Inventorying Cultural Heritage Collections

This two-part text opens with an argument few collections practitioners would contest: Regular inventories are central to meaningful, sustainable, and ethical collections preservation and access. But Vanderwarf and Romanowski argue that in practice—some 25 years working with diverse collections between them—inventories are uncommon: instead of functioning as a commonplace feature of collections care, they tend to be evoked as a last resort when a museum has lost control of its collection.
Part I offers a flexible project management framework that illustrates strategies for reining in control of collections now. From identifying objectives that best serve the collection in question to securing stakeholder support and planning time and resources, Part I eliminates some guesswork around what may be an unprecedented and intensive project. To maintain the benefits of a project-style inventory, the authors then encourage practitioners to embrace inventory as an ongoing, evolving collections care function that reflects changing professional values and expectations from the communities museums serve. By centering computerized databases, barcoding, and digital collections, the authors further acknowledge these technologies as permanent, evolving features of collections and inventory practice that merit increased resourcing.
Part II gives voice to practitioners around the world through case studies that affirm the vital role of inventories in regaining control of collections. Some of these inventories occurred during the course of everyday work, while others were responses to natural disasters and armed conflict. Still others may be seen as expressions of social justice. As much as the authors offer a guide to performing inventories, thereby filling a longstanding gap in the literature, they invite cultural heritage institutions to rethink how the stories held in collections can be better told and preserved through enhanced inventory practice.
The book will benefit seasoned museum collections practitioners as well as those who lack access to formal museology education and training. The book targets stewards of cultural heritage and material culture collections with varying resources

Sandra Vanderwarf earned an M.A. in conservation from Fashion Institute of Technology and a B.A. in criminal justice from John Jay College. Inventory illustrates one way these disciplines have converged during her 15 years of practice in cultural heritage preservation. Most recently, in collaboration with National Museum of Mongolia and the U.S. Department of State, she provided expertise to enhance inventory protocols as part of Mongolia's self-determined strategy to deter unlawful trafficking and sale of heritage. Prior to that, her seasoned perspective was honed through intersecting roles of conservator, registrar, and collections manager at a corporate archive, the Smithsonian, American Museum of Natural History, and Brooklyn Children's Museum. Sandra's varied contributions--as inventory taker, author of winning (and rejected) inventory grant proposals, inventory project manager, and researcher referencing historic inventories--engendered a multi-faceted appreciation for inventory. Her presentations at CIDOC-ICOM'S International Committee for Documentation, the Association of Registrars and Collections Specialists, and through continued partnerships with the U.S. Ambassador's Fund for Cultural Preservation have emphasized the significance of inventory as preventive conservation.

Bethany Romanowski is head registrar at the National September 11 Memorial and Museum. She holds a B.A. in anthropology from Indiana University and an M.A. in social sciences from the University of Chicago. She has over fifteen years' experience managing collections at New York City institutions, including the South Street Seaport Museum and the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Bethany recently oversaw the 9/11 Memorial Museum’s first wall-to-wall inventory of tangible collections.