Staff Survey
We conducted a survey of museum professionals in 2013 to gauge the demographics, responsibilities, challenges, and training needs of collection care staff. The 768 respondents included collection managers, registrars, technicians, conservators, and other staff. Respondents reflected a variety of backgrounds and experience, but interestingly most had academic backgrounds, like Art History and Science, and required further training in collection care. A comparison of areas of expertise required and held indicated the greatest needs were in the areas of preservation planning, collection risk assessment, and emergency preparedness. Many respondents are interested in greater access to conservation information. They indicated that top priorities for the network include advocating for collections care, low cost collections care training and professional development, and access to up-to-date and reliable conservation information. We will use the information collected in this survey to craft future initiatives and programming.
Collection Care and Management Staff Titles and Responsibilities Survey
Staff responsible for the care and management of collections is a growing segment of staffing in collecting cultural heritage institutions. Continued research into preventive conservation and sustainable collection management practice has spurred development of an increasingly professional staffing element to manage physical, informational, and legal aspects of fulfilling an institution’s duties of care towards collections it holds in the public trust. We seek to support and encourage collaboration among all people engaged in collection care in order to further preservation of cultural heritage. This 2016 survey focuses exclusively on collection care and management professionals within institutions.