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.

Much of our work concerns essential tasks that are rarely in the limelight. However, with recent coverage of reported thefts from the British Museum, and of items missing or mislaid in many other museums, basic collections management has been front page news. People rightly expect museums to be accountable for the collections held on behalf of the public. Our collection management standard, Spectrum, sets out guidance for inventorying and auditing collections, and many other procedures that underpin such accountability. Spectrum’s minimum requirements for inventory and other key procedures are mandatory for all 1,700 officially Accredited museums in the UK.

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. 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 on 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. Many years in the planning, and supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the Museum Data Service launched in September 2024.