An internship experience in the Office of the Registrar and Collections Management at the New Orleans Museum of Art is reviewed alongside discussion of the Museum’s history, structure, and permanent collection, in addition to analyses of the organization’s finances and its institutional strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Discussion topics also include the intern’s experience, best practices in similar institutions, and a conclusion with recommendations made by the intern.

In the 1990s, the MLA sector – archives, libraries, museums – was defined as a comprehensive sector. One of the reasons for this was the belief that the digitizing of institutional collections and catalogues would provide a seamless access to the cultural heritage for the general public. No one would any longer need to know in which institution a certain object was kept; everything would be available on the Internet. The questions in this dissertation depart from the expectations in the late 1900s aimed at the available systems in the MLA sector for the management and storage of information and at knowledge maintained in such systems. My point of departure is the idea that access to collections in the MLA sector – real or digital – is made possible through the catalogues. It is in the catalogues that the sector orders data and preserves knowledge collected about the objects. My most important conclusions deal with the management and production of knowledge in the sector. The data systems generally used in the MLA sector lack the indulgence needed to accommodate inherent variability of information. Systems must be based on exact sorting, uniform terminology and classification without deviations in spelling or interpretation. Furthermore, international projects and systems presuppose distinct translations between national terminologies and international classification systems to work for information retrievals. This is not the case with the museum systems here investigated, in opposition to, primarily, the libraries. The museum systems are characterised as distinctive instead of following uniformity principles and national or international taxonomies. An important conclusion about knowledge processing and knowledge production in the MLA sector is that the value of compiling digitalised data from many museums is limited. It is not possible to realize the political goal other than at a superficial level. The conclusions in a comparison between the three professional groups are that in the beginning of the 21th century an extensive part of the antiquarians confirm a thought style, according to Ludwik Fleck, which has another direction than that of archivists and librarians. Throughout the 20th century or in the last decades of the 20th century the two latter groups professionalised their roles both through changes in education and through new professional requirements which led to positions and attitudes in their work other than what happened in the museum sector. Museums are mainly research institutions with members of staff who in many respects lack a focus on increased accessibility of collections. Challenges formulated for museums of cultural history by the cultural politics of the 1970s have not been answered with great flexibility. The investigation in this dissertation demonstrates that archives, libraries and museums in many respects continue to pursue activities according to a thought style which was formed during the first half of the 20th century. Their positions in society, their administrational practice and expectations from the general public constitute stabilising and preserving factors. The MLA sector is not as comprehensive as the policy makers want to believe.

Professional codes of ethics and international doctrinal texts recognize the world’s archaeological heritage as the common heritage of all humanity. As such, archaeologists are obligated to share research results, including collections, with the widest audience possible, and the Internet provides exciting ways in which this can be accomplished. As a community, Canadian universities are not at present providing adequate public access to the archaeological collections in their care, particularly via Web-based channels. In this thesis, I argue that Canadian universities should provide improved online collections access. I provided Web-based public access to a sample of the Grand Rapids (Manitoba) Survey collection, and solicited user feedback in the form of an online survey. The results show that a worldwide audience did access the collections, indicating vastly improved access. Survey results imply that a public audience does find archaeological collections interesting, and is capable of learning something from the style of Web presentation used here.

Professional codes of ethics and international doctrinal texts recognize the world’s archaeological heritage as the common heritage of all humanity. As such, archaeologists are obligated to share research results, including collections, with the widest audience possible, and the Internet provides exciting ways in which this can be accomplished. As a community, Canadian universities are not at present providing adequate public access to the archaeological collections in their care, particularly via Web-based channels. In this thesis, I argue that Canadian universities should provide improved online collections access. I provided Web-based public access to a sample of the Grand Rapids (Manitoba) Survey collection, and solicited user feedback in the form of an online survey. The results show that a worldwide audience did access the collections, indicating vastly improved access. Survey results imply that a public audience does find archaeological collections interesting, and is capable of learning something from the style of Web presentation used here.

This thesis will explore the causes and consequences of the absence of vernacular photography from museum collections. Through historical analysis of vernacular photography and a close interpretation of a contemporary family snapshot, I will argue that vernacular photographs are important objects of great cultural significance and poignant personal meaning. Photography has always defied categorization. It serves multiple functions and roles, is studied in a vast number of disciplines, and exists in a variety of institutions and collections. Furthermore, it is difficult to classify a single photograph. Vernacular photography thus poses a challenge to museum methods of sorting documents, artifacts, and art. Consequently the photographs that are most significant in everyday life are often missing from the museum setting or are misinterpreted and stripped of their meaning.

