« »

14 July 2006 14:12

Museum Accounting in Ukraine to Be Completely Computerized

July 13, 2006, the working group for developing unified software for accounting museum assets at Ukraine’s Ministry for Culture and Tourism gathered for its first meeting.

The working group’s creation was initiated by the Ukrainian Center for Museums Development and the Ukraine 3000 International Foundation. Its members are experts on museum funds from the National Museum of Ukraine’s History and Sofiya Kyivska National Preserve, experts on informational technologies, etc.

At present Ukraine lacks unified standards for composing formalized inventory of museum exhibits, as well as software allowing to compile information from different museums into a single database.

By the end of September, the group plans to prepare standard requirements and selection criteria for software for accounting museum assets, proposals on perfecting the unified passport of a museum exhibit, and methodical guidelines for museum workers.

These documents will help to systematize computer data processing in the museums of various regions to subsequently create a single state register of museum exhibits.

In the coming years a domestic single computer program will be created basing on these recommendations.

Reference. Today Ukraine’s museums preserve over 11 million objects in their main funds. 98% of these objects, as before, are kept on paper carriers only, in many cases lacking photographs and detailed attribution.

For more details about the problems of museum accounting go to the Ukrayinsky Muzey [Ukrainian Museum] bulletin No. 3, 2006