The new edition of “Managing Previously Unmanaged Collections” is in the making but not done. In fact, this post finds me bowed over my revising notes and frantically typing in all I have missed last time.
Time to open up the conversation, show you what I have done so far and comparing notes with you, the readers of the first edition, students from my courses, or just people generally interested in the topic.
Time for you to grab the keys – or the mike!
Join the free online talk!
Museum Study will host a free Unmanaged Collections Talk on Tuesday December 19 at 9 pm Continental Europe, 8 pm U.K., 3 pm Eastern North America, 2 pm Central, 1 pm Mountain, Noon Pacific, 11 am Alaska, 10 am Hawaii, Wednesday December 20 9 am New Zealand, Wednesday 7 am Australian Eastern.
Fall is the season for conferences and this year I will be at Gallery System’s Collective Imagination in Washington D.C. from November 13 to 17. I am excited to meet a lot of registrars, collections managers, and other people involved in museum documentation there. Of course, I will speak about managing previously unmanaged collections, this time about how to tackle them if you are using TMS. If you attend as well, drop by and say “hi”. If you don’t attend but are in the area and like to meet for a coffee, drop me a line. I can’t promise it will work out, but I will be around on the weekends before and after the conference to get to know the city, so it might.
See you there!
Angela
The Capitol and the city of Washington, image by 12019 via pixabay.
EODEM 1.0, the Exhibition Object Data Exchange Model, was officially released on September 1st. But why should you, a registrar, be excited about those five letters? Isn’t it just another standard in a museum world that doesn’t lack standards – but is short of people, money, time, and, every so often, the institutional buy-in to enforce those standards?
Well, first of all, it isn’t a standard: it is an exchange model. That’s right, this isn’t something that will force you to restructure your data – although, seriously, there are good reasons to do so while you are at it, and EODEM itself is defined as a profile of the LIDO standard. EODEM is something that will enable you to exchange the data you already have about your objects with other colleagues. Something you most likely already do when you are lending, borrowing, and/or co-operating with other institutions for exhibitions.
So the tedious task of typing data from a spreadsheet or email you received from another institution could become a thing of the past with EODEM! If it is implemented, you can just import the EODEM file your colleague sent you and the information will appear in exactly the fields in your database where you need them to be. It doesn’t matter what collections management system your colleague uses. If one system can create an EODEM file from its data, you will be able to import that EODEM file in whatever system you are using!
EODEM logo
There is one big if, though: just because EODEM is out doesn’t mean it is already in your collections management system. The good news: EODEM was developed together with vendors, so, right from the start, this model was built in a way that should make it easy to implement it in most collections management systems. The bad news? Vendors of collections management systems are not big software companies, just as the museum field isn’t a big industry. So, there isn’t an armada of developers idly waiting for EODEM to be ready for them to bring it into their systems. Instead, EODEM is competing with a lot of other things to be implemented, developed, and/or fixed.
And guess what? That’s where you come in.
The more users of a particular collections management system ask their vendor about when EODEM will be available to them, the more likely it will be to get a top spot on the roadmap. So, what you, yes, you, the only registrar on staff, the loan arranger, the museum professional who wears far too many hats, can do to export and import your exhibition data with a click of a button in the future, is simply to ask your vendor when you will see that option in your own database.
Nagging someone until they finally do it just because it is easier than saying “no” or “we will see about that” to you every single time sounds familiar to you? Ha! Thought so! It is basically the job description of a registrar. Which means, you will get EODEM if you put your mind to it.
Aberdeen South Breakwater Head Lighthouse (built 1815), picture by Jamie McLennan via Pixabay
Just a short update: Work on the next edition of “Managing Previously Unmanaged Collections” has begun. I start with doing a complete read-through, marking passages that are outdated, clumsily worded (I often used “he or she” which will now become “they”, for example), or could use a bit more clarification. If you have found something along these lines, please, let me know, a second pair of eyes is always best.
I have found a few colleagues willing to contribute real world examples and success stories, but I could still use a few examples from indigenous collections (preferably taken care of by people who have ties to the nations involved, but not a must) and digital collections.
If you happen to know someone who happens to know someone who knows someone… please spread the word!
In other news, I will be visiting Aberdeen at the beginning of September, doing my own version of work and travel – I will train a client and do some sightseeing and hiking in between. I am excited because the city itself and Aberdeenshire were still missing on my map! If you happen to live in the area and would like to get together over a coffee or a tea and some collections management chit-chat, drop me a line.
As a former collections manager it shouldn’t have come as a surprise that if you leave a blog mainly unattended for nearly 4 years it gathers dust. Well, not real dust, more… virtual dust?
After some research, I found a Feedburner alternative in follow.it. So, if you receive updates from a different service, now, it is because of that. I hope it works well, if it doesn’t, please let me know.
The next thing that has been on my to-do list for years was finding a theme that works well on mobile devices. This was rather time-consuming and I lost the language-sensitive header and some of the look-and-feel in the process, but I hope this one works well for you. Feedback about it is also appreciated.
Finally, I will probably not be as active as I was a few years back, too many things have changed, but this blog is still around, so if you got interesting stories or articles concerning our profession to share, please, get in touch!
It has been seven years since “Managing Previously Unmanaged Collections” first saw the light of day. Rowman & Littlefield kindly asked me if I want to do a new edition and I am inclined to shout: “Heck, yeah!”
But it has been a long while since the first edition and basically, I said all I had to say back then. So, I am handing it over to you: What do you want to see enhanced? What did you miss? What was unnecessary and can be “deaccessioned” in the new edition?
Also, I like to include more of your stories. Has the book helped you tackling a messy collection? Do you like to write a short real-world example? Please, get in contact, I would be delighted.
