Principles for good practice with significance
The principles below describe some important aspects of significance and underpin good practice for collections. They relate both to the assessment process and the management of collections. Many of the applications in Part 6 show the principles in action. The example below illustrates a number of principles for good practice with significance.
1. Sustainability
Manage items and collections to conserve their meanings and values
The obligation in managing public collections in trust for communities is to ensure that their meanings and values are conserved for current and future generations. Significance assessment is the key process to assist collection managers to understand and conserve the meanings and values of items and collections.
Relevant case studies: St Saviour Cathedral; ‘Copying and Digitisation’.
2. Decision making
Understand significance before making decisions about items and collections
Significance helps guide decisions about all aspects of the management of items and collections, including acquisitions, preservation, risk assessment, access, interpretation, return and repatriation. It makes sense to understand how and why an item is important before making decisions or taking action that could affect its conservation or meaning.
Relevant case studies: Clayton and Shuttleworth steam traction engine; ‘Deaccessioning’; Menzies’ Bentley.
3. Associations
Every item and collection has associations with people and places
These associations can be an important element of their significance. Relationships with people and places are easily ruptured as items are moved into collections. Recognising and documenting the connections between people, places and collections illuminates their meaning and may inform decisions about how items and collections are managed.
Relevant case studies: Chifley wireless; View of Geelong; Documenting Springfield.
4. Consultation
Always ask ‘To whom is the item or collection important?’
Collection managers can learn a lot about the significance of items and collections by consulting people and communities who have knowledge of how an item or collection was made, used or valued. This knowledge may not be available in the future so it is important that people and communities are consulted without delay, as an integral part of the process of assessing significance. Conserving the significance of some items may require the continuing involvement of interested people or communities.
Relevant case study: Documenting Springfield.
5. Collections and Indigenous people
Recognise and respect the relationship between Indigenous people and collections[1]
Recognise and respect the relationship between Indigenous people and collections
Collections may hold special values and meanings for Indigenous people, illuminating culture, country, beliefs, identity, and family and community history. Understanding the significance of items and collection made by or about Indigenous people requires consultation and the involvement of appropriate Indigenous people and groups. This helps to ensure that the significance of the item or collection is properly understood, and that the meaning and values of the item are conserved into the future.
Relevant case studies: Thomas Dick collection; Margaret Lawrie collection.
6. Record keeping
Significance assessment is based on good records; they are the key to the meaning of collections, answering questions now and in the future
Preservation, access, research and the security of collections all rely on good records. The records of collections may be an important dimension of their significance, linking items with intangible meanings and enhancing research values.
Relevant case studies: Aurukun carvings; Adventist Heritage Centre; Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.
7. Research
Research, in all its forms, animates and illuminates the significance of items and collections
It builds relationships between collections, custodians and those who have an interest in and knowledge of the material. Research may change understanding of significance and unlock the potential of collections to contribute to Australian life.
Relevant case studies: Thylacine specimens; Thomas Dick collection.
8. Perspective
Communities and collection managers may have different views about what makes an item significant
Significance can encompass a range of ideas about how and why the item is valued. Different points of view about an item or collection can be considered and expressed in the assessment process and statement of significance.
Relevant case study: Thomas Dick collection.
9. Change
Significance is not fixed in time but may alter with changes in communities, culture, politics, science and the environment
New research may lead to the reappraisal of the significance of items and collections. Statements of significance should be reviewed from time to time to take account of change and new research.
Relevant case studies: Thylacine specimens; palaeontological collections.
[1] See the work of Museums Australia in this area. Museums Australia, Continuous cultures, ongoing responsibilities: principles and guidelines for Australian museums working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural heritage, Museums Australia, Canberra, 2005, viewed 15 March 2009, http://www.museumsaustralia.org.au/dbdoc/ccor_final_feb_05.pdf
