Managing Museum Storage in Rogaland (Norway)

Abstract

Abstract The use of shared storage warehouses in Norwegian museums has emerged in recent years as an effective way of saving resources and ensuring that cultural assets are adequately protected. This article and case study describes the work carried out in one of the biggest shared storage warehouses in Norway, located in a former munitions store near Stavanger, in the Rogaland region. It describes the efforts of the Samlingsteam Rogaland (Rogaland Collections Team), a travelling support unit assisting museums with cataloguing, digitisation, storage and conservation, created expressly to support museums and establish best practices in collection and storage management. Both offer innovative examples of the efficient use of resources dedicated to collection management and storage, which have been used as models to set up similar working systems in other areas of Norway. The existing literature is sparse both in reference to the storage warehouse and its transformation process as described in this case study, and to the Samlingsteam. The data used to assemble this case study was drawn from the professionals directly involved in the project, and their first-hand experiences as part of the working team. As such, this article represents a unique way of discovering the project and its completed work.