ether

All heritage institutions have collections, such as objects, archives, artworks, oral history, etc… and it is the management of these which is a core function of all such institutions. We offer a range of products and services to support you move towards best practice in collections management.

ETHER has a number of workshops and training sessions planned for 2014 including the following. These are one day in duration unless otherwise indicated.:

 

• SPECTRUM for best practice collection management(2 days)
• Fixing your Storage: Best Practices for Storage Management
• Archiving(3 days) with Pétria Marais
• Photograph and Film Preservation
  with Estelle Liebenberg-Barkhuizen
• Governance of Heritage Institutions
• Principles of Digitisation
• Digitising Heritage Collections(2 days)
• Project Management for Heritage Projects
• Database Development and Management for Heritage Databases(3 days)
• Computer Literacy and Digital Literacy

In order to achieve your institutional goals, it is vital to have a good governance structure. All corporate bodies, large and small, public and private, for-profit and not-for-profit, are required to adhere to the principles and practices of good governance. However, many institutions are struggling to carry out their mandate, and are often unsure of the relationship between governance and management.

One of the priority areas of the governing body is to help to define and ratify the vision of the institution – or what it is aiming to become and for whom it provides benefits and experiences. Having a vision leads to a long-term strategy, and for heritage institutions this strategy is not required to be confined to the traditional 5-year cycle. The cycle can extend into generational planning, in particular the strategy for continuity of operations and mission between managers and curators into the future. A 50-year strategy cycle should not be out of place, given that you expect your institution to be thriving in this time frame. This is what makes heritage institutions different from any other type of business – and perhaps the biggest challenge is to create long-term sustainability.