I. Introduction
Museums are accountable for knowing what they have in their possession at all times and exactly where individual objects are housed. Whether on display, in storage, in transit, on loan, or with a contractor such as a conservator, framer, or shipper, it is imperative to specifically track the current location of each item. While regularly updating and tracking locations is a solid method and imperative for knowing where things are at any given time, conducting regular inventories is important for correcting normal data entry errors, identifying losses, and reconciling and verifying locations after big moves, exhibitions, and projects.
There are three main types of inventories: spot, partial, and comprehensive. A spot inventory is a period inventory on one or a few specific locations at time (such as a single cabinet, rack or set of drawers). A spot inventory can help reconcile location updates after a project is complete or to verify work done by volunteers or interns. It is also good practice to regularly schedule spot inventories for storage areas that contain high value objects.
A partial inventory is an inventory of a specific area of storage, such as an entire room, building, or vault. This type of inventory is meant to serve as statistically representative of the entire collection and helps measure the reliability of your internal location tracking. These inventories should eventually be conducted on every storage area in your museum. All areas should be scheduled in a specific order over a specific period of time to ensure each area of the museum (storage and exhibition spaces) is eventually inventoried. This method is not ideal since objects will likely be moved between these scheduled inventories which statistically can cause errors and inconsistencies. While not ideal, a partial inventory is sometimes the best option for a museum based on time constraints, staff and budgetary resources.
Lastly, a comprehensive inventory is an inventory of an entire museum collection. This type of inventory should be scheduled on a regular basis - every 5 years is ideal, but not always realistic. Because of the extensive planning as well as the staff and budget required for this type of inventory, every 7-10 years is more common. These types of inventories often require hiring temporary staff and fundraising or applying for grants to implement. Many museums also institute a loan and research moratorium on collections to limit the movement of collections during this process which helps ensure the accuracy of this type of inventory.
While less reliable than a comprehensive inventory, most museums can more readily afford (in terms of staffing and budget) to conduct a partial inventory. Because of how much more common a partial inventory is, this MasterIt article will focus on the planning and implementation of this type of inventory. The methods and techniques outlined below can be easily adjusted and used for a spot inventory. These methods may also be expanded to accommodate a comprehensive inventory by carefully and thoughtfully planning the inventory area by area in a systematic manner until the entire collection has been surveyed.
II. Preparation
While planning a partial inventory is less complicated than a comprehensive inventory, it is important to create clear goals and a roadmap to accomplish them. A partial inventory can be used to accomplish a variety of goals. These include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Determine the location of every item in a specific storage area.
- Determine collections that are missing or misplaced.
- Locating collections that have not been previously located or are not in their correct locations.
- Photographing all collections that are inventoried.
- Measure objects for items that do not have recorded dimensions.
- Assessing and recording the condition of each item in the inventory.
- Identifying objects that require immediate attention due to condition or issues with packing materials, etc
- Rehousing objects that are in need of re-framing or new packing materials, or flagging these items in your CMS to address at a later date.
Items 1-3 generally always happen during an inventory. You will have to decide which of the rest you would like to accomplish based on the length of the project, staff time, and budget.
Work Plan
Developing a coherent work plan before any inventory is scheduled is key. This work plan should include:
- Goals - What do you want to accomplish?
- Timeline - How long do you want to spend on this project as a whole? How long do you want to spend on various parts: preparation, implementation, data clean up, conservation or photography, if part of your plan? What are your goalposts per each part of your inventory?
- Staffing - Are you using existing staff? Hiring temporary collections staff? Utilizing your current volunteers? Recruiting new volunteers? How will you train everyone? Who is responsible for the project? Who do they report to?
- Budget - How much do you plan on spending? Who is managing/responsible for the budget? Do you need to fundraise or apply for grants in advance?
- Process - How will you conduct the inventory? What areas will you include? Will you block off access to the areas you are inventorying? Create an access moratorium for researchers/ loans/ etc? Will you print out lists or enter information directly onto your computer? How will you back up your information? How will you deal with un-located collections?
- Success - How will you measure the success of your inventory? Will you report this inventory to Senior Staff? Will you include the results in your annual report? Report to the Board?
Process
In its simplest form, a partial inventory simply starts with a list of all items in a specific area, broken down by specific location. These locations are systematically checked in a predefined order to verify what is in its location and what is not. Items found that are not on your list are added to their correct location.
