1.

FUNCTIONS OF MUSEUM
DR. A. RAVISANKAR

The functions of modern museums is to collect, preserve, interpret, and display objects of
artistic, cultural, or scientific significance for the education of the public. From a visitor or
community perspective, the purpose can also depend on one's point of view. A trip to a local history
museum or large city art museum can be an entertaining and enlightening way to spend the day.
To city leaders, a healthy museum community can be seen as a gauge of the economic health of a
city, and a way to increase the sophistication of its inhabitants. To a museum professional, a
museum might be seen as a way to educate the public about the museum's mission, such as civil
rights or environmentalism. Museums are, above all, storehouses of knowledge. In 1829, James
Smithson's bequest, that would fund the Smithsonian Institution, stated he wanted to establish an
institution "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge".

Museums of natural history in the late 19th century exemplified the Victorian desire for
consumption and for order. Gathering all examples of each classification of a field of knowledge
for research and for display was the purpose. As American colleges grew in the 19th century, they
developed their own natural history collections for the use of their students. By the last quarter of
the 19th century, the scientific research in the universities was shifting toward biological research
on a cellular level, and cutting edge research moved from museums to university laboratories. [6]
While many large museums, such as the Smithsonian Institution, are still respected as research
centers, research is no longer a main purpose of most museums. While there is an ongoing debate
about the purposes of interpretation of a museum's collection, there has been a consistent mission
to protect and preserve cultural artifacts for future generations. Much care, expertise, and expense
is invested in preservation efforts to retard decomposition in aging documents, artifacts, artworks,
and buildings. All museums display objects that are important to a culture. As historian Steven
Conn writes, "To see the thing itself, with one's own eyes and in a public place, surrounded by
other people having some version of the same experience can be enchanting."

Museum purposes vary from institution to institution. Some favor education over
conservation, or vice versa. For example, in the 1970s, the Canada Science and Technology
Museum favored education over preservation of their objects. They displayed objects as well as
their functions. One exhibit featured a historic printing press that a staff member used for visitors
to create museum memorabilia.[8] Some seek to reach a wide audience, such as a national or state
museum, while some museums have specific audiences, like the LDS Church History Museum or
local history organizations. Generally speaking, museums collect objects of significance that
comply with their mission statement for conservation and display. Although most museums do not
allow physical contact with the associated artifacts, there are some that are interactive and
encourage a more hands-on approach. In 2009, Hampton Court Palace, palace of Henry VIII,
opened the council room to the general public to create an interactive environment for visitors.
Rather than allowing visitors to handle 500-year-old objects, the museum created replicas, as well
as replica costumes. The daily activities, historic clothing, and even temperature changes immerse
the visitor in a slice of what Tudor life may have been.

The statutes of the International Council of Museums (ICOM), adopted in 1970, define a museum
as "a non-profit, permanent institution in the service of society and its development, open to the
public, which acquires, conserves, researches, communicates and exhibits the tangible and
intangible heritage of humanity and its environment for the purposes of education, study and
enjoyment". A proposed change to this definition, which would have museums actively engage
with political and social issues, was postponed in 2020 after substantial opposition from ICOM
members.

In the earlier days museums had a very stagnant role of collecting artifacts anddisplaying
them and not going beyond this idealism. After Globalisation arevolution took place within
museum as an institution. It evolved as a centre of education, research, interaction and
conservation. The concept changed fromdisplaying to education of not only tangible objects but
of intangible objectstoo. A museum can be defined as non-profit making permanent institution,
inthe service of society and its development which acquires, conserves,communicates , exhibits
and researches for the purpose of study andeducation of tangible and intangible evidences of man
and its environment.Museums invite people to come and learn all it can, it also researches
onvarious ideologies of how it was, it is and could be. Museums are the centre of world interaction
of everything that exists in this world. It is a centre of creativity where there is ongoing process of
change and gaining of knowledge.Museum as a centre has various functions and they are as
follows;
The functions of a museum are;Collection/Documentation the museum collects various
objects that are to be displayed and documented. The collections are based on the theme the
museum wants to hold, it may be temporary or permanent in nature. After the collections are done
the artifacts are documented by the curator. In this the registration and inventory of all cultural
assets are recorded, then the archiving of all types of technical, graphic and audio-visual
documentation is done in any format. It also controls and manages the internal and external cultural
asset transfers as well as their elimination from museum collections. Acquisition of artifacts is one
of the functions of a museum.
Exhibition : Exhibitions are the part and parcel of the museum. The function of the museum
is to hold exhibitions which may be temporary or permanent. Exhibitions are ways through which
you can interact with people on manyways. Museums tell people of their culture, communities,
societies, art
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2. SECURITY – STORAGE.
Security:
Requirements:
1. Design Planning
2. Qualification of Risk
3. Surveillance and alarm system
4. Management and training of security personal
5. Liaison with local authorities
6. Documentation, records and controls
7. Cost of Security
8. The use of independent consultants.
Elements to contribute security in Museums.
• Staff
• Barriers
• Collection Management Practices
 • Environmental monitoring.
• Care in the collection management
• Mishandling
• Vandalism
• Standards for alarms
Security Measures
• Internal Security
• External Security
Storage:
• Very important
• Objects are better preserved
• Serves as documentation
• Location of Storage
• Location Furniture
• Storage Devises
• Stacking
• Shelving
• Drawers and Cabinets
• Sliding Screens
• Vaults
• Lighting
• Ventilation
• Weather Control System
• Visual Storage
• Storage Materials, Wood, Metals, Fabrics
• Organic and Inorganic Objects
• Metallic Objects: Bronze objects, Coins, Jewelleries,
• Organic Objects: Textile,
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2. CONSERVATION
A museum’s prime responsibility must be to maintain its collections and to do everything
possible to delay the natural laws of deterioration. The acquisition of an item almost certainly
brings it into a new and potentially alien environment. Material that has been recovered from the
ground through archaeological excavation may need immediate treatment to stabilize it. Many of
the materials from which objects are made are inherently unstable and undergo chemical or
structural change as they age. A new or shifting environment can accelerate these changes, and
temperature, light, humidity, and human and other biological factors all need to be controlled. In
addition, conservation involves the treatment and, where feasible and acceptable, the restoration
of objects as nearly as possible to their former condition.

