Documentation
Documentation and cataloguing are vital aspects of effective and accountable Collections Management. Building on MDA's 30 years experience of delivering standards and support to the UK and international documentation community, the Collections Trust is the recognised authority in the field.
Museums, archives and libraries are knowledge organisations – which means that knowledge and information are their most important raw materials in delivering services to users.
The processes of acquiring, caring for and creating access to collections all involve the creation and management of many different types of information. Managing this information helps the organisation:
- Provide access to their collections (both physically and online);
- Research and learn from their collections;
- Conserve and care for their collections;
- Meet their statutory and civil duty to be accountable;
- Deliver services more cost-effectively and with greater impact.
The next generation of documentation specialists are focussing on issues such as organisation-wide knowledge management and the convergence of best practice between museums, archives and libraries. The Collections Trust is working to support these developments through initiatives such as the BSI standard for Collections Management and the SPECTRUM Standards Framework.
