Northern States Conservation Center
Collections Caretaker eNewsletter
Moving Your Collection: Considerations
Moving Your Collection: Some questions to consider
(Excerpted from course Introductory Slide Show)
Scope of the Project
Where are you starting?
Where are you going?
What is your goal?
Are you moving the entire institution, the collection or part of the collection?
How much time do you have?
How is the time distributed?
What is your budget?
Where are you?
Gather your information
Conservation surveys
Conservation assessments
Inventories
Location information
Object/Specimen catalogs
Dimensions and numbers
Previous grants
What policies and procedures are in place?
Collections policy
Collecting policy
De-accession policy
Integrated Pest Management (IPM) policy and procedures
Food in museum policy
Collections access policy
Handling guidelines
Object movement procedures
Which policies and procedures need to be updated? Which need to be added?
What needs to be addressed before the move?
Where are you going?
What space are you moving into?
Is it across the hall or across town?
Does it have an appropriate floor load?
How much space is there?
Is it more or less space than you currently have?
How can you make it the most efficient and functional?
Will you have new storage furniture or will you be using existing furniture?
Will the collections be arranged the same or differently?
How will you structure that change? _______________________________________________________________
To learn more about planning and executing a collection move, join Laura Wingate for MS262 Moving Collections starting October 5, 2026.
Moving Collections
Do you have a collection moved in your future? Want to know the best practices for planning for the move, making it happen, and making sure nothing gets damaged or lost in the process? This is the course that will help you have a successful move!
Moving collections is a daunting task. Fragile items need special packing and care to be safely transported. Large, heavy or awkward items like dinosaurs and oversized sculptures require special equipment and support from local authorities. How do you design your project to meet the budget and timing demands of your administration? Are your collections over-packed in acidic boxes and does your move includes improving their storage and care? Collections often take up more room when they are stored properly. How do you determine your needed storage space when the collection is decompressed? Moving Collections provides an overview of how to plan and manage a move to avoid the many pitfalls. The course includes: defining your project, developing a Request for Proposal (RFP), developing a work plan, staffing, and packing protocols. Whether you are moving part of the collection within your building or moving the entire collection to another facility, Moving Collections provides a blueprint for you to follow
Early Bird Discounts Available for Full Length Courses an Early Bird Discount is available for anyone who signs up for a full-length course from museumclasses.org 30 days prior to the start of that course.
Sign up for a full-length course up to 30 days prior to its start and save 20%!
For our course list or to sign up: http://www.collectioncare.org/course-list
To take advantage of this discount, you must enter coupon code EARLYBIRD at checkout at collectioncare.org
Early Bird Discount for November Courses is October 3, 2026 October 2026 Courses
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Learn how to prepare for, respond to and recover from all types of potential hazards to cultural properties. If you do not have a Museum Collection Emergency Plan or an Institutional Emergency Plan this course will help you understand how to plan for and recover from an emergency.
MS253: Disaster Preparation and Recovery
October 5 to 30, 2026
Instructor: Amanda Benson
Safeguarding collections and protecting staff and visitors is one of the most important functions of a cultural institution. Course introduces students to disaster preparedness, response and recovery of cultural collections for all types of potential hazards. The components of incident preparedness and response are explained with examples from the instructor’s experience in recovery of cultural collections, including small to large situations with fire, flood, high winds, and earthquake. After an institutional plan is written, the next step is to train staff in prevention, proper staff actions during an event, and post-event recovery. This course complements Disaster Plan Research and Writing.
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Do you have a collection moved in your future? Want to know the best practices for planning for the move, making it happen, and making sure nothing gets damaged or lost in the process? This is the course that will help you have a successful move!
MS 262: Moving Collections
October 5 to 30, 2026
Instructor: Laura Wingate
Description:
Moving collections is a daunting task. Fragile items need special packing and care to be safely transported. Large, heavy or awkward items like dinosaurs and oversized sculptures require special equipment and support from local authorities. How do you design your project to meet the budget and timing demands of your administration? Are your collections over-packed in acidic boxes and does your move includes improving their storage and care? Collections often take up more room when they are stored properly. How do you determine your needed storage space when the collection is decompressed? Moving Collections provides an overview of how to plan and manage a move to avoid the many pitfalls. The course includes: defining your project, developing a Request for Proposal (RFP), developing a work plan, staffing, and packing protocols. Whether you are moving part of the collection within your building or moving the entire collection to another facility, Moving Collections provides a blueprint for you to follow
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When was the last time your museum did a complete collection inventory? Was it 5, 10, 20 or more years ago? If it has been that long, it is time to do another one. This course will take the student through the process of preparing for, conducting, and reconciling a collection inventory. Come learn what the inventory process is all about!
MS 218: Collection Inventories
November 2 to 30, 2026
Instructor: Peggy Schaller
Description
Collection inventories are vital to collection management and security. You need to know what is in your collection to be able to manage it well. This means regular inventories must occur. But knowing you must do them and actually having the time and manpower to complete an inventory are two different things. Collection Inventories discusses everything you ever wanted to know about collection inventories. From how to set one up to how to conduct an inventory. Other topics include what to look for during an inventory and how to reconcile the information.
