Frequently Asked Questions about Managing Museum Collections at Collections Storage Facility

Yes, Collection Managers will still receive and approve requests to review objects, but will work closely with the cross-collection staff at the CSF who will facilitate these visits. You will have access to an additional location reporting system, as well as views into Aeon (to see the progress of visit enquiries) and CaiaSoft (to view real-time CSF location data).

A small cross-GLAM collections team will be facilitating research and teaching visits at both the CSF and the new Collections Teaching & Research Centre in Oxford. Their work will include unpacking retrieved objects for viewings and any necessary checks before, and invigilation during, viewings. There may be particular occasions when museum staff would also be present for object viewings at the CSF, which could include special requests, collections care or conservation.

No, existing museum barcodes will be retained and used in the MuseumPlus and EMu CMSs.  Museum objects stored at the CSF will be labelled with a new CSF barcode which will only be used for tracking item movements within the CSF (with item we refer to stand alone or object in a box). 

During the object ingest phase, the Collections Move project will be responsible for purchasing and affixing barcodes to all objects being moved into the CSF. In BAU, barcoding of objects moving to CSF will be the responsibility of the GLAM assistant.

Affixing barcodes to objects and adding those barcodes into the CMSs and CaiaSoft system will either be pre-ingest activities, i.e. they will occur prior to objects being moved to the CSF when objects are prepared for the move from their existing storage location, or on arrival at the CSF as part of the object ingest.

The Collections Move project will agree with each museum whether a manual entry or bulk upload process is preferred. 

No, visitors will not access the CaiaSoft or Aeon systems directly. These systems will be for internal staff.