EMII European Standards Survey - Procedural Standard, etc.

European Standards Survey

Procedural Standards, Rules and Guidelines 2.1 - Germany

2.1 Collections Management

i. Overall Comments:

There is no formalized procedure available for collection management in Germany. Basic literature exists, some of which is listed below. Some of its function is educational, for training of staff. It may be assumed that, the larger and the more specialized a museum is, the more specialized formal (and written) procedures may be in use - rather than the basic literature shown below -, but all these would be own creations for each museum.

ii. Collections Management Software in Use:

The second attempt to gain an overview of software for museum documentation in use (a market review would be another aspect) in German museums was made along with the annual survey covering German museums for 1998. 5.376 museums received the questionnaire, 3.968 answered this question, 2.373 used computers at all for some application in the museum, 1.158 used computers for object documentation. MS/ACCESS, HIDA/MIDAS, FAUST, FirstRumos, LARS, FileMaker, dBase, works, GOS, AllegroC were some of the programmes named by a relevant number of museums. A large number of in-house developments is also counted. Many more details complicate the picture, so that this enumeration does not yet give a complete picture. Independent of this, a WG has prepared a software review on 17 programmes then publicly available on the German market: Software-Vergleich Museumsdokumentation, 1998 (available through the Institute for Museum Studies).

Standard Details
Standard Name:
SPECTRUM: The UK Museum Documentation Standard
Standard Type:
De jure
Number of Museums:
No museums in Germany are as yet known to use SPECTRUM
Number of Objects Covered:
unknown
Usage by Significant Collections (Institution name(s)):
No usage as yet known

Standard Details
Standard Name:
Inventarisation und Sammlung in den Heimatmuseum / Heinz A. Knorr. Halle 1958
Standard Type:
De facto
Number of Museums:
This booklet formed a de facto standard in the former GDR for many museums of local history and continues to be a basis of collection management in many cases.
Number of Objects Covered:
Only considerably more research could indicate whether there is a reasonable answer to this question.
Usage by Significant Collections (Institution name(s)):
Only considerable research could indicate whether this question can be reasonably answered.

Standard Details
Standard Name:
Inventarisierung / ed. by Rheinisches Museumsamt. - Bonn 1985
Standard Type:
Evolving
Number of Museums:
In 6 contributions by experts, this booklet summarizes basic collection management procedures. Given its originator - due to Germany's federal structure, it particularly served as a tool in areas of Northrhine-Westfalia. A basic introduction rather than a formalized procedure.
Number of Objects Covered:
Difficult to assess.
Usage by Significant Collections (Institution name(s)):
Hardly applicable.

Standard Details
Standard Name:
Inventarisierung, Dokumentation, Bestandsbewahrung / Westflisches Museumsamt. - Mnster 1996
Standard Type:
Evolving
Number of Museums:
A basic introduction, with a large bibliography covering conservation and the processing of individual material types, rules for catalogue cards, and rules for computer systems using HIDA.
Number of Objects Covered:
Difficult to assess.
Usage by Significant Collections (Institution name(s)):

Standard Details
Standard Name:
Datenfeldkatalog zur Grundinventarisierung / ed. by Viktor Prstler. - Deutscher Museumsbund 1993
Standard Type:
Evolving
Number of Museums:
A report of a WG of the nation-wide German Museums Association, specifying 29 essential data fields for any onject docuentation, and some general hints.
Number of Objects Covered:
Not applicable
Usage by Significant Collections (Institution name(s)):
Not applicable

Standard Details
Standard Name:
Inventarisieren der Museumsbestnde (IDM) mit der IDM-Karteikarte / ed.by Museum Association Niedersachsen & Bremen, 1994
Standard Type:
Evolving
Number of Museums:
A basic handbook for the keeping and make-up of manual catalogue cards for museums, and literature for the processing of special material types.
Number of Objects Covered:
Difficult to assess
Usage by Significant Collections (Institution name(s)):
Difficult to assess

Standard Details
Standard Name:
Vorschlge zur systematischen Beschreibung von Keramik = Suggestions for the systematic recording of pottery = Propositions pour ... / Rheinisches Landesmuseum, 1986
Standard Type:
Evolving
Number of Museums:
A trilingual guide for describing form, parts, and other data for pottery, together with vocabulary, formsheet, classification and colour terms concordance.
Number of Objects Covered:
Difficult to assess
Usage by Significant Collections (Institution name(s)):
No indication possible without further research

Standard Details
Standard Name:
Pragmatischer Leitfaden zur Inventarisierung von Textilien in den Freilichtmuseen Finsterau und Massing / Winfried Helm, M.-L. Segl, 1992
Standard Type:
Evolving
Number of Museums:
A useful, comprehensive guide for the description of textiles, their types, parts, features and their conservation
Number of Objects Covered:
Not known
Usage by Significant Collections (Institution name(s)):
[?]

Standard Details
Standard Name:
Leitfaden zur Keramikbeschreibung (Mittelalter - Neuzeit): Terminologie - Typologie - Technologie / Werner Endres et al., 1987
Standard Type:
Evolving
Number of Museums:
A handbook proposing 11 data categories for description of pottery, lists the shapes, surface features, technology and terminology
Number of Objects Covered:
n.a.
Usage by Significant Collections (Institution name(s)):
[?]

Standard Details
Standard Name:
Empfehlungen zur Sammlungsdokumentation in den nichtstaatlichen Museen sowie zur Durchfhrung von Inventuren / Schsische Landesstelle fr Museumswesen [no date, ca. 1999]
Standard Type:
Evolving
Number of Museums:
[?]
Number of Objects Covered:
[?]
Usage by Significant Collections (Institution name(s)):
A 4 p.-leaflet, within a series, reminding museums of accessioning, labelling, and stock-taking of objects.

Submission Details

i. Submitted by:	MHS, AE
ii. Job title:	DepDir, Res
iii. Organisation:	Institute for Museum Studies (IfM)
iv. E-mail:	m.hagedorn@smb.spk-berlin.de, a.ermert@smb.spk-berlin.de
v. Date Submitted:	28/04/2000

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