This study examines the impact of the advent of e-books on collection development and acquisition in Irish university libraries. Semi-structured interviews with informants working as acquisition librarians, sub-librarians and collection management librarians were conducted to investigate their experiences and perceptions of e-book acquisition and collection management. This study provides a look at these issues from the perspective of diffusion of innovation and change management theories. The study found that librarians face challenges in setting new collection development policies, acquiring new skills and adjusting to new workflows and extra workloads. The study also revealed that the most fundamental problems librarians face in acquiring e-books are the low availability of e-textbooks, the heavy VAT on e-books as well as a lack of “one-stop-shop” opportunities. There were also worries expressed about the future of academic libraries in the e-book acquisition process. Despite the challenges, academic librarians were very positive towards the resulting changes and innovations. / Program: Masterprogram: Biblioteks- och informationsvetenskap, Digitala bibliotek och informationstjänster

Throughout their history in America, museums, including those of art, have adapted according to their environment. One result of this adaptability is that objects in art museum collections are not as permanent as those outside the museum field tend to believe. As scholarship, funding, and audiences change, objects which at one time were considered pertinent to a museum collection may be deaccessioned, the term used for when a museum removes an accessioned object from its permanent collection. Yet deaccessioning in America tended to remain the exception, rather than the rule, until the last three decades of the twentieth century. How deaccessioning became a normal element of collections management in the late twentieth century can be understood as a consequence of a number of factors, including a change in the institutional and economic climate in which art museums operated. Examining some of the factors leading to the normalization of deaccessioning, at least for those in the museum community, can help us better understand the implications of such a shift.

abstract: This dissertation examines a practice of scientific museums in the 19th and early 20th centuries: the exchange of their duplicate specimens. Specimen exchange facilitated the rise of universal museums while creating a transnational network through which objects, knowledge, and museum practitioners circulated. My primary focus concerns the exchange of anthropological duplicate specimens at the Smithsonian Institution from 1880 to 1920. Specimen exchange was implemented as a strategic measure to quell the growth of scientific collections curated by the Smithsonian prior garnering to the broad political support needed to fund a national museum. My analysis examines how its practice was connected to both anthropological knowledge production, particularly in terms of diversifying the scope of museum collections, and knowledge dissemination. The latter includes an examination of how anthropological duplicates were used to illustrate competing explanations of culture change and generate interest in anthropological subject matter for non-specialist audiences. I examine the influence of natural history classification systems on museum-based anthropology by analyzing how the notion of duplicate was applied to collections of material culture. As the movement of museum objects are of particular concern to anthropologists involved in repatriation practices, I use specimen exchange to demonstrate that while keeping objects is a definitive function of the museum, an understanding of why and how museum objects have been kept or not kept in the past, particularly in terms of the intentions and value systems of curators, is critical in developing an ethically oriented dialogue about disposition of museum objects in the future. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Anthropology 2014