The addition of each goal above will add time to your project but it is ideal to do as many of the above as possible. Determining exactly what you want to accomplish and creating a clear roadmap to accomplish your goal is key in developing your plan, budget, and identifying the required staff for the project. For example, if you decide to incorporate photography into your project you need to determine if you merely want a quick documentation shot of each item that does not have an image in your CMS or if you want higher quality images that may require objects to be moved to a specific location with a backdrop to photograph under proper lighting.
If you would like to assess the condition of each item, do you want to have a quick “good”, “fair”, “poor” designation or do you want to actually fill out a condition report for each item? Will you physically pull each item out of storage if it needs immediate attention or will you flag it in your CMS to be pulled as soon as you have a conservator who can work on it? Do you want to re-house items as you go or flag them to come back later and re-house all collections you found in your inventory that require attention? These are all things that need to be decided prior to beginning your inventory, especially if you are employing volunteers or temporary staff to assist in the inventory.
Supplies
You also will want to purchase or assemble all necessary supplies before you start. Here is a list of items you may need and why you may need them:
- Laptop computer or tablet to conduct the inventory in real time on your device and make notations in your CMS.
- Camera/mobile phone to take pictures of items as you are working.
- Archival hang-tags to tag items that are not clearly numbered or are missing numbers.
- Post-it notes in different colors to flag items in their locations for easy retrieval later. The colors can be coded to different issues. For example, pink for “needs conservation”, blue for “needs more pictures”, or green for “needs repacking”. Make sure to clearly define what your post-its are for and create a legend that can be found by anyone, presently or in the future, to understand your color codes.
- Pencils and pencil sharpener to make notes.
- Nitrile gloves for handling objects safely and to keep you safe when handling toxic collections.
- Pad of paper for notes.
- Blue tape to secure post-its on drawers or outside of packaging.
- Marking pens for writing notes to leave on cabinets that are easily visible. Always use caution when using pens and never use pens near an object.
- Soft/fabric measuring tape to measure objects that do not have recorded dimensions. Always use a soft measuring tape with objects - other tapes can scratch or damage an object.
III. Using CatalogIt to Implement an Inventory
There are many ways to conduct an inventory. Using CatalogIt to manage and implement your inventory project can be a real time saver. The remainder of this article will outline one way to utilize CatalogIt to facilitate your partial inventory project. For the purposes of this article, we will focus on conducting a partial inventory on a single collections storage room with multiple storage cabinets, bins, shelves, and boxes.
Preparation
When starting an inventory, preparation is everything. After you have selected the area you would like to inventory, created your work plan, defined your budget, assembled your staff, and purchased your supplies, start by preparing your CatalogIt database to begin your survey.
Start by creating a unique “Inventory Project” profile for this project. Go to “Profiles” and Search for “Inventory Project.” From there create a new profile just as you would any other profile. Be sure to include all pertinent project information, inventory staff, and any notes that are relevant to the project as a whole. Upload any documents related to the inventory: your grant application if that was your funding source, your completed spreadsheets and notes after you complete the inventory process, and any other documentation you may need to refer to in the future.
Next, create folders to help with the workflow. If you are assigning volunteers or staff specific areas to inventory, create folders for them so they have easy access to the records for their assigned locations. This also helps the project manager spot check work to ensure consistency and accuracy.
Each staff member can then create “private” folders to help with the process. These folders may include: “In Process,” “Inventory Complete,” or “Inventory Issues.”
Next, define and create tags so that you can quickly and consistently notate objects that may have an issue or need further attention. These tags may include:
- Needs Conservation
- New Framing
- Needs Photography
- Unlocated
- Monitor Condition
- Inventory Complete
You have created your work plan, hired your staff, purchased your supplies, and prepared your database, you are now ready to begin.
Conducting the Inventory
Before you begin you may choose to set an access moratorium for the area you are inventorying. This means no moving, handling, lending, or exhibiting items in a specific location or storing anything new in that area, until you have completed the inventory of that particular area. This helps minimize confusion and ensures that all objects on your list are taken care of for that period of time.
Using “Structured Search” in CatalogIt is particularly useful in conducting your inventory. For detailed instructions on how to use this feature, go to the Structured Search Guide at support.catalogit.app
Start your inventory by creating an initial list of the area you are inventorying. Using “Structured Search,” create a list of all items in that room. The area we will be inventorying in this article is “Museum Main”.
Search all objects currently housed in “Museum Main”:
Once you compile the results, use “Bulk Operations” to place all of the entries into one folder named with that location to refer back to while you are working. Next, select “Print Table” and choose the fields you would like to check. The simplest report includes: Entry ID, Object Name/Title, and location. The “Print” feature in CatalogIt defaults to including the most current location. From here, click on the “cloud” icon in the upper right corner of your screen and select “Download Excel”:
By downloading your search results into an Excel Spreadsheet you are able to easily sort your report by specific location. This allows you to systematically inventory your storage area shelf by shelf. You are also able to add columns for notes, date inventoried, and staff name. These extra columns are used to keep track of the project.
After you have created your spreadsheet you have two options: print out the report and use hard copies to conduct the inventory; or, save the spreadsheet and open it on your laptop or tablet. Either way, this document is the guide for your project and should be retained after the project is over as a record of the project. Add two additional rows to your spreadsheet: one for notes and another to document the date and person that inventoried this location.
Systematically check each cabinet, shelf, rack, drawer, etc. The post-it notes are a handy way to mark what shelf is complete and what is in process. Select a specific color for all completed areas and a second for areas in progress and adhere it to the storage unit with any notes you want to add. Blue tape is a great way to make the post-it a little more secure.
As you are conducting your inventory, check off the items on the list that are in the correct location and be sure to include your name and date. Use notes to track any issues - condition, framing, or if the object is not in the location. Keep a list as you go of any object you find in that specific location that was not included in your list. Include any other information you would like to update - does it need dimensions? Measure it now. Does it need a documentation photograph? Snap a photo with your mobile device.
Once you are done with a section of your list, update the records in CatalogIt. Move any object that you did not locate into a different folder called “Not Found” or “Unlocated”. Those items can be dealt with later.
Use “Bulk Operations'' to update the “Inventory” expansion panel to link the individual entries to your “Inventory Project” profile. Include the date of the inventory, your name, and in the notes filed, include notes pertinent to the inventory as a whole.
Be sure to go into each record and include the notes you made on your spreadsheet specific to that record. Update the records of all items you located that were not on your current list - update the location and include a note that reads “item found in this location [this date]”. Be sure to include any other notes you jotted down. This is also the time to use Bulk Operations to add “Tags” to any objects that need them. For example add a “Needs Attention” tag for anything needing conservation or repair. Repeat this process until you have inventoried all the areas you selected for this project.
Create lists of items you tagged for different reasons: objects that need photography, conservation, rehousing, or repacking. Depending on the scope of your project, some or all of the actions should occur now or may be left tagged to take care of in the future. At a minimum, any item in immediate danger of damage should be stabilized to reduce risk.
After you inventoried all areas and updated all records go back to the list you created for all the “unlocated objects.” Most times the objects you didn’t locate are not actually missing- they are just misplaced. Now is when the sleuthing begins. Start by looking at each record and finding the last known location (the last location before the current one). Check that location first in case the location was updated by mistake - it is an easy mistake to make. You would be surprised how many objects are found this way.
Next, look at the exhibition, research, and loan histories for the objects that are “unlocated.” Verify that those items have been returned. Look at other items that were in the same exhibition or associated with the same loan - they may have been put away together. Review any paper files related to the exhibition or loan to see if there are any notes that may be helpful. Look to see what staff person was responsible for the loan or exhibition and talk to them about it - perhaps they have handwritten notes that have not been updated in the database yet.
If you still have not located the object after these processes, make extensive notes in the record outlining all that you did to locate it. Update the location to something like “missing” or “unlocated” and the date you updated the record. Make sure you report the missing object to any supervisor, manager, or director that oversees the collection. If that person is you, ensure that you keep good records on the inventory process and your steps. Over time you may come across the item. Follow your museum's protocols on what you do when you discover something is missing - you may file an insurance claim and a police report if you believe it was stolen.
It is always a good idea to write a complete summary of your findings after an inventory is complete to keep for your records and to report to your Board or Senior Staff. The report should be as specific as possible.Report how many objects were inventoried and from what locations. Report how many locations were correct, how many were updated, and how many objects were not located in the inventory.
A comprehensive inventory process is basically the same as above with the addition of inventorying every object in the museum. This means every storage area in every building and verifying locations of every item on exhibition or loan. A spot inventory process is similar, but abbreviated - you generally are only inventorying a specific cabinet or shelving unit and not an entire storage room or area.
No matter what type of inventory you are conducting, be thorough, create a concise workflow, follow your process systematically, save all of your documentation, and always update your CatalogIt database. This is a time-consuming yet important process and pivotal to a strong collections management process.