Open Forum

Good Afternoon,

The Valdez Museum & Historical Archive is a small museum with a very passionate and dedicated staff that work tirelessly to preform the mission of our institution.  I am fortunate to have a full time Curator of Collections & Exhibitions and a full time Curator of Education & Public Programs.  We have an annual operating budget of roughly $750,000 with a collection of roughly 75,000 + items. These items range from documents in the archives to large artifacts such as a 1907 Ahrens Steamer Fire Truck and everything in between. Our collection is not stagnant.  We continue to collect.  As a small museum my staff and I wear multiple hats and work collaboratively as a team but are not able to spend every hour on cataloguing the collection.  

Today, I was informed by a Board Member that the Museum's collection should be 100% catalogued.  At present, our collection is 75% fully catalogued and over 90% with bare bones documentation.

I am curious, is your collection 100% catalogued?  

A collection that size with that kind of record?  You're doing pretty good.  I interviewed last week and was told the collections position I was seeking had to manage a 10 year backlog, which was apparently not as bad as the 40 year backlog of the director's colleague.  The small museums I've worked for have had significantly less processed - with collections or archives better cataloged over the other.  Obviously in a perfect world, yes every piece would be properly cataloged, but that isn't always the case for smaller museums or those with poor funding.   Larger museums have better resources and funding to make this happen, though, and those members who work for such organizations could easily provide guidance in getting that last 25% processed.  If you're looking to speed up the cataloging process, consider training volunteers to help with paperwork, storage, and electronic database entering.  This is also good for interns as well.

Good Afternoon,

The Valdez Museum & Historical Archive is a small museum with a very passionate and dedicated staff that work tirelessly to preform the mission of our institution.  I am fortunate to have a full time Curator of Collections & Exhibitions and a full time Curator of Education & Public Programs.  We have an annual operating budget of roughly $750,000 with a collection of roughly 75,000 + items. These items range from documents in the archives to large artifacts such as a 1907 Ahrens Steamer Fire Truck and everything in between. Our collection is not stagnant.  We continue to collect.  As a small museum my staff and I wear multiple hats and work collaboratively as a team but are not able to spend every hour on cataloguing the collection.  

Today, I was informed by a Board Member that the Museum's collection should be 100% catalogued.  At present, our collection is 75% fully catalogued and over 90% with bare bones documentation.

I am curious, is your collection 100% catalogued?  

Good Afternoon,

The Valdez Museum & Historical Archive is a small museum with a very passionate and dedicated staff that work tirelessly to preform the mission of our institution.  I am fortunate to have a full time Curator of Collections & Exhibitions and a full time Curator of Education & Public Programs.  We have an annual operating budget of roughly $750,000 with a collection of roughly 75,000 + items. These items range from documents in the archives to large artifacts such as a 1907 Ahrens Steamer Fire Truck and everything in between. Our collection is not stagnant.  We continue to collect.  As a small museum my staff and I wear multiple hats and work collaboratively as a team but are not able to spend every hour on cataloguing the collection.  

Today, I was informed by a Board Member that the Museum's collection should be 100% catalogued.  At present, our collection is 75% fully catalogued and over 90% with bare bones documentation.

I am curious, is your collection 100% catalogued?  

I also work for a small museum, and I've volunteered with small museums in the past. I agree with what others have said; 75% documentation in some form or another is pretty good for a small museum, even if much of it is bare bones.

Good Afternoon,

The Valdez Museum & Historical Archive is a small museum with a very passionate and dedicated staff that work tirelessly to preform the mission of our institution.  I am fortunate to have a full time Curator of Collections & Exhibitions and a full time Curator of Education & Public Programs.  We have an annual operating budget of roughly $750,000 with a collection of roughly 75,000 + items. These items range from documents in the archives to large artifacts such as a 1907 Ahrens Steamer Fire Truck and everything in between. Our collection is not stagnant.  We continue to collect.  As a small museum my staff and I wear multiple hats and work collaboratively as a team but are not able to spend every hour on cataloguing the collection.  

