Blogs

Good talks from Nick Poole and Laura Whitton of the Collections Trust yesterday at the NHM.  Nick spoke about the role of the Collections Trust, the changing role and strategies of museums in the UK, and the development of the new documentation and process standards in Spectrum 4. Laura spoke on Collections Link.

Natural history museums will need to engage on Spectrum 4 to ensure that the emerging consensus on standards and accreditation reflects the distinctive character, development and use of natural sciences collections: we need to develop a more energetic dialogue.

Nick made interesting points on likely political, policy and strategic changes for UK non-national museums as a result of funding cuts planned in local government. There will need to be more discussion on approaches to collections management, disposal, better use of collections and related issues.

Ed Vaizey, minister with resposibility for museums in DCMS, has announced that the responsibilties of the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (soon to be abolished) could be transferred to the Arts Council.  Will be interesting to think about how this might impact on natural history and science in museums, and the policy emphasis of central support for regional museums.