WikiProject:Collection Care

Initial thoughts

Collection Management and Collection Care have no immediate page-- creative search terms necessary at the moment
Many articles do not reference other existing pages using inline links, See Also sections, or navboxes-- feels extremely disjointed
Some existing articles are stubs or unreferenced:

Collection catalog (stub)
Collections policy (citations)
Digital preservation (OP and speculation)
Library collection development (citations)
Media preservation (citations and stub?)
Object conservation (citations and stub?)
Digital Collections Selection Criteria (introduction, notability, and quality)
Special collections (citations)
Conservator-restorer (start and advertisement)
Preservation survey (stub- library mention only)
Conservation and restoration of iron and steel objects (start)
Conservation and restoration of silver objects (start)
Conservation and restoration of copper-based objects (start)
Conservation and restoration of glass objects (start)
Painting restoration (stub)
Photograph conservation (citations)
Conservation and restoration of ivory objects (stub?)

Non-existent articles needing creation:

First impressions for priority articles:

Collection care -- the lack of a central Collection management or Collection care page really stood out to me. It’s difficult to find other relevant topics when you have no starting point. Preventive conservation is more or less an ideal start point, but the article is written from a conservator perspective. Perhaps rename article Preventive collections care with minor edits??
Preventive conservation -- Could use some basic organizing/expansion. Some sections could use seperate articles, using this page as a brief summary hub for more in-depth coverage of certain sub-topics.
Collection catalog -- current article is one small paragraph, needs a lot of fleshing out: methodology, software, etc.
Collections policy -- current article is brief, needs fleshing out: purpose, drafting details, dissemination, etc.
Collection (museum) -- current article needs referencing to other articles and outside sites: collection policy, provenance, conservator, curator, etc.
Risk Management (museums) -- No existing articles specific to museum risk managment, including topics of Emergency Preparedness plans, security and fire protection, and integrated pest management.
There are several pages discussing specific conservation needs (e.g. electronic media, various metals, textiles), but there is no one starting point for researching collections in general. The Collection (museum) page tries to briefly touch upon it, but lacks important sections that are more specific to care and management.
The Conservation and restoration page is a great starting point for looking into the specifics about collection preservation, and serves as a great place to find ideas for missing conservation technique articles.

Completed articles

Currently existing, well-written articles with little or no need for improvement:

Some articles need only minor editing

Architectural preservation (citation cleaning)
Historical preservation (external link cleaning)
Book (various section cleanup and Paper and Conservation Issues section expansion)

Project Outline

Project will focus on research and creation of a WikiProject designed to create a variety of articles pertaining to Collection Care

Research will be ongoing throughout the internship with primary focus being to compile a list of reliable sources of state and national references on collection care and management. This research will focus primarily on digitally available resources, allowing even greater access among museum professionals.
Research will also include investigation into current Wikipedia articles on the subject with the intention of improving those articles labeled as stubs or in need of improvement, as well as to add articles that are currently missing.
In addition to the creation of a WikiProject based on Collection Care, this research will culminate in a 10-15 page final term paper discussing the present state of collections care in the U.S., with the WikiProject articles serving as a continuation of this report.

WikiProject creation will involve organizing currently existing Wikipedia articles on collection care into formatted, well-referenced, pages referring back to a central project description location

Utilizing the guidelines from the American Institute of Conservation’s Proposal for a Collection’s Care Network (http://www.conservators-converse.org/2011/09/ccn-proposal/), the WikiProject will focus on creating awareness for museum collection care by expanding the current number of articles available on the topic.
WikiProject goals will focus on encouraging interaction among the general public, museum professionals, students, and scholars within the Wikipedia forums in order to edit, expand, and discuss ongoing article concepts within the museum field.
Collection care topics that lack Wikipedia articles will be drafted, referenced, and published in accordance with Wikipedia's style guidelines.
The WikiProject will aim to create a standardized template for pages discussing collection care so that future expansion of the topic may adhere to an easy-to-understand format that clearly links back to the project discussion page.

Goals

As the primary focus of this project is research of past and current collection care techniques within museums, goals of the project are based heavily on expanding personal knowledge of the topic beyond those points discussed within a classroom environment.
An additional goal is to gain an increased familiarity with Web2.0 technologies, the basics of categorizing and organizing content relevant to museums, and further honing research and writing skills.
Given the online nature of this project, this experience will further serve to reinforce the skills necessary for independent study, as well as personal initiative, with the possibility of leadership experience as the project gains additional members following completion of the internship.
Finally, this project will aim to bring other museum professionals into the dialogue of collection care today, as such providing an excellent opportunity to network with other museum professionals from around the world.

Completed Actions

Week 1

Created list of state historical commission websites in GoogleDocs
Created WikiProject Conservation and Collection Care proposal
Notified referenced WikiProjects of request for new WikiProject group

Week 2

Created project outline/goals in GoogleDocs
Created WikiProject main page template
Created side panel template

Week 3

Researched conservation topics and expanded above lists of articles
Created collection of links and resources by category in GoogleDocs

Week 4

Began creation of Wikipedia:WikiProject Collections Care

Week 5

Continued work on Wikipedia:WikiProject Collections Care, focusing on Wikipedia:WikiProject Collections Care/Assessment tools
Researched potential ideas for project images and icons

Week 6

Chose an image to be associated with the WikiProject.
Performed minor editing and formatting to Wikipedia:WikiProject Collections Care hub pages.
Performed troubleshooting of project Version 1.0 Assessment tools.

Week 7

Initial WikiProject “draft” submitted for approval by site supervisor.
Began research into basic collections care topics for future use in the preventive conservation article