Heritage Conservation Centre: Collections Management

Collections Management

The Collections Management (CM) department at HCC is responsible for the management of and facilitating access to the National Collection (NC). Management of the NC includes storage and documentation, such as accessioning and movement documentation. Collection stores are maintained to provide the best possible environment to store the artefacts e.g. at optimal temperature and humidity, good housekeeping and pest management.

Our Collections Managers and Officers also manage the movement of artefacts between the museums and HCC e.g. during installations and de-installations for exhibitions and storage, as well as movement of artefacts within HCC premises e.g. to conservation labs for treatment. One key activity of the CM department is the stocktake exercise, which is carried out together with our museum counterparts, to ensure that the NC is all accounted for.

In addition, the CM department includes the Knowledge and Information Management (KIM) section, which facilitates documentation and digital access for the NC.

Read more about the KIM section which is a part of the Collections Management department:

Knowledge and Information Management

Storage Matters1/7

Storage Matters

by Ang Boon Kok, Jia Han & Tan Xue Miao

At any point in time, only less than 10% of the NC is on display at exhibitions, while the rest are in storage. With more than 250,000 NCs, collections management therefore plays a crucial role in managing and caring for artefacts.

Collections management refers to the provision of physical care and management of the collection. In HCC, a team of dedicated Collections Managers are responsible for overseeing collections functions, which include preventive maintenance, storage, and documentation.

Besides that, Collections Managers also manage work procedures such as new artefact/artwork receiving, accessioning, and facilitating access to the NC.

A Day in the Life of Collections Managers

Watch: Heritage Conservation Centre Behind The Scenes Episode 2

Knowledge & Information Management

The Knowledge and Information Management (KIM) is part of the CM department. KIM looks into documentation and facilitating digital access to our NC. This includes visual documentation of the NC, maintenance of collections management and movement systems, and heritage cataloguing. Singapore Collections Management System (SCMS) and Automated Collections Tagging System (ACTS) are both used to manage the NC. SCMS is a centralised database of our NC and is used by all parties working on the NC to update information of the artefacts. Images of artefacts by our Photographers and heritage cataloguing information by our Cataloguers are also stored in SCMS. Some of this information is made available to the public via Collections page on Roots.sg. ACTS is a RFID system which manages the location of artefacts and facilitates stocktake of our NC.

Learn more about some of the tasks carried out by our KIM Photographers and Cataloguers in the subsequent sections.

Visual Documentation (Photography)

by Dave Lee

Visual Documentation

Visual documentation of the NC started in the 1970s using film and transparencies. In 2001, NHB made the transition to digital photography. Most of the visual documentation takes place in the photography studio at HCC. Visual documentation is part of the accessioning process. The images produced are used for multiple purposes, including in exhibition catalogues and online publishing.

Two types of cameras are used for visual documentation at HCC: A 36 megapixel DSLR is used for most of the artefacts, while an 80 megapixel Medium Format Camera (MFC) is used for artefacts which require high colour accuracy or have a lot of fine detail.

The Photographers’ monitors are set to auto calibrate every 200 hours to ensure accuracy in colour display. This helps to ensure that the colour of the image captured is as close to the colour of the artefact as possible. NCs are photographed in native camera RAW format and processed to TIFF and JPEG formats for archival and publication purposes respectively.

Our in-house Photographer, Dave, takes us through his task of photographing large textile pieces below.

Dave is photographing a piece of textile (<a href="/collection-landing/listing/1232401">2009-02101</a>) which is about 5m long. Due to its length, it has to be taken with this setup. Dave ensures that the lighting is even across the entire textile.

Dave is photographing a piece of textile (2009-02101) which is about 5m long. Due to its length, it has to be taken with this setup. Dave ensures that the lighting is even across the entire textile.

Dave is checking the white balance and exposure value of the image. White balancing is the process of removing unwanted colour casts from the image to match it as closely as possible to the colour of the artefact.

Before white balancing (left); After white balancing (right)

Heritage Cataloguing

by Afiqah Zainal & Ho Swee Ann

Heritage Cataloguing

In this digital age, there are new ways to facilitate access to the artefacts in the NC beyond the museums’ physical space. To tap on this potential, HCC started heritage cataloguing in 2014, which involves the attribution of metadata (terms/controlled vocabulary) to describe the artefacts in the collections digital database. The purpose of cataloguing is to organise and structure the digital artefact records to enhance search and retrieval of the artefacts on (1) the Collections page on Roots.sg (2) SCMS, our internal database, and (3) on other platforms such as digital interactives placed in the exhibition galleries at museums or heritage institutions.