The thesis explores the complex area between preservation of museum collections, and the need to allow access to the collections and the artefacts for researchers. The focus is on archaeological collections, and inorganic materials in particular. The aim is to illustrate the problems, as well as the opportunities, of archaeological scientific analysis when combined with museological sciences such as materiality and material culture studies, theories of object biographies, the concept of objects as actors, and the issue of silent objects. Exploring the exchange between the museological and the natural sciences to promote enhanced usage of collection artefacts, and to explore whether there are real barriers or if they are perceived due to a lack of mutual understanding. Methodologically it is a text based analysis of the research situation internationally and nationally in Sweden, with a case study comprised of observation of a research team that at the same time were making archaeometallurgical analyses of bronze age objects, and interviews with a small group connected to the areas of interest for this thesis. The sources have consisted of the material generated by the case study, as well as the text material used to provide the necessary background. By using text analysis, Actor-network theory, observation, and interviews, the discussions can revolve around the theoretical perspectives of materiality, object biography and silent objects, with the premise that sample analyses could bring back some context to an artefact. The findings indicate that the museum sector and other disciplines would greatly benefit from closer collaborations with each other and work more interdisciplinary. Museum collections harbour artefacts that could enrich the collective disciplines with their informative values, and with a mass of sampled and analysed context-less artefacts, new and fascinating patterns could emerge, leading to new discoveries. The findings also show that, in archaeology, this is already in motion, and the hope is that this develops on a larger scale in the museum sector as well. / Den här uppsatsen undersöker det snåriga område mellan museers plikt att bevara samlingarna samt behovet att tillåta åtkomst för forskare till samlingarna och föremålen. Fokus ligger på arkeologiska samlingar, och oorganiskt material i synnerhet. Syftet är att belysa problemen, samt de möjligheter som arkeologisk vetenskaplig analys har att ge i kombination med museivetenskapliga begrepp såsom materialitet och materiell kultur, teorier om objektbiografi, objekt som aktörer och ”tysta” föremål. Uppsatsen utforskar utbyten mellan musei- och naturvetenskap som främjar ökad användning av föremål i samlingar, och undersöker om det finns verkliga hinder i utbytet eller om de endast är upplevda på grund av en bristande ömsesidig förståelse. Metodologiskt är det en textbaserad analys av forskningsläget internationellt och nationellt i Sverige, med en fallstudie bestående av observation av en forskargrupp som samtidigt gjorde arkeometallurgiska analyser av bronsåldersföremål, och intervjuer med en liten grupp personer med koppling till intresseområdena för denna uppsats. Källorna består av det material som genererats av fallstudien, samt den litteratur som gett den nödvändiga bakgrunden. Genom att använda textanalys, Actor-network theory, observation och intervjuer, kretsar diskussionerna runt teoretiska perspektiv som materialitet och materiell kultur, objektbiografi och ”tysta” föremål utifrån förutsättningen att analys kan återföra lite av en artefakts kontext. Resultaten visar på att museisektorn och andra discipliner i hög grad skulle tjäna på ett närmare samarbete och att arbeta mer tvärvetenskapligt. Museisamlingar inhyser föremål som skulle kunna berika de samlade disciplinerna med sina informativa värden, och med en mängd provtagningar och analyser av kontextlösa föremål kan nya och fascinerande mönster framträda, vilket i sin tur kan leda till nya upptäckter. Resultaten visar också att detta redan är satt i rörelse inom åtminstone arkeologin, men förhoppningen är att detta även kan ske i större skala inom museisektorn.

A presente pesquisa teve por objetivo geral analisar os usos dos termos documentação, documento e objeto no contexto da área de museus. Tal contexto foi caracterizado em dois universos: o teórico, da literatura selecionada de caráter teórico da Documentação, Ciência da Informação e a Museologia, e o prático, composto por duas normas da área de museus. Os objetivos de trabalhar com estes dois universos foram mapear, caracterizar e problematizar ideias, tensões e aproximações entre os universos da teoria e da prática, sem a pretensão de se chegar a uma definição unívoca dos mesmos. Para alcançar tais objetivos, optou-se por uma metodologia exploratória, descritiva, comparativa e que se valeu de elementos de pesquisa histórica. No que se refere aos procedimentos, se realizou essencialmente levantamento bibliográfico e uso de ficha de coleta terminológica para o termo documentação - apenas para sistematizar significados e não para propor uma definição unívoca. A comparação entre os usos dos termos estudados apresentam polissemia e certa ambiguidade e, no que se refere particularmente ao termo documentação, ainda há um discurso que reitera a ideia de sua vinculação com a questão do controle das coleções. Os resultados desta investigação reforçam que a diversidade de significados influencia fortemente o que se realiza na prática profissional. Além disso, os usos consolidam diferentes tradições e formas de se conceber documentação e objetos-documentos nos museus - o que deve ser cada vez mais pesquisado para reforçar laços e rever conceitos e procedimentos. Por último, vale destacar que o propósito deste trabalho foi de explorar as diferenças terminológicas, tão inerentes ao universo dos museus, e colocar questões de como operar com elas e a partir delas. / The present study aimed to analyze the general uses of the terms documentation, document and object within the context of the museums field. This context was characterized in two universes: the theoretical, represented by selected bibliography taken from Documentation, Information Science and Museology, and practical, consisting of two standards of museums area. The objectives of working with these two universes were to map, characterize and discuss ideas, approaches and tensions between the worlds of theory and practice, without the intention of getting any unique definition. In order to get those objectives, an exploratory, descriptive, comparative methodology was chosen, that also drew upon elements of historical research. As regards procedures, bibliographic record and use of terminological data collection form for the term documentation were used, and this last one was only to systematize meanings and not to elaborate a unified definition. The comparison between the uses of the terms being studied point out their polysemy and ambiguity and, in the case of term documentation, the idea of its connection with the control of the collections still remains. Results of this study also reinforce this diversity of meanings strongly influences what is done in professional practice. Furthermore, it consolidates different traditions and ways of conceiving documentation and objects-documents in museums - which should be increasingly researched to reinforce ties and review concepts and procedures. Finally, it is worth noting that the purpose of this study was to explore the terminological differences, so inherent to the universe of museums, and raise the issue of how to deal with them and from them.