[1] In larger institutions, the CMS may be used by collections staff such as registrars, collections managers, and curators to record information such as object locations, provenance, curatorial information, conservation reports, professional appraisals, and exhibition histories.
All of this recorded information is then also accessed and used by other institutional departments such as “education, membership, accounting, and administration.
"[2] Though early Collections Management Systems were cataloging databases, essentially digital versions of card catalogs, more recent and advanced systems are being used to improve communication between museum staff and to automate and manage collections-based tasks and workflows.
[4] Ever since machine-readable standards were developed for libraries in the 1960s, museums have had an interest in utilizing computers to record information about their collections.
[6] In an effort to coordinate research into developing these systems, professional associations such as the Museum Data Bank Coordinating Committee (MDBCC), formed in 1972, were created to disseminate information about computers and databases to museums interested implementing computerized collections systems.
[9] During the 1990s, with computers becoming faster and cheaper and with the rise of the Internet, collections management software became much more sophisticated, able to “present images, sort information in any one of a myriad of configurations, record exhibition information, track locations, and interface with a museum Website.
"[10] Though the goal during the 1960s was to use computers for collections record-keeping for purposes of accountability, MCN Executive Director Everett Ellin warned that museum professionals should include public access as a goal because it would “not be worth the effort if museums only create a glorified record-keeping system.
Redundant copies of the information should be stored in multiple locations, and the backup process may be automated.
Based on Dublin Core, the Darwin Core (DwC) standard is a data structure standard for biodiversity information whose “glossary of terms” are the “fields” and “elements” needed to catalog biological and natural history specimens and samples.
For example, the Adlib Museum CMS is “certified as SPECTRUM compliant by the Collections Trust” and “also incorporates other international standards such as the ‘CIDOC’ guidelines and Getty ‘Object ID.’”[32] A Collections Management System should have security measures that “ensure that only authorized persons are able to enter, edit, or view” information contained in the system.
[37] The museum should also identify who will be using the system and consider such factors as collection size (both present and future), staff technology skills, and budget/pricing.
[38] Another recommendation is to map out both the short- and long-term goals for the new CMS and then determine how the system can help increase the museum's efficiencies.
To this end, the source code to closed-source software is considered a trade secret by its manufacturers.
"[44] Conservation information in these systems is often limited to condition reporting and documentation of treatment history.