Have you used the book and it shows because it is dog-eared and full of notes? Please, I want to see those photos of the book in action! I also would very much like to show them on here.
The world has changed, but some things didn’t. Even after so many years not active here, you can still reach me under angela.kipp AT museumsprojekte.de
With the overtaking of twitter by some people I would rather not be affiliated with, and not making profit of me, I have changed to Mastodon as the friendlier alternative. You can find me there as @registrartrek@glammr.us although I am still in the process of figuring out what and how much I want to do over there.
Ah, yes, the Registrar Trek Blog is its own instance as well, you can get updates by following @admin@world.museumsprojekte.de from your Mastodon account.
Take care and I am looking forward to hearing from you!
accidentally, a test post was sent out earlier today. It was a post set up to experiment with the functionality of this site and, well, yes, it still works. I set it to a date in the future years ago and apparently, the future is today. So, sorry about that!
I suspect this is some kind of sign I should resume work on this site again, but, honestly, I’m still in the process of finding my feet and with family and work being all but unproblematic I have to ask for your patience.
The past year has been not a good one, so I’m looking forward to 2020. For the happier news I was able to do a trip to London and Scotland in September and met a few fantastic colleagues there. I will be leading a course on managing preciously unmanaged collections again, starting February 3 and there are some signs that the 6th Edition of our “bible” Museum Registration Methods will be out this year.
Until I feel able to write again, enjoy a few pictures of my trip.
Best wishes
Angela
My email provider has changed and I know I lost a few emails in the process of changing. From now on, would you all please use: angela.kipp (at) museumsprojekte.de Thanks!
I always loved Scotland and I fell even more in love with it with this trip. I was travelling by train without a real aim apart from meeting people and taking in the atmosphere.
Traveling up North I missed the train to Thurso due to a delay. Scot Rail organized a taxi to catch the missed train. I really wished such a service existed in Germany. Lovely overland trip, too.
One day I found myself on a ferry, heading for the Orkney Islands.
By chance (and by bus) I found myself in St. Margaret’s Hope, a lovely place. If you ever stop by, taste the scallops at the Murray Arms Hotel, the owners are scuba divers and fish them themselves. BTW I took the advice of an inhabitant to “Wait til the sunn cumms uuut” for this picture.
As I was soaked on my way from the Standing Stones I sought shelter and tea at the Maeshowe visitor center and met those lovely fellows. Yes, vikings didn’t have horns on their helmets. But you know what? If they don’t care, neither do I.
As a Whovian, I was very pleased with this discovery in Glasgow (I could argue the thing with the test post had to do with wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff happening, but I guess this reference would probably not convince most of you).
The thing I will remember the most about the trip will probably be the politeness of the people I met. As a representative, take this tea bag that only suggests how to treat it.
Interesting enough, the only highland cattle I met up close lives just about 5 km from my home town in Germany, so that’s that.
The Hausbachklamm near Weiler-Simmerberg, Bernd’s home town.
It is my sad duty to inform you that on March 25, exactly 11 years after his father, 4 days after his 51st birthday, my colleague, partner, soulmate and best friend Bernd passed away, suddenly and unexpected. I’m in the process of recollecting myself and at the moment I can’t carry on taking care of this blog. I hope to get back to it some time in the future, as he always said working on this project made me noticeably happy.
Meet the colleagues at Brandenburg / Havel Foto: Fritz Fabert
From 15th until 17th of April 2019 the specialized congress FOCUS: museum takes place at the archaeological state museum in Brandenburg an der Havel. This year is all about depot arrangement and collection management.
In numerous speeches, case studies and discussion formats the three-day congress at the Paulikloster in Brandenburg an der Havel is devoted to the issues: integrated project management for new building and rebuilding or rather refurbishment of collection depots, removal management, logistics and transportations, collection management, security, emergency and risk management, pest prevention, storage technology, collection software, inventory, indoor climate, light protection, energy efficiency, conservational aspects, funding opportunities as well as operational concepts.
The FOCUS event covers various culture institutes like big and small museums, archives plus the special case archaeological collections.
In the attendant communication formats like workshops and a fishbowl discussion, but also a joint dinner on the first or rather a small get-together on the second day of the event, there is the possibility to establish contacts with the participants and to discuss interdisciplinary issues. As usual, technical products and a range of services offered by specialist companies will be presented on the area in the approximately 1000m ² historic nave.
The program, further information and tickets are here available: www.focus-museum.de.
FOCUS: MUSEUM is organized by the non-profit organization “Friends of the archaeological state museum Brandenburg e.V.” (FALB) by order and in collaboration with the Brandenburg state office for the preservation of monuments and archaeological state museum (BLDAM).
Übertragung aus dem Deutschen ins Englische von Lina Lassak.
The days around Christmas are usually a bit calmer and easy going than the rest of the year. For me, it’s traditionally the time to tidy up my room and prepare for the upcoming year. I usually end up with a lot of boxes, one saying “projects in the works” for things I started off working on but for one reason or the other couldn’t follow through. There are a lot of things inside this time and there would be even more if it could contain virtual things like blog posts.
Looking forward to 2019 I can see it becoming an even more stressful year than 2018, both at work and in private. So, while I will work on (and hopefully finish) some of the blog posts in my virtual “projects in the works” box, I also know that I won’t be able to hang around the usual forums of museum professionals this year and thus won’t be able to frequently place a “Hey, how about writing something for Registrar Trek?” when I stumble upon some great story.
Whether it’s hands-on or more about theory, we need your help!
So, now it’s up to you. I ask you to either contribute your own stories and articles or encourage others who did something you think should be featured here. I can provide some help with editing and of course, we do have our team of translators on board, but we need you to help us with new blog posts!
Best wishes Angela
A project to break down language barriers and connect registrars worldwide
