Cataloguing 8 pages of a talk someone gave their colleagues on the keeping of budgies. Work social events were wild in the 1950s. #MuseumDocumentation
February 10, 2026 at 1:52 PM
Cataloguing 8 pages of a talk someone gave their colleagues on the keeping of budgies. Work social events were wild in the 1950s. #MuseumDocumentation
Always nice to see acquisition policies and procedures explained! #MuseumDocumentation
Many people would describe our collection as ‘a bit random’, but we prefer the term ‘eclectic’! But this doesn’t mean that we just accept any object or archive that comes our way. Find out more about our process for making decisions about which artefacts to select: www.sgsoc.org/accepting-ar...
Accepting artefacts - Spalding Gentlemen's Society
When we're offered an object, we consider it at the Collections Committee and come up with a rationale for why it does or does not fit with our aims.
www.sgsoc.org
February 13, 2026 at 11:41 PM
Always nice to see acquisition policies and procedures explained! #MuseumDocumentation
Obviously I love a provenance discussion for all museum objects but I aspire to the level of cool to be able to put the paperwork for a SPACE SHUTTLE in a gallery
July 28, 2025 at 6:07 AM
And it's the #MuseumDocumentation that lets you tell those stories. Without it, you just have a pile of ... things.
you can tell stories about objects, you can tell stories with objects, but the objects don't tell the stories, people do. people tell stories.
August 2, 2026 at 9:27 AM
And it's the #MuseumDocumentation that lets you tell those stories. Without it, you just have a pile of ... things.
Blackwood also devised a classification system for anthropological artefacts that lies at the root of #MuseumDocumentation systems in several museums
On Friday 29 May the Oxfordshire Blue Plaques Scheme unveiled a new plaque commemorating Beatrice Blackwood, a pioneering anthropologist & curator at Pitt Rivers Museum, who worked in the Museum from the late 1930s until a few days before her death in 1975.
www.oxonblueplaques.org.uk/plaques/blac...
www.oxonblueplaques.org.uk/plaques/blac...
June 1, 2026 at 3:15 PM
Blackwood also devised a classification system for anthropological artefacts that lies at the root of #MuseumDocumentation systems in several museums
Ever wanted to construct a graph of the National Gallery's collection information? Now you can: www.nationalgallery.org.uk/documentatio... #MuseumDocumentation #MuseumComputing #HumanitiesComputing
Graph data | Collection data | National Gallery, London
How to retrieve graph data from the Gallery's Elasticsearch API
www.nationalgallery.org.uk
September 24, 2026 at 2:56 PM
Ever wanted to construct a graph of the National Gallery's collection information? Now you can: www.nationalgallery.org.uk/documentatio... #MuseumDocumentation #MuseumComputing #HumanitiesComputing
Today, the National Gallery has put 200 catalogue entries online - 2.2M words, 2,850 images. www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/ca... #MuseumDocumentation
Strap in and buckle up ...
Strap in and buckle up ...
Catalogues | Paintings | National Gallery, London
Read online extracts from National Gallery catalogues
www.nationalgallery.org.uk
March 18, 2025 at 11:03 AM
Today, the National Gallery has put 200 catalogue entries online - 2.2M words, 2,850 images. www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/ca... #MuseumDocumentation
Strap in and buckle up ...
Strap in and buckle up ...
#MuseumDocumentation : please tell @jdk653.bsky.social how you manage not to kill your colleagues and visitors
We’re running an anonymous survey to better understand how museums manage hazards in collections. It takes 5-10 minutes, is open to anyone working with collections, and helps shape future guidance and sector support. Closing date 15th February.
www.surveymonkey.com/r/G98JRXK Please share.
www.surveymonkey.com/r/G98JRXK Please share.
January 21, 2026 at 7:00 PM
#MuseumDocumentation : please tell @jdk653.bsky.social how you manage not to kill your colleagues and visitors
And the National Gallery's website now displays a provenance for every painting in the main collection (but not a timeline: image is for illustrative purposes only!) - I've written a bit about it at rupertshepherd.info/documentatio... #MuseumDocumentation
News from the National Gallery – 3
Alongside the 200 online catalogue entries in 200 Paintings for 200 Years, and the bibliographies and exhibition histories I wrote about recently, the National Gallery has now put on its website a …
rupertshepherd.info
March 28, 2025 at 5:01 PM
And the National Gallery's website now displays a provenance for every painting in the main collection (but not a timeline: image is for illustrative purposes only!) - I've written a bit about it at rupertshepherd.info/documentatio... #MuseumDocumentation
Excuse me while I blow my own 🎺. On Thursday morning, I'm discussing "What next for collections management?" with Aruna Bhuageerutty, @davidgelsthorpe.bsky.social & @horusofnekhen.bsky.social on for the annual Collections Trust conference #MuseumDocumentation collectionstrust.org.uk/events/confe...
