Online course on museum registration

MS103: The Basics of Museum Registration
Instructor: Peggy Schaller
February 25 to March 24, 2007 (only time offered in 2007)

Price: $425

The Northern States Conservation Center
<URL:http://www.collectioncare.org> is pleased to announce the
return of one of its building-block courses:  The Basics of Museum
Registration at <URL:http://www.museumclasses.org>.  This course
covers the basics of museum record keeping. The mission statement is
emphasized as the foundation for the museum. Then students learn of
the importance of establishing set policies and procedures. The
terms 'registration' and 'accession' will be defined and the process
discussed. Three common types of numbering systems will be reviewed
and the answer to the question "Why do museums put those little
bitty numbers on all their artifacts?" will be revealed. Finally,
the Museum Registration Manual, its importance for the museum and
what it should contain will be reviewed.

Participants will be asked to create a mission statement, collection
policy and acquisition policy for a 'new' museum; comment on one of
the selected readings about museum missions; complete an
accessioning exercise; and for the final class project create a
sample registration manual for our 'new' museum.

Class Outline:

    Introduction
    The Museum Mission Statement
    Accessioning and Numbering
    Registration Manual
    Conclusion

The course format is self-paced through 5 sections. The instructor
will be available at predetermined intervals throughout the course.
Students will be working individually and interact through forums
and scheduled on-line chats. Materials include web versions of
reading materials and lecture notes. Supporting resources include
message forums, weekly online chats, email support, projects,
quizzes, and links to relevant websites.

The course will last for four weeks and cover all the details needed
to begin processing a collection. This course will include handouts,
on-line literature, slide lectures, and
student-teacher/group-teacher dialog. The course is limited to 20
participants.

If you are interested in the course, please sign up at
<URL:http://www.museumclasses.org> and pay for the course at
<URL:http://www.collectioncare.org/tas/tas.html>.  If you have
trouble with either, please contact Helen Alten
<helen [at] collectioncare__org>.

About the instructor:

    Peggy Schaller is the President of Collections Research for
    Museums in Denver, Colorado. She has a BA in Anthropology with
    minors in Art History and Geology from the University of Arizona
    in Tucson, a MA in Anthropology with a minor in Museum Studies
    from the University of Colorado in Boulder, and I am a Certified
    Institutional Protection Specialist.

    Peggy Schaller established Collections Research for Museums, a
    museum consulting firm that specializes in cataloging/collection
    management training and services, in November 1991. It is the
    mission of Collections Research for Museums to inspire museums
    to improve their professional standards, collections stewardship
    and service to their constituency through training in, and
    assistance with, documenting, preserving, protecting and
    managing their collections. During the last 13 years, I have
    worked with numerous museums and institutions and many different
    types of collections.


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 20:40
                Distributed: Thursday, February 22, 2007
                       Message Id: cdl-20-40-007
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