Museum Registration Methods (American Alliance of Museums)

$78.49
by John E. Simmons

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Since the first edition was published in 1958, Museum Registration Methods has defined the profession and served as a fundamental reference for all aspects of collections registration, care, and management. The sixth edition of Museum Registration Methods is a comprehensive guide to registration and collections management for museums, from acquisition to use and deaccessioning. The authors and other contributors come from a wide variety of museums and specializations. The 56 chapters in this edition are either new or updated, and include the history of the profession, the role of the registrar in the museum, managing very large collections, developing and implementing collection management policies, documentation of collections, accessioning, condition reports, deaccessioning, repositories, and provenance research. Contemporary and digital art, living and natural history collections, loans, exhibitions, found-in-collection objects, shipping, records management, and electronic data management are also addressed, along with object handling and numbering, digitization, condition reporting, preventive care, storage on and off-site, inventory, moving and packing, shipping nationally and internationally, couriering, risk assessment, security, insurance, integrated pest management, ethics, sustainability, sacred and culturally sensitive objects, intellectual property rights, appraisal, ethical and legal issues, and research. The book includes a comprehensive resource list, glossary, hypothetical situations to ponder, and model collection forms. “As strong as ever, this edition benefits all kinds of museums―from art to natural history―and all sizes of museums―from large to small. Its structure is straightforward and useful, good for seasoned professionals as well as those newer to the practice. The edition nicely blends extensive updating where necessary (e.g. sections on digital practices) while remaining strong in other more foundational areas (e.g. manual records systems, still used in many museums). No wonder it is referred to as the 'bible' of museum registration!” ―Kiersten F. Latham, Director of Arts & Cultural Management and Museum Studies, Associate Professor in the Department of Art, Art History, and Design at Michigan State University “Museum Registration Methods has been, for many years, one of the most authoritative, dependable, and detailed books in the collections management and registrarial domain. MRM6, edited by John E. Simmons and Toni M. Kiser, builds on the MRM heritage and takes it to a new level of expert and professional greatness. The 6th edition has been thoroughly updated, expanded, and deepened in its scope and breadth of museum collections knowledge, written with a keen awareness of the demands of this field in the 21st century. It is as useful for the newcomer as it is for the veteran collections professional, is relevant to all collections areas of specialization and scholarship, and manages to convey an enormous amount of information at a highly readable and accessible level. Simmons and Kiser have overseen a magnificent update of this classic reference handbook. It should be on the working bookshelves of every museum collection.” ―Sally Shelton, assistant chair, Heritage and Museum Sciences Graduate Program, The Museum of Texas Tech University John E. Simmons (B.S., systematics and ecology; M.A., museum studies) began his professional career as a zoo keeper before becoming a collection manager at the California Academy of Sciences and later at the Natural History Museum at the University of Kansas, where he also served as Director of the Museum Studies Program until 2007. Simmons has extensive experience in biological field work in Latin America and SE Asia. He has published more than 150 papers and books on museology and the care of collections, particularly for natural history. Since 2008 Simmons has run Museologica , an international museum consulting service. In addition, he has taught workshops and university classes in the US, Latin America, Europe, and the Middle East on the care of collections and legal and policy issues in collection management, and served as thesis advisor for five museology graduate students at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia (Bogota). Simmons received the Superior Voluntary Service Award (American Alliance of Museums, 2001); the Chancellor's Award for Outstanding Mentoring of Graduate Students at (University of Kansas, 2005); the Carolyn L. Rose Award for Outstanding Commitment to Natural History Collections Care and Management (Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections, 2011); the Dudley-Wilkinson Award of Distinction (Registrars Committee of the American Alliance of Museums, 2016); and the Spiritus Award for Excellence in Service and Management of Herpetological and Ichthyological Collections (American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists, 2029). Simmons has taught training sessions on care of natural history collec

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