Conference 2025 programme - Collections Trust
Read details of the conference programme here.
collectionstrust.org.uk
September 30, 2025 at 8:40 PM
Excuse me while I blow my own 🎺. On Thursday morning, I'm discussing "What next for collections management?" with Aruna Bhuageerutty, @davidgelsthorpe.bsky.social & @horusofnekhen.bsky.social on for the annual Collections Trust conference #MuseumDocumentation collectionstrust.org.uk/events/confe...
Museum people really are the best people! Just had a lovely chat about natural history data management with a colleague from another museum. #MuseumDocumentation
March 20, 2025 at 3:36 PM
Museum people really are the best people! Just had a lovely chat about natural history data management with a colleague from another museum. #MuseumDocumentation
You know you've reached a ... certain stage ... in your life when you discover that your child is being taught the CIDOC-CRM #MuseumDocumentation #ChipOffTheOldBlock
January 17, 2025 at 10:42 PM
You know you've reached a ... certain stage ... in your life when you discover that your child is being taught the CIDOC-CRM #MuseumDocumentation #ChipOffTheOldBlock
Big and *great* news! @artukdotorg.bsky.social, @collectionstrust.bsky.social & @uniofleicester.bsky.social couldn't have made a better choice. Really looking forward to working with @miaout.bsky.social to maximise the use of the National Gallery's & UK'S #MuseumDocumentation data.
Big news! I'm incredibly privileged to take on leadership of the Museum Data Service while continuing half-time in my role at the British Library. The MDS is already a success story, and I'm so excited about taking it further! artuk.org/discover/sto...
artuk.org
April 16, 2026 at 2:06 PM
Big and *great* news! @artukdotorg.bsky.social, @collectionstrust.bsky.social & @uniofleicester.bsky.social couldn't have made a better choice. Really looking forward to working with @miaout.bsky.social to maximise the use of the National Gallery's & UK'S #MuseumDocumentation data.
Or, if you are working with #MuseumDocumentation, of course you know all this already; but your colleagues who provide you with a lovingly-crafted Excel spreadsheet may not: share it with them!
The P45 Data Collective Tabular Data Style Guide is now live! If you are a researcher, student, librarian, or instructor working with cultural data, this style guide is for you. data.post45.org/style-guide....
Post45 Data Collective Tabular Data Style Guide – Post45 Data Collective
data.post45.org
May 21, 2026 at 8:58 PM
Or, if you are working with #MuseumDocumentation, of course you know all this already; but your colleagues who provide you with a lovingly-crafted Excel spreadsheet may not: share it with them!
Somebody really went to town on the #MuseumDocumentation for this one ... #WholesParts
April 15, 2026 at 1:29 PM
Somebody really went to town on the #MuseumDocumentation for this one ... #WholesParts
Question for all you #MuseumDocumentation people out there ⬇️
Museum question- does anyone track works after/inspired by a collections object within a CMS? Interesting ways of documenting these kinds of connections (outside of file notes, etc.?)
July 29, 2025 at 6:35 AM
Question for all you #MuseumDocumentation people out there ⬇️
This ⬇️
"Funders increasingly talk about resilience and sustainability. Achieving robust inventory documentation is one of the clearest examples of both." 1/2
#MuseumDocumentation @collectionstrust.bsky.social
www.museumsassociation.org/museums-jour...
"Funders increasingly talk about resilience and sustainability. Achieving robust inventory documentation is one of the clearest examples of both." 1/2
#MuseumDocumentation @collectionstrust.bsky.social
www.museumsassociation.org/museums-jour...
Getting to grips with our collections - Museums Association
Museums must commit to 100% inventory-level documentation ahead of their next NPO applications, says Laura Pye
www.museumsassociation.org
August 14, 2026 at 8:19 PM
This ⬇️
"Funders increasingly talk about resilience and sustainability. Achieving robust inventory documentation is one of the clearest examples of both." 1/2
#MuseumDocumentation @collectionstrust.bsky.social
www.museumsassociation.org/museums-jour...
