Keeping Afloat! EMu and Other Stuff Robin Green Registrar Lancashire County Museum Service

Lancashire Museums

We STILL operate 12 museums! An off-site stores A commercial Conservation Service Museums owned by 6 different bodies!

What has changed since last year? Lancashire Conservation Studios (almost) fully operational Fleetwood and Turton Tower Museums: –Still open –Reduced budgets (and staff!) –New partners Service Review (successful) led to increased support from elected members and Directorate senior officers

Lancashire Conservation Studios Conservators trained on EMu, but waiting for the new EMu Conservation Module! IT skills very variable Aiming to record –Object movements –Conservation treatments on objects –Costs of treatments i.e. time and materials

Lancashire Conservation Studios

Other Pressures Natural History Collections (partly) moved out of Fleetwood Museum, with Long-term aim to remove all reserve collections from Fleetwood Clitheroe Castle Museum HLF grant –Need to clear the site by September! Limited storage space Need to record object movements Budgets still under great pressure!

Off-Site Storage – Unit O

Backlog Documentation Accreditation Requirement –Large backlog of basic documentation –Limited resources – making negligible progress! –Will not meet timetable set by Accreditation panel –Very limited possibility of more resources No funding for additional posts Volunteers seen as the only source

Website Development Some wishes actually come true! Funding found for narrative-based thematic approach –Starting with one theme, Slavery, adding others later –Working with the staff who want to make it work! –Limited number of objects, keeping it simple! It’s happening this year!

Conclusions Lancashire County Museum Service are : –Still Afloat! –Not where we expected to be –Becoming better at using the skills and resources available to us –Making progress (Slow Ahead?)

Thank you for listening Robin Green (0)