SPECTRUMNow in its 4th edition, the SPECTRUM Standard is used by more than 7,000 museums in 40 countries worldwide to improve the management, sustainability and use of their Collections.
SPECTRUM: the UK Museum Collections Management Standard
SPECTRUM is an open, and freely-available collections management standard. It was launched in 1994 after an extensive collaborative development project, and is now widely recognised nationally and internationally, as the primary specification for collections management activity in museums. I
SPECTRUM is actively developed and maintained through collaboration with museum professionals and brings together the knowledge, expertise and experience of hundreds of museums, from nationals to volunteer run societies. By using the SPECTRUM standard you can ensure that your museum follows best practice in the management and use of your collections, in a way that is both proportionate to your resources and meets your public responsibilities.
SPECTRUM is more than just the SPECTRUM publications: when museums refer to “SPECTRUM” they are referring to a way of working with museum collections which is represented by:
- The SPECTRUM Standard including translations/ localisations, SPECTRUM Digital Asset Management, the SPECTRUM Schema and the Archive of previous versions of SPECTRUM
- SPECTRUM Resources which support the application of the standard
- The SPECTRUM Community which includes anyone who uses the standard nationally or internationally. They may work with collections, use SPECTRUM as a benchmark to assess collections management processes, use SPECTRUM to create collections management software through the SPECTRUM Partners Scheme, or be in the process of translating and localising SPECTRUM .
This slideshow provides a general introduction to SPECTRUM and the international SPECTRUM Community:
