Supporting museums with collections

Collections care support, advice and training

London regional collection care programme includes training in areas like insect pest monitoring.

Online advice

Do you need direct advice about the conservation and care of your collection? London museums can access FREE advice via online platform (Zoom, Teams, etc) or telephone direct from conservation specialists Spencer & Fry. As well as offering direct advice, the specialists at Spencer & Fry will also appropriately signpost other support available through this programme and elsewhere.

To arrange your advice session email MD London collection care support

Training

There has been a comprehensive FREE collection care training programme for 2023-24 provided for Museum Development London by conservation specialists Spencer & Fry. Some of the training was through online sessions jointly commissioned with the Museum Development services for South East & Eastern England (SHARE Museums East).

Completed training sessions in 2023/24

• Collections Care and Conservation - PAST, held in July 2023
• Environmental monitoring & control - PAST, held in Sept 2023
• Hazardous materials: Mould - PAST, held in Oct 2023
• Condition Checking and Materials for Display and Packing - PAST, held in Oct 2023
• Paper and Parchment - PAST, Nov 2023
• Caring for a Textile Collection - PAST, Dec 2023
• Environmental responsibility in collections care - PAST, held in Jan 2024
• Photographic materials - PAST, held in Jan 2024
• Insect pest management - PAST, held in Feb 2024
• Collections fusion: Labelling & marking - PAST, held in Feb 2024

Details of new sessions from April 2024 on and how to book will appear on our training page as soon as they are ready.

Emergency Planning

For 2023 - 2024 we commissioned Spencer & Fry to provide free intensive support on emergency planning for a cohort of up to 12 London museums.

• Emergency planning training programme - PAST, completed in Nov
• Network - a new Emergency planning network has been formed as a result of this training. Details about how to join will soon be available here

Site visits

For situations where more complex and in-depth advice is required, a small number of free specialist on-site visits are available from Spencer & Fry.

To enquire about a site visit, either contact via your local Museum Development Officer or email Spencer & Fry direct: MD London collection care support

'How To' practical videos

The former Regional Collections Care team produced a set of practical Collection Care demonstration videos to accompany one of its training courses on the care of books and paper in 2020-21. These are now hosted on MD London's YouTube site as a Collection Care playlist:

• Cutting strips
• Introduction to book cushions
• Paper corners
• Quick tip on using a book pillow
• Using a book mount
• Using Secol strips

Online tools

Museum Development London offers a range of collection care e-learning resources developed by the former Regional Collections Care team, to help support museums with collections care skills. You can use them free of charge, to train your own collections team if needed.