintain its currency.'

This factsheet will help you start to build a procedural manual for your museum.

What is a procedural manual?

A procedural manual is an evolving series of clear instructions to standardise the recording of information about the collection in a museum.

Why is a procedural manual important?

• It aids the Museum Accreditation process;
• It enables information about documentation systems, both manual and computerised, to be passed onto all museum staff;
• It ensures continuity of practice and standardisation of procedure;
• It saves time - new staff will not waste time trying to work out how the documentation system works; training new staff will be quicker;
• It provides a permanent written record of the documentation system;
• It is one way for museums to measure present practice against national museum standards like SPECTRUM;
• It is a central place for keeping published information about documentation, such as Collections Trust factsheets;
• It is good for self-esteem, staff know that they are building a good explanatory record of their documentation system.

What might a procedural manual contain?

1. A List of contents;
   
   
2. An Introduction:
   • Definition of a procedural manual;
   • Aims of your manual;
   • Date of initial compiling, name of compiler;
   • Name of person/persons with ultimate responsibility for documentation; changes to documentation procedures; amendments to manual.
   
   
3. A history of your documentation system, including example forms. This may be one of the most important sections of your manual, and may even include word of mouth information about your documentation system.
   
   
4. A summary of present practice - what your museum does now
   A way to describe present practice is by using SPECTRUM to:
   1. List the eight SPECTRUM Primary Procedures (these cover all of the record types that have to be in place to meet Museum Accreditation requirements). They are:
      • Object entry;
      • Location and movement control;
      • Acquisition;
      • Cataloguing;
      • Loans in;
      • Loans out;
      • Retrospective documentation;
      • Object exit
      Only include Retrospective documentation, Loans in and Loans out if they are relevant to your collection.
      
      Under each procedure include:
      • The SPECTRUM Definition of the procedure;
      • The SPECTRUM Minimum Standard;
      • An explanation of the process as it currently works in your museum. Include examples of current forms in use;
      • Under Retrospective documentation, include any documentation plans you are currently working through;
      • Under Cataloguing, include any terminology lists you use, or at least reference to which ones are in use. Also include an explanation as to how term lists are amended and by whom;
      • Under Location and movement control include maps of locations, lists of location names;
   2. Other procedures from SPECTRUM relevant to your collection, with a definition, minimum standard and explanation of your process.
   
   
   
5. Labelling and Marking
   Here you could start to build guidelines for the labelling and marking of items in your collection - how and where different types of objects are marked.
   
   
6. Policies
   Include any relevant policies, particularly those relating to the eight SPECTRUM Primary Procedures (e.g. Acquisition, Disposal, Loans policies). If you are not able to include the whole text at least include a photocopy of the first few pages, including the date, and refer to the location of the whole policy.
   
   
7. Locations of documentation
   Include references as to the location of items relevant to your documentation e.g. the location of your accession registers, catalogues, etc.
   
   
8. Review
   A page should be inserted which shows when the manual was last reviewed and updated, and by whom. This might best be achieved by using a table, include at the top of the table a statement about how often the manual should be reviewed, perhaps every 5 years.
   
   
9. Reference to standard collections management literature, such as:
   • SPECTRUM: the UK Documentation Standard, MDA, 2005;
   • Harrison, Margaret & McKenna, Gordon. Documentation: a practical guide, Collections Trust, 2008;
   • Collections Trust factsheets, particular aspects of documentation;

This factsheet is the result of a workshop held at West Midland Regional Museum Council in October 2000. It was attended by employees and volunteers from Warwickshire Museum, the Museum of Cannock Chase, the Russell-Cotes Art Gallery and Museum, the Royal Signal Museum and Rugby Art Gallery.

For further information about SPECTRUM see:

The Collections Trust provides impartial resources for all aspects of collections information management. For more information please contact: Collections Link - 0845 838 4000.

SPECTRUM

SPECTRUM is a standard created by and for the museum profession to promote good practice in museum documentation. It covers all those areas of museum activity that produce information, and is the result of contributions from documentation practitioners in museums throughout the UK. It is available free, for non-commercial use, at: http://www.collectionstrust.org.uk/spectrum

SPECTRUM defines 21 Procedures, which describe the process of documenting and managing objects in a museum.

Section 4 of the Accreditation Standard uses SPECTRUM as the basis for its documentation requirement. The 'minimum records' referred to can be achieved by following the 8 SPECTRUM Primary Procedures:

• Object entry
• Loans in
• Acquisition
• Location and movement control
• Cataloguing
• Object exit
• Loans out
• Retrospective documentation

Version 1.2 - Last updated July 2008

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