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Ask the Expert Q&A – Collections Trust

The Collections Trust is an Arts Council Sector Support Organisation that helps museums prosper in the management of their collections through its Spectrum system, which went through an important update in September 2017. Here the Collections Trust’s communication officer, Sophie Lealan, tells Advisor why you should stop by and speak to them in their Ask the Expert stand at this year’s Museums + Heritage Show 

What can visitors expect by visiting your stand?

Visitors will be able to take a look at our publications, find out more about what we do and how we can help them, and ask us questions about Spectrum.

What is your primary role in the sector?

We support museums in documenting and managing their collections. Through Spectrum, the UK standard for collections management, as well as our publications, Outreach programme and website we help shape the documentation standards of museums in the UK and around the world.

Why is it important to you to be involved in the Museums + Heritage Show?

It’s a great chance to speak with some of the people who use our standards, to discover the different ways they put our guidance into action, and to introduce new people to the work we do.

What are your goals of participating in this year’s Show?

Collections documentation is sometimes seen as a daunting task for museums, so we’d like to reassure people that there’s help out there for them! This is also our first year as one of Arts Council England’s Sector Support Organisations, so we’d like to spread the word about our plans for the next few years.

What do you think are some of the key challenges professionals are currently facing in this sector?

Many museums currently have a documentation backlog and believe that tackling it will be a difficult, expensive or even unnecessary ordeal. Over the coming months we want to help people who work in museums see that ‘banishing the backlog’ can be a manageable and fruitful endeavour.

What are you looking forward to most at this year’s Museums + Heritage Show?

We’re looking forward to hearing from delegates about the challenges their museums are facing and the new projects they’re working on, to catch up with colleagues across the sector, and hopefully meet a few new ones too.


The Museums + Heritage Show is free to attend and you can pre-register here.