It’s already here so we’ll keep it – Improving Object Entry Procedures

Now open for applications 
Deadline to submit an Expression of interest – 10am Tuesday 7th April 2026 

Do your written object entry procedures, and how staff and volunteers think they’re carried out, match up to the day-to-day reality of how objects come into your museum?

Museums can have clear Spectrum-compliant procedures for donations that are agreed in advance but those procedures might not cover the unplanned and unexpected – objects that arrive in the post, taken in at the front desk to not cause offence turning down the offer, passed on through a trustee and put on the curator’s desk.

They’re difficult to dispose of if they’re not wanted, especially if the ownership is unknown. It’s easier to keep them even though they take up precious storage space, or keep them by default by not making a decision at all.

Those donations may be unexpected but knowing how best to deal with them responsibly can be planned. By clarifying processes at the point of entry, museums can move from passive accumulation to proactive, responsible collecting aligned with their Collections Development Policy.

This programme, run jointly between Museum Development North and Collections Trust, will use the Spectrum procedures to consider how you deal with the unexpected objects, discouraging unsolicited donations in the first place, and knowing how to deal with them if they do arrive. It minimises the problems unwanted donations can cause in the longer term, and ensure you are accountable for the objects in your possession.

This reduces governance and reputational risk for the museum by ensuring decisions are documented, policy-led and consistently applied.

Aims 
The aims of the programme are:

For museums to be accountable for objects that arrive unplanned

• Using their Collections Development Policy and Spectrum procedures to process and deal with them as part of their normal collections management processes
• Decisions to acquire or dispose to be active, rather than keeping objects in limbo through being unsure how to proceed
• To embed confident decision-making into everyday practice across the museum (front of house, volunteers, staff and trustees)

For museums to show responsible stewardship of finite resources

• Trustees and managers have oversight of a process which, if uncontrolled, can take resources away from core museum objectives
• Objects the museum wouldn’t actively choose to acquire are not taking up storage space and staff/volunteer time
• Those who value the objects sufficiently to send them to a museum are acknowledged and respected through museums taking responsible decisions about the future of those objects

By the end of the programme delegates will have:

• Identified the different methods by which objects come into their museum, and for what purposes
• Identified where current procedures, or absence of them, don’t cover these methods and objects are unaccounted for through lack of documentation and decision-making
• Considered ways in which Spectrum standards could be used to create realistic procedures to account for the different methods of object entry into their museum, and to actively discourage unsolicited donations
• Identified who needs to know and support the procedures and how these might be implemented
• Created a draft object entry procedure fit for their museum’s specific purposes
• Begun a draft advocacy and implementation plan so all staff, volunteers, trustees and other stakeholders understand and have confidence in the new procedure and messaging
• Begun to create a shared organisational understanding, helping to reduce pressure on collections staff/volunteers by ensuring everyone understands why some objects are accepted and others declined

The programme
The programme comprises four online workshops for eight Accredited museums, with up to two people per museum participating. Applications are open to any Accredited or Working Towards Accreditation museum (including provisional) that are not National Portfolio Organisations or DCMS-sponsored national museums, English Heritage or National Trust sites. The programme supports Section 2 of the Accreditation Standard.

The programme will cover the Spectrum object entry, acquisition and accessioning, location and movement control procedures as well as how your Collections Development Policy can support decision-making. It will also support you to justify the need to improve procedures and decision-making for these objects.

There will be time in the third workshop to work on your own object entry procedures. The fourth workshop is a peer-sharing session where delegates will upload their draft procedures to share with others for discussion and ideas.

There will also be an optional drop-in session between the third and fourth workshops to talk through any questions you have whilst writing your draft procedure.

We ask for each participating museum to commit to:

• Attend each workshop
• Set aside time to work independently between the third and fourth workshops (8th-15th July) on drafting a procedure
• Produce a draft object entry procedure to be shared in the last workshop

For your museum to take part, please complete this expression of interest form for both applicants (if applicable) by 10am Tuesday 7th April 2026.  Applicants will be informed by Monday 13th April.  The programme is open to staff and volunteers working in North museums.

Online workshop programme 

Object entry – “Thank you, but this is why we’re not taking this…” 
10am-12pm Thursday 7th May

Acquisition and accessioning – “Untraced find” 
10am-12pm Thursday 4th June

Location and movement control – “Who put that there?” 
10am-12pm Tuesday 7th July

Peer-sharing draft object entry procedure session 
10am-12pm Thursday 16th July

If you’ve any questions about the programme please contact Lynsey Jones, Museum Development Adviser, lynsey.jones@museumdevelopmentnorth.org.uk