Museums, archives and special libraries are guardians of the knowledge and stories held within their collections. These collections and resources should reflect the needs of our region and its people. While what we hold today may reflect the values and circumstances of the past, collecting policies need to be actively developed and updated in order to satisfy the needs of both our current and future users.

Collections management is not a luxury - if we do not know what we have got in our collections they can never be truly accessible, and if they are not in good condition then they will not survive.

We will:

• Assess collecting policies
• Assess the scale of cataloguing and documentation backlogs and develop a five year strategic programme to address them
• Compare the strengths of regional collections with the level of digitisation and e-access
• Develop a regional stewardship policy and strategy
• Seek funding for a programme to address the conservation needs of special library collections in museums, libraries and archives, building on Futures Together
• Support moves towards a joint store for historic periodicals
• Support marketing and national campaigns to raise the profile of the region’s collections

Supporting Stewardship: Helping you make the most of your collections.

A small grant fund of up to £2,500 are available for non-hub museums in the West Midlands made possible with Renaissance West Midlands funding.