Kathryne,
Congratulations on undertaking this great project! It's a task of the utmost importance that SO many museums defer unto eternity.
You've already gotten some great suggestions. I don't disagree with anything except the idea of getting full cataloging information for each object as you go. Below, I'll explain how I recommend simultaneously getting a fast and simple count AND a slow proper cataloging.
Thirtysome years ago when I was new to the field, I participated in the first inventory project ever to reach completion at the Atwater Kent Museum of Philadelphia History. The museum was well over 100 years old at the time, and no prior inventory attempt had ever been finished. We were starting from a catalog in the form of 5x7 index cards, some handwritten and some typed, going back to the founding of the museum and covering at best 70% of the collection. By the time we were done, the museum's brag list had to be amended from "over 100,000 objects and documents" to "over 125,000 objects and documents." We did this at the time that the first Windows-based collection software was becoming available and we were the beta test institution (though the software company never admitted it nor gave us a discount for the hundreds of hours we spent troubleshooting with them).
There are things I learned on that project that have served me through all the years, all the different museums and their different collection topics, and all the evolution of software. I'll try to list some constants for you:
1) Now is the time to get your location coding right, before the first object gets inventoried or else you'll wind up doing a lot of re-working in mid-inventory. Every shelf in every storeroom, every exhibit gallery, every staff office, every hallway and loading dock where collections objects may sit for even one overnight needs a location. NEVER name a room for who works there or similar, you're creating a system to last as long as the building. Standardize a location code for N, S, E and W walls within rooms and hallways. Standardize a code for resting on the floor and a code for hanging from the ceiling. Standardize whether shelving unit numbers start from the left or the right as you enter a room.Standardize whether shelf 1 is the top shelf or the bottom shelf and what shelf number is the exterior top of every cabinet where someone will inevitably store something someday. Standardize a shelf number for the floor in front of a shelving unit because things will wind up there, too. My storeroom codes usually look like Room;Unit;Shelf so an object in basement room 2, unit 7 shelf 4 would have location 002;07;04. A painting on the East wall of the director's office on the 3rd floor would look like 304;EW;00. When every spot in the building has a location code, you're ready to start inventorying objects.
2) Get The Powers That Be on board with your Found In Collection plan. You don't want a debate around that to derail your inventory while underway, you want to tag objects and move on, and deal with the unidentified objects once the inventory is done. I like to give objects a distinctive number that indicates when the object was found, like FIC2020.01.01 or 9920.01.01 if your year field has to be 4 numerals. Give each "find" or "find group" a donation group number so you can track what was found together in case one clue reveals the origins of the whole batch.
3) Get serious about standardizing object descriptions. Chenhall's Nomenclature is the old standard, and it works for a lot of kinds of collections but isn't great for art museums. Whatever you decide upon, be vigilant that every staff member uses the system the same way. If one person is going to list an object as a Watercolor and another would call it a Painting, your inventory is doomed.
4) Get the critical data and then worry about the details. Depending upon the expertise of your staff, you might want to divide up into teams that do quick and dirty counting and teams that gather details. Here's an example of how I would do that using a paper preliminary inventory that would be data-entered either after completion of the paper inventory or by a separate data entry team. Of course, if you've got networked laptops or tablets you can adapt this to your system: The Quick and Dirty team consists of non-Collections staff. They go room to room and fill in location sheets. Every shelf, drawer, wall, ceiling, etc. gets a sheet or sheets upon which they record the accession number and a rough description (not worrying about official nomenclature) of every object in that location. They place a colored post-it on each shelf to indicate that it's finished either with 100% clearly numbered objects, or complete with some unidentified objects. When they finish a chest of drawers or a wall or whatever, they affix the rough sheets for each shelf, drawer, etc. to the storage unit and move on. They will finish fairly quickly and then either support the detailed team or return to their usual duties. The details teams consist of the collections professionals, each leading an assistant, forming as many teams as possible. They go behind the Q&D team and verify their work. They check each object against the catalog information already recorded for that accession number as they enter its location into the catalog. They then correct the object description, measure, photograph, and otherwise record details about each object as needed to complete its catalog entry. They label unlabeled objects where possible, and tag FIC numbers onto unidentified objects before entering their location and descriptive information into the catalog under the FIC number. They remove the post-its for 100% complete shelves as they go, but leave the post-its for shelves with FIC to aid followup after the inventory. This work will take about twice as long as your worst-case scenario. But you'll have the basic "what is where" from the quick and dirty team, which should give you an accurate list of every object in the building (many mis-named, but it's a start) and where to find them. A data-entry intern can turn the sheets into an Excel spreadsheet to use until the detail team verifies the work and enters it in the catalog.
I hope that's helpful.
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Adam Zuckerman
Principal
A-Z Museum Services
Sandy Hook, CT
AdamZ@A-ZMuseumSvc.com------------------------------
Original Message:
Sent: 09-02-2020 03:11 PM
From: Vanessa Brosie
Subject: Collection Inventory
Hello Everyone,
I am the Collection Coordinator at the Zanesville Museum of Art in Ohio. We will be closing to the public this winter to tackle a complete inventory of our 8,000+ art object collection. A complete inventory has not been done for several years, so the current staff has not participated in one at this institution.
We have PastPerfect 5 and are looking into the Inventory Manager upgrade. Would this be helpful for us?
Since we will be closed to the public, the entire 6-person staff will be dedicated to this project. How would you recommend we divide the work load? I also thought we might utilize gallery space instead of conducting the full inventory in Storage. Would this be a good idea?
Aside from the obvious tasks of verifying accession number and location, completing a brief condition report, and photographing, are there other tasks you would suggest completing during a full inventory? We won't have this opportunity of closing the museum and dedicating time solely to an inventory again, so I want to use the time wisely and efficiently.
Thank you for your help!
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Kathryne Applegate
Collection Coordinator
Zanesville Museum of Art
Zanesville OH
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