Collections Trust helps museums work with the information that connects audiences and collections. Our standards and advice are used around the world to make museum collections accessible.
We are based in the UK but work internationally. We help shape the documentation standards used in many countries, always in step with wider information management developments. The core of our work is Spectrum, the collection management standard with tried-and-tested guidance on more than twenty museum procedures. You can find Spectrum available here, along with a wealth of other resources on collection management and related topics.
In England, we are one of Arts Council England’s Investment Principles Support Organisations (IPSO) within the ACE National Portfolio (2023-27). As an IPSO Collections Trust will support others to embed the ACE Investment Principles. We have an ambitious programme of ACE-funded activity planned over this period, including free training and advice through our outreach programme, working closely with the museum development network. We also deliver other training and consultancy projects at competitive rates, and are always happy to consider new opportunities anywhere in the world.
Our history stretches back to the 1970s and the pioneering work of IRGMA, the Information Retrieval Group of the Museums Association. In 1977, this group formed the Museum Documentation Association (or MDA, which is why your museum might have an MDA code). Since 2008, as Collections Trust, we have continued the work begun over four decades ago.
A key aim of that work was – and still is – to connect collections information from different museums. We are therefore delighted to be collaborating with Art UK and the University of Leicester of the transformative new Museum Data Service, which over coming years will become an increasingly important part of tackling some longstanding collection management challenges across the sector.