Keeping Afloat!EMu and Other Stuff

Robin GreenRegistrar

Lancashire County Museum Service

Lancashire Museums

Lancashire Museums

• We STILL operate 12 museums!

• An off-site stores• A commercial Conservation Service

• Museums owned by 6 different bodies!

What has changed since last year?

• Lancashire Conservation Studios (almost) fully operational

• Fleetwood and Turton Tower Museums: – Still open– Reduced budgets (and staff!)– New partners

• Service Review (successful) led to increased support from elected members and Directorate senior officers

Lancashire Conservation Studios

• Conservators trained on EMu, but waiting for the new EMu Conservation Module!

• IT skills very variable

• Aiming to record – Object movements– Conservation treatments on objects– Costs of treatments i.e. time and materials

Lancashire Conservation Studios

Lancashire Conservation Studios

Other Pressures

• Natural History Collections (partly) moved out of Fleetwood Museum, with

• Long-term aim to remove all reserve collections from Fleetwood

• Clitheroe Castle Museum HLF grant– Need to clear the site by September!

• Limited storage space• Need to record object movements• Budgets still under great pressure!

Off-Site Storage – Unit O

Off-Site Storage – Unit O

Backlog Documentation

• Accreditation Requirement– Large backlog of basic documentation – Limited resources – making negligible

progress!– Will not meet timetable set by Accreditation

panel– Very limited possibility of more resources

• No funding for additional posts• Volunteers seen as the only source

Website Development• Some wishes actually come true!

• Funding found for narrative-based thematic approach– Starting with one theme, Slavery, adding

others later– Working with the staff who want to make it

work!– Limited number of objects, keeping it simple!

• It’s happening this year!

Conclusions

• Lancashire County Museum Service are:– Still Afloat!– Not where we expected to be– Becoming better at using the skills and

resources available to us– Making progress (Slow Ahead?)

Thank you for listening

Robin Green

robin.green@mus.lancscc.gov.uk www.lancsmuseums.gov.uk

+44 (0)1772 790830