Things Great and Small: Collections Management Policies

by John E. Simmons

Collections care is a core responsibility for all museums that own, care for, or use collections. The foundation stone for good collections care is a good collections management policy. Things Great and Small is the first to comprehensively address how to write such a policy for any type of museum. Drawing on his extensive experience - as director of the University of Kansas museum studies program, collections manager at the university's museum of natural history, and surveyor for AAM's Museum Assessment Program - John Simmons reviews the issues that a collections management policy should address and the pros and cons of choosing one policy option over another.

Genres: Museums, Museology, Nonfiction, School, Professional Development, Textbooks

212 pages, Paperback

First published December 20, 2005

Reviews

[Brianna Melick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great textbook for anyone interested in museum studies or collections care. It makes a topic that one author can do in 500 pages narrowed down into quick and easy chapters that are understandable and include real-world examples and some hilarious jokes!

[Julia Waters · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good, thorough resource for beginners to collections management. As for explaining the what a good collections management policy should contain, it did a the job comprehensively. It seems like a work collections staff could refer to often. However, I felt it could have done a better job explaining concepts.

For example: a good number of the “When Policy Meets Reality” boxes seemed almost made to just take up room. They’d highlight an interesting story or situation, but wouldn’t explain the implications of examples given, evaluate them, or offer guidance. Sort of like, “Look at this quirky thing that happened!” Without the “Here’s how it came about or could have been handled differently.” That was frustrating since it left readers on their own rather than providing a real learning opportunity.

[Doria · Rating 5 out of 5]

When was the last time you read a textbook for a class that you looked forward to reading? It’s rare, in my experience, but not impossible. This book, besides being an invaluable resource for museum registrars, is well-written, handily organized, and even occasionally funny. Each chapter is pithy and to-the-point, offering valuable overviews of relevant topics (i.e., intellectual property, collections management, etc), as well as appendices of necessary forms and sources for specifics.

Best of all, your reward at the end of each chapter is a short example of a relevant policy portion written for an imaginary entity, such as the Museum of Contrafactual Science, or the Museum of Mediocre Art. Believe me, when studying something as dry as museum registrarial techniques - integrated pest management, anyone? - a little humor goes a long way. Insurance coverage for traveling exhibitions? No worries. Federal Wildlife Regulation Compliance? Bring it on. Deaccessioning protocol? Have at it, and enjoy!

When paired with the exhaustively encyclopedic doorstop MRM5, these two tomes will render museum registrars invincible.

[Jarrod S · Rating 4 out of 5]

Concise but helpful.

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well-written, east to digest guide to creating collections management policies. Good reference for museum professionals.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

All things collections management. The reference book I go back to again, and again, and again.

[Jarrod Showalter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Concise but helpful.

[Adrianna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very, very, very helpful to establishing a Collections Management Policy for your museum or also updating the CMP as well. I found it to be a treasure-trove of information.

[Kajsa]

Not an exciting read, but remarkably helpful for my update to our Collections Management Policy.