Things Great and Small: Collections Management Policies

Collection care is a fundamental responsibility for museums and other collecting institutions, and the foundation of collection stewardship is good collection management policies. The new third edition of Things Great and Small continues to be a comprehensive resource for developing, implementing, and revising collection management policies and includes new information for addressing prolonged or permanent closure of museums, wider parameters for collection storage environments, and sustainable collection management practices to cope with climate change. Drawing on more than 50 years of experience as a collection manager, educator, consultant, and AAM Museum Assessment Program peer reviewer, John E. Simmons reviews the most recent collection management thinking and literature, helps determine which policies an institution needs, and provides guidance on policy content. In this new edition, coverage of critical areas is expanded, including digital objects, intellectual property rights, deaccessioning, decolonization, standards and best practices, collection storage environment parameters, managing off-site storage facilities, health and safety, laws and regulations, risk management, and sustainable collection management practices. With more than 50 tables and charts and model policy templates, this major publication is aimed at museums of all kinds, historic houses and sites, and other collecting institutions.

John E. Simmons (BA, Systematics & Ecology; MA, Museum Studies) has worked in museums for more than 50 years. He began his career as a zoo keeper before becoming collections manager at the California Academy of Sciences and later at the Natural History Museum at the University of Kansas, where he also served as Director of the Museum Studies Program until 2007. He is the recipient of the Superior Voluntary Service Award from the American Association of Museums (2001), the Chancellor’s Award for Outstanding Mentoring of Graduate Students from the University of Kansas (2005), the Carolyn L. Rose Award for Outstanding Commitment to Natural History Collections and Management from the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections (2011), the Dudley-Wilkinson Award of Distinction from the Registrars Committee of the American Alliance of Museums (2016), and the Spiritus Award for Excellence in Service and Management of Herpetological and Ichthyological Collections from American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists (2019). John has published more than 150 papers and several books, including Cuidado, Manejo y Conservación de las Colecciones Biológicas (2005, with Yaneth Munoz-Saba), Fluid Preservation: A Comprehensive Reference (2014), Foundations of Museum Studies: Evolving Systems of Knowledge (2014, with Kiersten Latham), Herpetological Collecting and Collections Management (3rd edition, 2015), Museums: A History (2016), Things Great and Small: Collections Management Policies (2nd edition, 2017), the chapter on ＂Collections Management: History, Theory, and Practice＂ in The International Handbook of Museum Studies (2015), Best Practices in the Preservation and Management of Fluid-Preserved Biological Collections (with Dirk Neumann, Julian Carter, and Oliver Crimmen), and he edited the 6th edition of Museum Registration Methods in 2020 (with Toni Kiser). John’s research interests include the conservation of natural history and anatomical specimens, the history of museums, and the development of sustainable collections management practices. John currently runs Museologica museum consulting and teaches museology workshops and university classes.