Museum collection inventory program

This program provides financial assistance for producing and/or upgrading a museum's physical or computerized collection inventory. A reliable museum inventory will allow the development or upgrade of collection information in areas such as provenance, preventative conservation, restoration and storage. Developed to support museums that help New Brunswickers understand themselves and their ties with the past, the goal is to strengthen their sense of pride and identity.

The aim of this initiative is to:

• assist individual museums in developing tools for managing their collection, take steps to improve and upgrade their registration and cataloguing processes
• encourage museums to become contributing members of the Canadian Heritage Information Network, as this will enable museums to upload their artifact information to the Artefacts Canada database
• promote the use of a standardized vocabulary to offer virtual access to New Brunswick’s Museum collections

Organizations must fill out the appropriate form and send all requested documents no later than April 15 of the request year. An incomplete application will not be considered until all other applications have been reviewed and processed. Late applications may not be accepted.

Eligible museums may receive a grant of up to $3,000 based on the previous year's grant, their application's strength and merit, and the level of need and demand.

Participating museums must submit requested reports to the Heritage Branch by March 31 of the current fiscal year.

The program is directed at non-profit museums based in New Brunswick and incorporated under the Companies Act. A museum is not just a non-profit community institution but a custodian of our shared heritage. It maintains, conserves, studies and interprets a permanent collection of heritage resources, holding it in trust for the public.

In addition to meeting the museum definition, an eligible applicant must:

• be in good standing with the Association Heritage New Brunswick regarding paying their annual CollectiveAccess fee (if applicable)
• follow a collection management policy consistent with its organizational objectives
• maintain a standard system of registration for its collection, thus ensuring proper documentation and control
• possess legal title to the permanent collection it conserves
• not have any outstanding Collection Inventory Program final reports or requirements

The funding is based on the evaluation of the previous year’s project, including the following criteria:

The project cannot be receiving funding from other provincial government sources.

Note: Applications scoring 50% or more will be considered for funding until the program budget is expended. Failure to approve an application does not necessarily constitute a negative judgment on its merits.

Organizations receiving funding will be required to submit the following to the Archaeology and Heritage Branch by March 31:

• a backup of their digital database showing artefacts owned by the museum or, if not applicable, examples of the manual registration procedures and cataloguing worksheets in paper format (note that museums using the software CollectiveAccess are exempt from this requirement)
• a filled-out final report, including an expense report specific to the previous year’s project
• museums using the software CollectiveAccess are required to upload at least 15 new artifact records from their collection, including images, to the Artefacts Canada database which the Canadian Heritage Information Network maintains

• Fill out the Museum Collection Inventory Form (PDF 184 KB) and send all supporting documents.
• Ensure that the proposed budget is balanced.
• Ensure someone authorized by the organization signs the application.
• Use the Pre-Application Checklist (PDF 135 KB) to confirm organizational and project eligibility.
• All documentation must be submitted to [email protected]