by Ella Rothgangel and Kurt Christian, photos by Jason Gray

The movement of artwork at the Saint Louis Art Museum requires authorization from the Registrar through a Location Change Request. The requests are generated from the Museum’s Collection Management System, TMS (The Museum System) and attached to the Installation Calendar.



This process insures that ...

Publications:
The Care of Antiques and Historical Collections by Guldbeck and Macleish
Pollutants in the Museum Environment by Pamela B. Hatchfield
Following through AAM ...

This post is focused on two aspects of a situation that can add up to be quite a daunting and frustrating dilemma - the counting and packing of large numbers of small objects operating under the time and budget constraints that exist almost everywhere these days.
It is meant to illustrate a complimentary pair of techniques that can increase the integrity and effectiveness of the process while helping to minimize frustration.
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Radio frequency identification (RFID) asset tracking has made its way into art handling. Fine Art Shipping began working with it in early 2009, and we are in a fine-tuning stage with the system. RFID shares barcoding’s facilitation of electronic databases in inventory maintenance, but takes the concept a step further. The idea is to improve the accuracy and efficiency of our storage maintenance operations by eliminating several points of potential human error and object handling. And apart from the nearly completed updating of our existing storage with RFID, it has already provided savings on some jobs by streamlining every stage in tracking our custody of objects - up to and including billing.
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In another first for our group, PACIN took our booth down the road to Los Angeles where AIC (The American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works) held its 37th Annual Meeting on May 19–22.

Our presence there was made possible to a large degree due to the generosity of AIC and specifically of Amanda Knowles Meetings Coordinator – AIC, and Ruth Seyler - Membership and Meetings Director - AIC.
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by T. Ashley McGrew


Completed in June of 2004 and spanning a 5 year period, over 800,000 objects were documented, packed and relocated at the National Museum of American Indian. This collection is now one of the most thoroughly documented collections of its type and size due to the digital imaging component integrated into the move process. It is also one of the more accessible collections due to the addition of a barcoding system that was also integrated into the move project.
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