5.+Accreditaton+Standard

=**__5. Accreditation Standard__** = **__5.1 Governance and Museum Management__** **__5.2 User Services__** **__5.3 Visitor Facilities__** **__5.4 Collections Management__**

 **__5.1 Governance and Museum Management__** - statement of purpose of the museum - key aims relating to the museum - specific objectives for the museum, to be achieved within the current planning cycle - spending plan

__Forward plan: __ A plan drawn up as part of its own management arrangements - includes spending plan for current year and following year

__Emergency plan: __ - arrangements for staff/visitors <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">- arrangements for collections/buildings <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">- risk assessment of threats such as fire, water, theft and vandalism or other disasters

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Staffing arrangements must be in place to ensure delivery of user services, visitor facilities, proper operation of the museum and management of the collections

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Museums must have access to professional advice on all aspects of museums’ work, either from their own staff, or externally <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**__5.2 User Services__** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Museums must publish information on the existence of the museum, its location, opening times and arrangements and services

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The museum must have a mechanism for assessing who its users currently are, as a preliminary step towards broadening its range of users <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">- the museum must provide evidence that access issues are being identified and addressed

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The museum must display items from its own collections and provide arrangements for access to stored collections

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The museum must give details of the services it provides to communicate knowledge and information related to objects in its care <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**__5.3 Visitor Facilities__** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Museums must provide orientation information (externally and internally)

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Museums must have appropriate arrangements in place to ensure that their visitors and other users are treated with courtesy and care

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Legal issues must be adhered to when children, young people and vulnerable adults are welcomed on to the premises

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Arrangements for the maintenance of areas used by visitors must be in place <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**__5.4 Collections Management__**

**<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Acquisition and Disposal Policy **
__<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Documentation Procedural Manual __ <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">- a museum must know at any time exactly which items it is legally responsible for and where each item is located <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">- the museum must have an up-to-date Documentation Procedural Manual, to guide the work of staff involved in documentation at all levels

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">SPECTRUM primary procedures: <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">- object entry <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">- acquisition: maintenance of an accession register ; maintenance of a security copy of the accession register ; marking and/or labeling objects with accession numbers <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">- location and movement control <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">- cataloguing: provision of appropriate indexing <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">- object exit <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">- loans in <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">- loans out

__<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Creation of a written Documentation Plan, setting out actions, including the timescale, for dealing with any backlog: __ <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">- how the Primary Procedures will be implemented <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">- how SPECTRUM minimum standards will be met for items to be retained for the permanent collection or retained on loan <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">- timescale for this work

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">When addressing backlogs, a museum should have an accession record and a location record for all items, or groups of items, in its collection <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">- if it does not, then it must start by making an inventory of all items in its care

__<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Actions to minimize the risk of damage to and deterioration of the collection: __ <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">- collection condition overview: to ensure that awareness of the condition/needs of all items in the collection is maintained <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">- environmental monitoring: to alert staff to potentially damaging environmental conditions <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">- environmental control: to ensure that collections are not at risk of damage from unsuitable environmental conditions <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">- provision of suitable building conditions: to ensure that the building contributes towards providing appropriate environmental conditions for the different elements of the collection <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">- housekeeping to reduce the likelihood of pest infestation and damage to material from mould or from abrasive or acidic particles, by careful cleaning of collections and the area in which they are housed <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">- planned programme to institute improvements in collection care: to ensure that necessary improvements are made over time, on the basis of priority <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">- conservation and collection care advice and services: to ensure that the museum has developed informed policies and procedures relating to the preventive and remedial conservation of its collections

__<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Expert assessment of security arrangements, to be obtained and implementation of recommendations to be underway: __ <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">- arrangements for the security of collections are an integral part of collections care <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">- security advice must cover all museum premises, their immediate locations and the collections <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">- measures such as identifying particularly vulnerable collections, installation of physical protection and alarm systems, staff invigilation, inventory check procedures, etc. should be considered <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">- security arrangements relating to staff and visitors as well as collections must be considered

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Go back to 4. General Collection or Move on to 6. Bibliography