Reading List: Registration Methods for the Small Museum

Well... I just don't have much to say about this one. I usually have lots to say about nearly every book I read, but this just wasn't one of them. And I don't know why. 

It's a fine enough overview of registration needs, methods, policies, forms, etc. It's the kind of thing you could give to someone NEW to collections and registration (a new volunteer, or someone running a museum starting their Collections department, including procedures and policies, from scratch), and it would give them the very basic knowledge about why we do things and how to go about doing them. But it was dry at times (most of the time?), and just... so basic and factual that there was no pizzaz or pah! to the book. It was just "Here it is. Just the facts, ma'am." Even the author's first-hand anecdotes were just blah.

The upsides:

• It has the very basic info, including the What, Why, and How. 
• Sample forms and policies
• It has a good chapter on using computers for your collections - what to look for in software, security, hardware, and networking. Again, just basics, but enough ideas to get you started.

The downsides:

• It felt boring. I mean, okay, maybe some people wouldn't find this kind of thing interesting or exciting in the first place, but you and I do, right? That's why we're here, writing and reading this blog post. So for *me* to say "Eh, it's dry" says something.

Overall:

I feel like there are other books covering the same info, and more in-depth, but if you just want a Basic "How and why we do this," this would work. And that type of book absolutely has a place and an audience, but if you've been doing this for a while, or want something less snoozy, maybe look for another book. I'd still give it 2.5 or 3 stars out of 5, though: a nice middle-of-the-road, did-what-it-came-here-to-do rating.

Because I feel like I'm so down on the book and not doing a good job of explaining its value, here's the Table of Contents, so you can see that it *does* cover useful topics:

1. Why Have a Museum Registration System?
2. Acquisition
3. The Accession Number
4. Accessioning
5. Documentation
6. The Catalog
7. Loans
8. A World of Computers

and then sample forms and policies.

Registration Methods for the Small Museum, 2018

Daniel B. Reibel, updated by Deborah Rose Van Horn

105 big pages of text, 33 pages of samples, and a bibliography