Abstract

Relocating museum collections involves many challenges, but also provides a unique opportunity for extensive reorganisation, which further complicate the task. Common approaches to both moving and reorganising tend to be empirical, linear and coarse-grained. This limits their usefulness for planning long-term and detailed facility moves. However, issues ranging from space estimation, storage design, reorganisation and relocation all point to a unified solution. Our proposal is a custom computer tool that aims to describe, analyse and virtually manipulate an entire storage setting. With its current implementation in Excel Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), staff at the Ethnographic Museum of Geneva (MEG) planned the exact physical integration of the collection (75,000 objects) into the new storage furniture, months ahead of the move, adapting to new constraints along the way, and eventually reorganising the collection while moving it. A simple visualisation interface presents the data in a relatable way, while analysis functions help with decisions. Multiple storage scenarios were explored to fit pre-installed furniture. Storage bays could be prepared in advance, optimising move time and budget. Data collected before and after the move shows that, in some areas, virtual reorganisation provided up to half of the final available usable storage height (+43.2 m). Moreover, small scattered excess spaces could be regrouped and allocated where required. Useful storage space acquired through new furniture was strategically placed. Although it evolved in a specific context, the generality of our solution makes it relevant and transposable to other institutions and other purposes, and points to a more integrated view of collection management.

摘要

重新安置博物馆藏品涉及许多挑战，但也为广泛重组提供了独特的机会，这使任务进一步复杂化。移动和重组的常见方法往往是经验性的、线性的和粗粒度的。这限制了它们在规划长期和详细的设施移动方面的用处。然而，从空间估计、存储设计、重组和搬迁等问题都指向一个统一的解决方案。我们的提议是一种定制的计算机工具，旨在描述、分析和虚拟操作整个存储设置。通过目前在 Excel Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) 中的实施，日内瓦民族志博物馆 (MEG) 的工作人员计划在搬迁前几个月将收藏品（75,000 件物品）准确地整合到新的存储家具中，在此过程中适应新的约束，并最终在移动集合的同时重新组织集合。一个简单的可视化界面以相关的方式呈现数据，而分析功能有助于决策。探索了多种存储方案以适应预装家具。可以提前准备存储区，从而优化移动时间和预算。搬迁前后收集的数据显示，在某些地区，虚拟重组提供了最终可用存储高度（+43.2 m）的一半。此外，小的分散的多余空间可以在需要时重新组合和分配。通过新家具获得的有用存储空间被战略性地放置。尽管它是在特定背景下发展的，但我们解决方案的通用性使其与其他机构和其他目的相关且可转换，