Hillary Bauer - Head of the Cultural Property Unit, UK Department for Culture, Media and Sport |
"Indemnities" breakout session - Increasing the Mobility of Collections Conference |
Astrid Weij - Advisor on International Affairs, Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, The Netherlands
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"Building up Trust" breakout session - Increasing the Mobility of Collections Conference |
Conference attendees - Increasing the Mobility of Collections Presidency Conference |
Paul Williamson - Museums and Gallery Director, Constantine Limited |
Background information
United Kingdom Registrars' Group Standard Facilities Report:
This Facilities Report was devised by the United Kingdom Registrars’ Group (UKRG) in consultation with the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council.
The form will enable lenders to assess the practicalities involved in making loans. It is intended to help both borrowers and lenders identify potential problems and reach agreement on how these can be resolved.
Collections for the Future: report of a Museums Association inquiry
The result of an 18 month inquiry into every aspect of collections management, with input from over 500 organisations and individuals, the report looks at a range of issues from open storage and a distributed national collection to working with private owners, acquisition, transfer and disposal.
Loans Between National and Non-national Museums: New Standards and Practical Guidelines
This document, commissioned by the National Museum Directors' Conference in September 2001 and produced by a working party made up of representatives of both national and regional museums, sets out standards that national museums should meet relating to loans to museums within the UK.
International Committee of Museums (ICOM) Code of Ethics
The cornerstone of ICOM is its Code of Ethics for Museums. The Code sets minimum standards of professional practice and performance for museums and their staff. In joining the organisation, ICOM members undertake to abide by this Code.
http://icom.museum/ethics.html
Study No. 2003-4879 Commissioned by the European Commission to inventory national systems of public guarantees in 31 countries
The Directorate-General for Education and Culture of the European Commission issued an invitation to tender for a study to inventory national systems of public guarantees relating to exhibitions held in Europe. The result of this invitation is the publication of "Study No.2003-4879, Commissioned by the European Commission to inventory national systems of public guarantees in 31 countries" which was produced by Reunion Des Musees Nationaux Etablissement Publica A Caractere Industriel Et Commercial (EPIC) Paris (France) in collaboration with Staatliche Museen Zu Berlin Preussischer Kulturbesitz Berlin (Germany). The Study looks into the principles underlying liability and determines how current risks are assessed. It also provides a comparative analysis of state indemnity systems or, as in some cases, their absence, and includes a detailed description of each national system.
UK Government Indemnity Scheme for National Museums
 PDF (866kb)
The UK Government Indemnity Scheme allows the public access to objects within the UK, which might not otherwise be available, by providing borrowers with an alternative to the considerable cost of commercial insurance. This guidance gives all the information about the GIS; what it is and how it works.
UK Government Indemnity Scheme for Non-National Museums
The Museums Libraries and Archives Council is a non-governmental public body which administers the UK Government Indemnity Scheme for both the national and non-national museums.
Collections Mobility and Museum Standards
Information and Mobility
Collections information management is a key element of promoting the mobility of collections between cultural institutions in different countries.
Every stage in moving an object from one institution to another requires the transfer of information about the object. This information might include details of the originating museum or gallery, the provenance and history of the object, and specific details about the requirements for preservation and care.
The SPECTRUM Standard
SPECTRUM is a nationally and internationally recognised standard for the management of information about objects in collections. As a requirement of the Museum Accreditation Scheme, SPECTRUM is in active use in over 1800 Registered or Accredited museums throughout the UK.
SPECTRUM Internationally
Over 50% of the registered user base for the SPECTRUM standard originates outside the UK. The standard is embedded in professional practice in most EU member states, with particularly strong support in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Greece and Latvia.
SPECTRUM is maintained in trust on behalf of the sector by MDA (formerly the Museum Documentation Association), funded by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA). It is available free of charge and can be downloaded from http://www.mda.org.uk/spectrum.htm.
MDA is actively involved in discussions with partners throughout Europe to progress the localisation of SPECTRUM for each Member state.
The Benefits of Standardisation
SPECTRUM delivers two significant advantages for cultural institutions. Firstly, it ensures that effective business processes are in place so that information about objects is managed effectively. Secondly, it provides a standard structure for that information.
Having a standard structure for information means that it can be shared quickly and easily between different institutions. By automating the process of transferring this information through the use of XML, this structure can deliver real efficiencies for museums, which in turn facilitates the mobility of collections.
The Future
The ultimate goal of the SPECTRUM standard is to reduce the administrative overheads associated with collections mobility, and to give the cultural sector a robust framework for information transfer based on best professional practice.
The contact on SPECTRUM is Nick Poole, Director - nick@mda.org.uk
Museum Accreditation Scheme
MLA's Museum Accreditation Scheme sets nationally agreed standards for UK museums. To qualify, museums must meet clear basic requirements on how they care for and document their collections, how they are governed and managed, and on the information and services they offer to their users.
Lending to Europe; Recommendations on collections mobility for European museums
This is a report produced by an independent group of experts, set up by Council resolution 13839/04 and chaired by Ronald de Leeuw , Director General Rijksmuseum, Netherlands. It sets out a number of recommendations aimed to encourage collection mobility in the European Union by stimulating a larger number of European institutions to be more involved cultural exchange.
Dynamic Action Plan for the EU co-ordination of digitisation of cultural and scientific content
The Lund action plan ran until earlier this year, and it was agreed that the Netherlands, Luxembourg and the UK would take the lead in drafting a new Dynamic Action Plan. The development of this new Plan has been one of DCMS’s priorities for the UK Presidency, and represents a major landmark in collaborative working by European Member States in the cultural and heritage fields. The new Plan will guide the future coordination of digitisation activity within EU Member States, with the vision of creating a European Cultural Information space. This will provide rich and diverse cultural resources to support education and research, tourism and the creative industries, and to enable digital access by all citizens to the national, regional and local cultural heritage of Europe.
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