"Funders increasingly talk about resilience and sustainability. Achieving robust inventory documentation is one of the clearest examples of both." 1/2
#MuseumDocumentation @collectionstrust.bsky.social
www.museumsassociation.org/museums-jour...
📜Do you work with collections information in a UK museum? 🗃️Would you like to contribute to research on how the history & practice of #MuseumDocumentation has impacted #DigitalCollections & #MuseTech? Please complete this survey & share with colleagues leicester.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/history-and-...
Backlog: The history and practice of collections documentation and museums' contribution to the digi...
Online survey BOS
leicester.onlinesurveys.ac.uk
November 15, 2023 at 10:55 AM
📜Do you work with collections information in a UK museum? 🗃️Would you like to contribute to research on how the history & practice of #MuseumDocumentation has impacted #DigitalCollections & #MuseTech? Please complete this survey & share with colleagues leicester.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/history-and-...
These sound very like the Database Pixies who live in digital systems and make all your legacy / kludged / "oh god let's just get it all in now and tidy it later" data fit for purpose. Existence often implied by senior management yet They Must Never Be Named - or funded. #MuseumDocumentation
June 26, 2025 at 12:11 PM
These sound very like the Database Pixies who live in digital systems and make all your legacy / kludged / "oh god let's just get it all in now and tidy it later" data fit for purpose. Existence often implied by senior management yet They Must Never Be Named - or funded. #MuseumDocumentation
#MuseumDocumentation 📢!
The National Gallery's online collections now enable filtering by date made, date of acquisition, medium, support, and artist www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/ex... - hat tip to the Creative and IS teams for UX design and implementation
The National Gallery's online collections now enable filtering by date made, date of acquisition, medium, support, and artist www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/ex... - hat tip to the Creative and IS teams for UX design and implementation
Explore the collection | Paintings | National Gallery, London
Our collection contains more than 2,400 paintings and other works of art.
www.nationalgallery.org.uk
December 17, 2025 at 6:09 PM
#MuseumDocumentation 📢!
The National Gallery's online collections now enable filtering by date made, date of acquisition, medium, support, and artist www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/ex... - hat tip to the Creative and IS teams for UX design and implementation
The National Gallery's online collections now enable filtering by date made, date of acquisition, medium, support, and artist www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/ex... - hat tip to the Creative and IS teams for UX design and implementation
Exactly. "We are not sure why the older bison mount was never returned to DMNS, but it is likely due to the lack of formal documentation created for the arrangement and a loss of communication over time." #MuseumDocumentation
This is why museum documentation matters! Without, it's very easy to misplaced an entire buffalo for decades
🕵️♀️🦬 Mystery solved! Our missing 650-pound Museum bison has returned after 50 years. Learn about its journey back to the Museum in #Catalyst. https://dmns.mobi/47bCc43
October 3, 2025 at 6:43 AM
Exactly. "We are not sure why the older bison mount was never returned to DMNS, but it is likely due to the lack of formal documentation created for the arrangement and a loss of communication over time." #MuseumDocumentation
This enables you to do things like see all the acquisitions made under Eastlake's directorship (1855-1865), arranged by date of execution: www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/ex... #MuseumDocumentation
Explore the collection | Paintings | National Gallery, London
Our collection contains more than 2,400 paintings and other works of art.
www.nationalgallery.org.uk
December 17, 2025 at 6:11 PM
This enables you to do things like see all the acquisitions made under Eastlake's directorship (1855-1865), arranged by date of execution: www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/ex... #MuseumDocumentation
Cracking #MuseumDocumentation #MuseumJobs coming up at Manx National Heritage: Collection Information Manager www.jobtrain.co.uk/iomgovjobs/J...
www.jobtrain.co.uk
July 1, 2025 at 6:21 PM
Cracking #MuseumDocumentation #MuseumJobs coming up at Manx National Heritage: Collection Information Manager www.jobtrain.co.uk/iomgovjobs/J...
A short table explaining the differences between an inventory and an audit.
Collections Trust on LinkedIn: #museums #training #museumdocumentation
What is the difference between Audit and Inventory? We often find these terms are used interchangeably, but while they do both contribute to accountability for…
www.linkedin.com
November 29, 2024 at 3:12 PM
A short table explaining the differences between an inventory and an audit.