Actueel verzamelen van academisch erfgoed. Een verkenning vanuit interuniversitaire collectieprojecten

Abstract

Current collecting of academic cultural heritage. An exploration of some projects In 1998 four Dutch universities (in Leiden, Amsterdam, Utrecht and Groningen) joined in an effort to improve and revise their collections. United in the Stichting Academisch Erfgoed they tried to rearrange their sometimes uncontrollably large collections. The collections were not always used in the best possible way and they were plagued by backlogs in conservation and registration. In deciding where to spend money for conservation it is essential to determine the value of the collections and objects. No clear criteria for determining this value were on hand. Elements of an up-to-date collecting policy can be gleaned, however, from what was learned in selection and conservation projects executed by the SAE. Academic heritage characteristically tends to shift in relevance for fields as history, communication to the public, archive and new research. To handle this dynamic value, curators are best in close contact with research and teaching in their universities and they also need a keen eye for combining different forms of information, not forgetting digital and other less classic forms. Custodians of various university collections (medical, science, libraries, museums) are wise to cooperate at an interuniversity level to work on access for the general public as well as for scientists and scholars. This might be part of a collection policy in which tasks and specializations are spread over different institutions.