Things Great and Small Collections Management Policies

Collections care is a core responsibility for all museums that own, care for, or use collections. The foundation stone for good collections care is a good collections management policy. Things Great and Small is the first to comprehensively address how to write such a policy for any type of museum. Drawing on his extensive experience—as director of the University of Kansas museum studies program, collections manager at the university's museum of natural history, and surveyor for AAM's Museum Assessment Program—John Simmons reviews the issues that a collections management policy should address and the pros and cons of choosing one policy option over another. Developed with assistance from the AAM Registrars Committee.