Collections Area

The Collections area is responsible for:

• care of the object collections
• registering and processing acquisitions
• managing the storage, movement and handling of objects
• managing the documentation of objects
• providing access to the collection
• dealing with requests for information about the collection
• managing the museum collection’s database
• managing the data in the museum’s online catalogue
• borrowing and safe keeping of objects for short term and long term loans
• exhibition installations, de-installations
• loaning out of objects to other institutions and individuals
• object photography
• deaccessioning museum objects
• providing training opportunities for studen ts and interns
• managing travelling exhibitions

Prior to 1976, the Curator of Ethnology, Audrey Hawthorn, was responsible for the above-mentioned activities, with the help of studen t volunteers and assistants, but specific duties were never clarified, nor were they officially attributed to particular individuals. From the late 1970s onwards, the Curator of Documentation and the Curator of Collections were responsible for care of the collections. By 1990, the staff had expanded to include a Collections Manager, part-time Loans Manager and Collections intern. In 1999, an Assistant Collections Manager was added. In the late 1990s Collections and Conservation staff became a department (Collections Care & Management), with a representative Head on the Executive Committee. From 2005 to 2010 the Collections and Conservation staff managed the Collections Research Enhancement Project (CREP) section of the MOA Renewal Project, which included more than 20 full-time temporary staff. In 2015, due to restructuring, the Collections Care & Management department was merged with the Library and Archives, forming the Collections Care, Management and Access Department.

Currently (as of 2017), the Collections staff consists of the Collections Manager, Loans Manager, two Collections Assistants and a part-time Imager, in addition to temporary studen t and contract workers. See the fonds level description for a list of individual Collections staff names.

Record created June 2017 by Katie Ferrante.