‘The Case for Collections Management’ by Nick Poole, CEO of Collections Trust.
Times of economic and political hardship have a powerful way of focussing the mind. Since the first impact of the credit crunch in 2008, organisations everywhere have had to look to their core business, to simplify their operation and to get creative in finding new ways of adding value to people’s lives.
In this kind of environment, managers have to make a simple calculation – things which contribute to the bottom-line of the organisation and enable it to make the most of new opportunities come to the fore. Things which do not are ‘restructured’, reduced or removed entirely.
Museums, libraries and archives depend on a seamless cooperation between front and back-of-house. None of the rich online or offline experiences they create is possible without effective stewardship of the collections. Stewardship of the collections has no purpose if it is not driven by delivery.
Collections managers everywhere find themselves challenged to demonstrate that their role is to power the progress of their museum, library or archive. We must recognise that some of our colleagues perceive standards and processes as a constraint on creativity, rather enabling it.
Our challenge as a community is to find ways of expressing the value and impact of collections management, not in terms of what we do, but of why we do it and of what we can deliver both in terms of greater efficiency and greater public value for our organisations and their users.
There is a view in today’s sector that investment in ‘infrastructure’ detracts from investment in delivery; that we ought to focus on exhibitions, display, interpretation and outreach. These things are important, but failing to invest in infrastructure is failing to invest in the future – we do not want to look back in 20 years time and look on this period as a ‘dark age’ in which collections were lost, the chain of knowledge was broken and the sector as a whole failed to record the progress of science, industry, art and society. We cannot afford to buy short-term stability at the expense of our relevance to future generations.
The key themes of OpenCulture 2012 (the annual collections management conference from the Collections Trust) are ‘Sustainable Collections’ and ‘Sustainable Organisations’. There is a deep intrinsic connection between these two factors – no organisation will be sustainable without a relevant, engaging, well-managed collection. No collection can be sustainable in a context of continued organisational constraint.
Collections management is not about process, or standards, or protocols, it is about delivery. It is about ensuring that all of the resources of the organisation, whether physical , digital or intellectual, can be harnessed effectively to create rich, meaningful personal experiences for audiences. Find out more about how the international collections management community is finding new ways of delivering value at OpenCulture 2012.
OpenCulture 2012 takes place on the 26th and 27th June at the Kia Oval, London. For more information please call 020 7942 6080 or e-mail events@collectionstrust.org.uk.
