Cultural property documentation
Once an institution accepts responsibility for the care of an object, certain legal obligations are imposed: the item must be properly stored, maintained, conserved, and made available for the benefit of the public.
In addition to providing insight into the history of art collecting, it can serve as a way to authenticate an object and determine conservation priorities.
They can be conducted by both collections managers/registrars and conservators, and can be crucial in benchmarking the types and/or rate of deterioration and documenting an object's condition history in order to prepare for its care in the future.
Additional documentation that can accompany travelling objects could also include specific packing instructions with diagrams and an itemized shipping receipt or bill of lading.
Physical examinations can be useful in understanding materials composition and causes of deterioration, and when properly documented, can provide a reference for future conservators.
Once the initial stages of the treatment and cleaning have commenced, more photographs are taken to document the "actual state" of the object, free of compensations and old varnishes.
Conservators use this documentation in determining an ideal state for their treatment goals based on artistic intent and historical value.
And other curators and researchers use this information to develop exhibitions and to learn about aesthetic and cultural motives, as well as technical qualities of objects.
Having a comprehensive, written Emergency response plan and Integrated pest management program, improves the museum's ability to minimize overall risk to the collections.
Museums document and track the amount of insurance coverage they carry on each collection and/or object, as well as any specific provisions or exclusions.
Another facet of managing an institution's risks, involves diligently documenting and tracking the copyright status of each object in the collection.
As artists increasingly use more ephemeral materials, installations, and digital content to meet their creative needs, the approach to defining the parameters of these new works and how to document them has necessarily evolved.
In time, the accumulation of consistently documented records across multiple repositories will increase access to content by maximizing research results.
Ultimately, uniform documentation will promote the development of a body of cultural heritage information that will greatly enhance research and teaching in the arts and humanities.
Depending on the type of object and desired permanence of the mark, some of the preferred methods include: archival quality paper tags with pencil, barrier coat with ink or paint, adhered labels, labels sewn with cotton tape, Reemay, or Tyvek, pencil directly on object (recommended for paper and photographs mostly), and Bar codes/RFID technology.
Another way of controlling collections information to promote accessibility is utilizing standard formats of required data elements and preferred terminology when describing and documenting works of art, architecture, and cultural artifacts, as well as their images.
There are also a number of authority lists and thesauri available to documentation professionals, which can be very helpful in choosing preferred terminology in describing cultural objects.
In the early days of museum registration simple paper ledgers were used to track objects, and documentation was stored in file cabinets.
A CMS is a database that can track object locations, prepare exhibition lists, create forms (insurance, shipping, loan, etc.
Creating good, well-organized records is a successful start, but preserving that documentation for the benefit of future generations is also paramount.
Storage requirements for the various types of files in an archive (paper records, photographic material, electronic media, magnetic tape, etc.)
The data are continuously rewritten in multiple electronic or physical locations, ensuring that information is not degrading from the effects of time or the failure of one single piece of hardware.
"[16] Another strategy for ensuring the long-term stability of digital files is to periodically migrate data from one form of media to another—usually from an outdated medium to a more current format.
Simply transferring data from one medium to another, such as from a CD to DVD, without changing the format of the file, is also a form of preservation called Refreshing.
