200 MILLION OBJECTS

in UK collections

2500 MUSEUMS

nationwide receive a total of 100 million visits a year

15,000 PEOPLE

are employed in the UK museum sector

11,400 VOLUNTEERS

work with UK collections

£25 MILLION

invested in collections each year by UK businesses

37% of ADULTS

have visited a museum in the past 12 months

30% INCREASE

in visits by Schools over the past 3 years

One of the key strands of Collections for All is a research project which will enable us to answer some of the central questions about the management of information in collections. For example:

• How many collections are there in UK museums?

• What proportion of the museum workforce is involved in documentation and collections management?

• How much do museums spend annually on the management of their collections?

There are three parts to what we in museums do: we have to look after our collections, we have to know about them and we have to use them for the public good. My argument in the past was that there were people who just wanted to look after and research collections as an end in itself. That is changing now so it is a good time to restate the fact that we can’t get public benefit out of our collections if we don’t do all three activities – caring for, researching and presenting what we know to our visitors.

David Fleming, Director, National Museums Liverpool

MDA, 22 Hills Road, Cambridge, CB2 1JP
Telephone: 01223 316028. Fax: 01223 364658. E-mail: mda@mda.org.uk