Most large museums have their own laboratories where preservation and restoration work is
carried out, and some take on projects for other museums as well. In some cases, as at the British
Museum, a separate department of scientific research supports the museum’s academic and
conservation work, providing advanced scientific equipment for the analysis, dating, and
identification of materials. Some museums are served by independent conservation laboratories,
an example of which is the Canadian Conservation Institute in Ottawa, which uses a fleet of mobile
laboratories to attend to museum collections in many parts of the country.

Documentation

Documentation is a significant function of any museum, whether it holds only a few

hundred objects or many millions of items. Quite apart from the need for records to maintain
adequate control of its collections, a museum’s documentation system provides an indispensable
record of the information associated with the objects for research. The documentation system also
may include records to facilitate the museum’s interpretative and other work.

The form of a museum’s documentation system may vary considerably, but to meet these
requirements it should provide the fullest possible information about each item and its history.
There are no generally accepted classification schemes for museum objects, although certain
subjects have developed schemes with numeric or alphanumeric notations to facilitate the ordering
and retrieval of information. For the natural sciences, taxonomic names are normally used.

A number of museums have developed computerized documentation systems, some online

but others relying on machine-generated indexes, periodically updated, to meet most of their
information requirements. The advantages of computerized documentation have been exploited in
a number of ways—for instance, in exchanging data between museums to facilitate study and
research or in making collection information available for public use in the museum gallery or
over the Internet.

Research

Because they hold the primary material evidence for a number of subjects concerned with
an understanding of humankind and the environment, museums clearly have an important role in
research. A museum’s research program is related to its objectives as an institution. A program
may be concerned directly with the public services provided, in preparing exhibitions, catalogs,
and other publications, or with promoting a better understanding of the discipline or region that it
serves. In large museums, and in university museums in particular, pure and applied research may
be of national or international significance and may be associated with fieldwork or study visits.
Active research and publication on a given topic, apart from contributing to the academic standing
of the institution, may attract further collections relevant to the topic.

Many museums provide facilities, apart from those used by casual visitors, for researchers
to study collections and associated documentation. Such facilities may include study rooms with
a supporting library and equipment to assist in the examination of collections. Certain museums
have accommodations for visiting foreign scholars; this feature is particularly helpful at site
museums that are difficult to reach.
Exhibition

Many museums have abandoned the traditional view of exhibition, by which storage and display
are ends in themselves, in favour of an approach that enhances the setting of the object or
collection. To this end museums use the expertise of a number of specialists—designers, educators,
sociologists, and interpreters as well as curators—to improve communication through objects. The
result has been a remarkable transformation in the presentation of museum displays. Far greater
use is made of colour and light (within the bounds prescribed by conservation requirements), in
the way material is interpreted through a variety of mediums (sound, video, interaction between
visitor and exhibit, virtual reality, as well as more traditional methods), and in the provision of a
more relaxing environment in which to enjoy the exhibits. A result of museums’ increased
awareness of the needs of their visitors has been a considerable increase in museum attendance.

As the museum’s cultural role has developed, so its exhibition work has diversified. Large
international exhibitions have been organized by cooperating nations and have been shown in the
major museums of the participating countries. Exhibitions organized for national circulation are
also increasingly common. Museums concerned with a particular region have arranged topical
exhibitions to tour the area, and, in places without suitable premises for display or in sparsely
populated areas, exhibitions have toured in specially adapted buses or trains. Some countries have
developed multipurpose cultural centres, and collaboration with museums has resulted in
exhibition programs successfully reaching a wide audience.

Interest in the historic and natural environment globally has involved museums in the
preservation and interpretation of sites, monuments, and landscapes (as in the Slave House
museum at Gorée Island, Senegal). Here the conflict inherent in imposing an interpretive medium
into a natural or historical context has to be resolved. In its simplest form, interpretation may be
conveyed through nature or history trails in which information is provided in written or recorded
form. With a historic property there are also opportunities to reenact events associated with the
property, such as period battle scenes and banquets, to demonstrate industrial or craft techniques,
or to use theatre and son et lumière performances to interpret the site.

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3. PRESERVATION – TECHNIQUES
Three Types of work in Museum
1. Curative
2. Preventive
3. Restoration
Preventive Measures
1. Correct levels of Heat and Humidity
2. Protection from Light
3. Good surface for viewing
4. Cleanliness
Classification of objects
1. Metals
2. Organic Objects
3. In-organic Objects
4. Paintings
Control Measures for Bio-deterioration
1. Fumigation
2. Application of Chemicals
3. General Treatment and Cryptogrammic Plants
4. Insect Trapping in Museums
5. Freeze Drying
6. Examination of Objects
7. Removal of Corrosion
8. Stone Objects