18 December 2008. The UNESCO-ICCROM partnership for collections documentation will provide smaller museums from developing countries with the necessary skills and tools to analyze their current documentation systems and guide them through a user-friendly method for computerized documentation systems for their collections. Inexpensive, powerful, easy-to-use and efficient software will be identified and adapted to museum needs.

Preparatory phase: evaluation and dissemination of results

A survey was undertaken of the various documentation systems and initiatives that have taken place in museums over the last twenty years. It focused on a sample from sub-Saharan Africa (fourteen national museums in eleven different countries) and was carried out in partnership with the Ecole du Patrimoine Africain (EPA).

The outcome of this study was discussed in a workshop which highlighted the attempts and poor results, by various organizations and donor countries, to implement computerized documentation systems in museums with limited resources. In fact, ninety percent of the museums that tried to implement a computerized system had failed.

Some of the reasons for this failure were:

• incomplete inventories and catalogues;
• stacks of objects in storage areas;
• lack of continuity in staffing and/or lack of staff;
• lack of interest and support from the museum hierarchy;
• lack of follow-up and assistance during the implementation of the documentation system.

As a priority, UNESCO and ICCROM decided to develop an approach to stress the importance of performing tasks which are the basis for all museum documentation systems, such as, ensuring that all collections items are numbered, registered in a bound accession register, and have a location code.

The results of the survey are now being shared with other regions, notably Latin America and Asia. Furthermore, an online guide with links to other resources available on the Internet is being prepared in French, English and Spanish.

For further information, contact: collections (at) iccrom . org

updated on: 22 December, 2008