Reading List: Things Great and Small: Collections Management Policies (2nd ed)

Sometimes I'm so ashamed by how long books sit on my bookshelf before I read them. I see them in the store or online, I get really excited, I buy them, and then... I just don't have time to read them. I bought this book when it was new (2018) but didn't read it until this month. Yikes! At least nothing's too outdated yet!

This is a nice overview of collections management policies - different types of policies you should have, what you should take into account, why to have policies, who should be involved in writing or approving different policies, all that good stuff. It also includes topics like risk management, intellectual property, and ethics.

If you've read a lot about collections, collections management, and policies, there's nothing really new in here; but this is a great synopsis of collections management policies if you haven't read a bunch others, or a nice one-stop-shop of all the good stuff to get you going.

Plus, John Simmons is funny. If you're on any collections e-lists with him, you likely know his December holiday-themed/museum-management-themed poems. (I was disappointed, though, that the funny wasn't strong throughout. He starts off well, with sample policies from the House of Victoriana, the Institute of Contrafactual Science, and the Museum of Mediocre Art, but then some of their sample policies are just like regular sample policies and the funny is gone.)

 

The upsides:

• A nice one-stop-shop of all the good stuff to get you going on your Collections Management policies
  
• Good for newcomers to the Collections Management game
  

The downsides:

• If you have other books about Collections Management, you might not need this.
• There are a number of "When Policy Meets Reality" call-out boxes scattered throughout the book, but a lot of them seem irrelevant. They're funny or interesting or astounding, but they're not always helpful. If you try hard, you might force yourself to stop and think about what you would do if you were in that situation, but there's not a lot of insight offered. And others just make you think "Huh, that's... interesting" and you move on. It's some wasted space that could have either been used for more helpful info, or could have just been cut and made the book a bit smaller. Similarly, a lot of the images seem unnecessary, and removing them could have made the book smaller. (I keep saying "smaller" because it's a tall and wide book - 11" H x 8.5+" W)
  

  

Overall: This is definitely worth a read, unless you Absolutely Know Everything about collections management and policies. Even if you think you know a lot, you still might get some new insights. Or you might gain a new favorite reference book.

 

Things Great and Small: Collections Management Policies, 2nd edition, 2018

John E. Simmons

220 pages (and it's a tall and wide book, too), including references/bibliography/other reading, and appendices with AAM's Code of Ethics, AAM's Accreditation Commission's Standards Regarding Collections Stewardship, various laws and regulations that affect collections