Notes from a museum that writes its own software.
Practical writing on collections management, digital heritage and museum technology - from people doing the cataloguing, not consulting on it.
Auditing a collection you inherited
What to do when the spreadsheet, the labels and the shelves disagree - and how to record the reconciliation.
05/08/26Where assistance helps cataloguing - and where it must not
Suggested metadata can clear a backlog. Attribution and provenance still need a human who can be held responsible.
05/08/26 Museum innovationRunning the front desk and the catalogue in one system
Ticketing and collections are treated as separate industries. In a small museum they are the same three people. Placeholder article · 6 m
05/08/26 Digital heritageDigitisation without findability is just storage
Thousands of scans in folders are not an archive. The value appears when files are attached to records someone can query.
05/08/26 Museum technologyWhat small museums actually need from software
Not more features. Fewer systems, faster entry, and something a volunteer can learn in an afternoon.
05/08/26 Video game preservationKeeping hardware playable is a documentation problem
Every repair, replacement part and battery swap is a change to the object. If it isn't recorded, the object's history is quietly lost.
05/08/26 Collections managementWhy a flat field list will always fail a mixed collection
A cartridge, a magazine and a controller need different descriptions. The usual answer - one enormous form with mostly empty fields - is why cataloguing stalls. Here is the model we ended up with instead.
05/08/26