Collections Management Policy

The foundation of all our collections related activities is our Collections Management Policy (currently under review). This sets out in detail what and why we collect, how we provide access to collections and why they are not necessarily displayed all the time. It also explains how we store and care for the collections so they continue to be enjoyed by future generations.

One of our main purposes is to acquire and preserve objects as a permanent collection for the general benefit and enjoyment of the people of Leicestershire, visitors and the many people from outside the county who use our collections. Many people are extremely generous in offering objects to museums. For clarity about what we can accept we have an Acquisitions and Disposals Policy.

Caring for and using museum collections properly takes a great deal of time. Our Collections Management Policy, is approved by the elected members who oversee the Museums Service and act as Trustees for the collections.

We are scrupulous about observing various legal and ethical concerns about collecting. We try to ensure that the donor or vendor does really own the object and has a right to offer it, and that items have not been obtained wrongly, for example, natural history specimens, stolen artwork, or improperly obtained archaeological objects. We work to ensure the animals and insects in our Natural Life collections have died from natural causes, or were road casualties.

Although the Service tries to ensure that the objects that it acquires are relevant, in good condition and are fit for purpose, there are occasions when professional and informed reviews and rationalisations identify objects, or groups of objects, which are no longer required by the Service. The reasons for these include deterioration of condition, items which were acquired by the Service before the implementation of defined acquisition policy, or those items which have been identified as being more relevant to other accredited museums or similar heritage groups. These items are disposed of in line with the Museums Associations Toolkit for Disposals (for details go to www.museumsassociation.org).