Today, I was informed by a Board Member that the Museum's collection should be 100% catalogued.  At present, our collection is 75% fully catalogued and over 90% with bare bones documentation.

I am curious, is your collection 100% catalogued?  

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Patricia Relay
Executive Director
Valdez Museum & Historical Archive
Valdez AK
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Good Afternoon,

The Valdez Museum & Historical Archive is a small museum with a very passionate and dedicated staff that work tirelessly to preform the mission of our institution.  I am fortunate to have a full time Curator of Collections & Exhibitions and a full time Curator of Education & Public Programs.  We have an annual operating budget of roughly $750,000 with a collection of roughly 75,000 + items. These items range from documents in the archives to large artifacts such as a 1907 Ahrens Steamer Fire Truck and everything in between. Our collection is not stagnant.  We continue to collect.  As a small museum my staff and I wear multiple hats and work collaboratively as a team but are not able to spend every hour on cataloguing the collection.  

Today, I was informed by a Board Member that the Museum's collection should be 100% catalogued.  At present, our collection is 75% fully catalogued and over 90% with bare bones documentation.

I am curious, is your collection 100% catalogued?  

Greetings from Sitka, AK!  The Sitka History Museum is a small institution with a sizable collection.  The only other permanent employee besides myself is the Executive Director.  We have roughly over 8,000 artifacts, over 100,000 archives, and nearly 25,000 photos.  Only about 25% of our collections have a comprehensive digital catalog entry.  We have hard-copy accession files for many more, but with vastly varying degrees of information.  The museum closed in August for major renovations and we decided to use the opportunity to enhance our understanding of our collection.  We have brought on a collections management fellow for a defined term just to audit and digitally catalog the collection.  Our Board graciously dipped into our hard-earned savings to provide room and a stipend to the fellow and a grant helped us offset the cost of setting up a temporary collections lab, complete with a fresh stock of archival supplies.  I have no delusions that the collection will be 100% cataloged by the time we open our new facility in spring of 2017.  Based on our current pace, we would be lucky to make it to 50%.  But...we will be closer than we were on August 1st of this year.  75% would be a dream for us and something the Valdez Museum should be proud of.     

Good Afternoon,

The Valdez Museum & Historical Archive is a small museum with a very passionate and dedicated staff that work tirelessly to preform the mission of our institution.  I am fortunate to have a full time Curator of Collections & Exhibitions and a full time Curator of Education & Public Programs.  We have an annual operating budget of roughly $750,000 with a collection of roughly 75,000 + items. These items range from documents in the archives to large artifacts such as a 1907 Ahrens Steamer Fire Truck and everything in between. Our collection is not stagnant.  We continue to collect.  As a small museum my staff and I wear multiple hats and work collaboratively as a team but are not able to spend every hour on cataloguing the collection.  

Today, I was informed by a Board Member that the Museum's collection should be 100% catalogued.  At present, our collection is 75% fully catalogued and over 90% with bare bones documentation.

I am curious, is your collection 100% catalogued?  

Good Afternoon,

The Valdez Museum & Historical Archive is a small museum with a very passionate and dedicated staff that work tirelessly to preform the mission of our institution.  I am fortunate to have a full time Curator of Collections & Exhibitions and a full time Curator of Education & Public Programs.  We have an annual operating budget of roughly $750,000 with a collection of roughly 75,000 + items. These items range from documents in the archives to large artifacts such as a 1907 Ahrens Steamer Fire Truck and everything in between. Our collection is not stagnant.  We continue to collect.  As a small museum my staff and I wear multiple hats and work collaboratively as a team but are not able to spend every hour on cataloguing the collection.  

Today, I was informed by a Board Member that the Museum's collection should be 100% catalogued.  At present, our collection is 75% fully catalogued and over 90% with bare bones documentation.

I am curious, is your collection 100% catalogued?