STORED COLLECTIONS RESEARCH

Stored collections research

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The research

Summary

There are an estimated 200 million objects in the 1,800-odd museums in the UK - less than 10 per cent. on display. The project aimed to fill a gap in information: how much are they were used, for research, learning, creative purposes or enjoyment; who or what kind or organisation used them; for what purposes; and what made a difference to the extent to which they are used?

Existing information was collated and a sample of museums surveyed. Dissemination in 2008 was in a full 30,000 word report, a popular summary and conferences. A permanent research archive has been assembled for future use.

The research was supported by a number of national organisations that are using the results to encourage greater public benefit from this rich resource.

Context and aims

UK museum collections are maintained almost entirely at public expense: those of the national museums alone were estimated by the DCMS (Department of Culture Media & Sport) to cost, in 2000, £34.5 million to store and manage. Yet there was no quantitative or coordinated qualitative information on how much collections are used. Policies and funding conditions called for ‘access’, but it was not clear what was meant by this. The under use of collections had become a public issue, reports in the press questioning why they were kept, following the Museums Association’s report, published in 2005, Collections for the Future, and the DCMS’s consultation paper, Understanding the Future: Museums and 21st Century Life.

Research questions

• What was the size and nature of the collections as a resource? How were they distributed, geographically and among different types of collection? How did they vary in size and type?

• How much were different types of collection used by people other than museum staff? What were the types of user? What uses did they make of collections, such as research, teaching and learning, creative activities, visits for enjoyment such as store tours?

• How did museums provide for collections use, and how did users perceive this service? Did museums actively market collections access? Did they publicise what was in their collections? What did they see as the impediments to increasing use?

Research methods

Desk research and literature survey

The considerable amount of existing information from strategy bodies, was reviewed and copies assembled as the research archive. A database comprising the museum population to be surveyed was compiled.

Survey and investigation
A pilot survey of selected London museums was undertaken to test the survey and results. Following that, a statistically representative sample of UK museums and user organizations was selected and surveyed.

Analysis and writing up
The research archive was assembled for future use. nterim information will be published on the website. Text, illustrations and graphics were produced and the publication designed.

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