Collection (museum)

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A museum is distinguished by a collection of often unique objects that forms the core of its activities for exhibitions, education, research, etc. This differentiates it from an archive, library, etc., where the contents may be more paper-based, replaceable and less exhibition oriented. A museum normally has a collecting policy for new acquisitions, so only objects in certain categories and of a certain quality are accepted into the collection.

Museum collections, and archives in general, are normally catalogued, traditionally in a card index, but nowadays in a computerized database. Transferring collection catalogues onto computer-based media is a major undertaking for most museums. All new acquisitions are normally catalogued on a computer in modern museums, but there is typically a backlog of old catalogue entries to be computerized as time and funding allows.

[edit] Deaccessioning

Deaccessioning, the process of disposing, selling or trading objects from a museum collection, is not undertaken lightly in most museums. There may be ethical issues to consider since many donors of objects typically expect the museum to care for them in perpetuity. Deaccessioning of an object in a collection may be appropriate if a museum has more that one example of that object and if the object is being transferred to another museum. A famous example of controversial deaccessioning is the last remaining complete Dodo in a museum collection at Oxford University due to its deterioration. Another example is the sale of a J. M. W. Turner painting in the collection of Royal Holloway, University of London to the Getty Museum to fund the maintenance of the building, despite the fact that the original benefactor had expressly requested the collection to be kept intact.

In the United Kingdom, guidelines governing deaccessioning and other ethically difficult issues can be found in the Museums Association's Code of Ethics.