Collections Management 200: Stewardship and Public Access

Collections are typically held on behalf of the public and for their use and benefit. This course reviews the methods and considerations for providing internal and external access to collections. This course develops the Collection Access, Collection Information, and Collection Care sections of the Collection Management Policy started in Collection Management 100 and addresses STEPS Collection Standards: 1-5, 7-8, 10, 12.

Week 1: Review of the Collection Development 100 Course + documentation, collection records, and ethical research
Week 2: Inventory
Week 3: Incoming and outgoing loans
Week 4: Public access to collections and collections information
Week 5: Risk management and collection care
Week 6: Collections management systems; data basics
Week 7: Managing digitized and born-digital collections; rights/reproduction basics; digital asset management systems
Week 8: Share your knowledge

About the Collections Management series

A note about registering for the Collections Management 200 course: 

These courses are designed to be taken in order of 100 and 200. Preference will be given to those who have completed or are currently enrolled in Collections Management 100 at the time of registration. Those who register without previously completing CM100 or being currently enrolled in it, will have their registration removed, the cost refunded, and be contacted with the situation and that their name added to a wait list. A week before registration closes, this list will be sent to the instructor for approval. Enrolling in 200 without previously completing 100 is only possible with permission of the instructor. In those cases, museums must have existing Collection Management policies that have been adopted (or revised and adopted)  less than 5 years prior to the start of the 200 session. 

A note about completion of both Collections Management Courses:

This two-part course is intended to result in a complete Collections Management Policy draft. Participants can use the courses to develop a Policy from scratch, or significantly revise an existing Policy.  During the course, students will operationalize their policies-in-development through a series of activities using sample objects, readings, asynchronous interactions with fellow participants, and Zoom meetings. Engaging in both of these courses will help STEPS participants meet all 12 Stewardship of Collections Standards in the STEPS program. This course works best if participants have access to a museum and its collection (either as a board member, staff person, or volunteer), but this is not required.

Course Logistics

COURSE DATES: January 13 - March 9, 2025

REGISTRATION DATES: August 20, 2024 - January 6, 2025

COST: $215 AASLH Members / $315 Nonmembers / 10% discount for STEPS participants with promo code found in the online STEPS Community or by emailing learn@aaslh.org

FORMAT: Online, Instructor-led, Weekly-paced course

LENGTH: 8 weeks

PARTICIPATION: Students should expect to spend approximately 5 hours per week on readings, video discussions, text-based forum discussions, and assignments.

LIVE ZOOM DISCUSSIONS: We recommend downloading the Zoom mobile or desktop app for this course. 

• A one-hour live Zoom discussion will be held biweekly
• Final dates/times will be determined by the instructor at the start of the course
• Zoom discussions are recorded in case a participant is unable to attend the live sessions

MATERIALS: One required text: John E. Simmons, Things Great and Small: Collections Management Policies, 3rd ed. Optional text: Daniel B. Reibel. Registration Methods for the Small Museum. Texts are NOT INCLUDED with registration. Participants must order the book separately from the book seller of their choice. A 30% discount code is provided after registration when ordering directly from Rowman and Littlefield. 

How to Register

Click here for instructions on how to register yourself or another user for this event.