Guide to Managing Historical Societies

The RHSV’s Guide to the establishment and operation of historical societies now known as the Guide for managing historical societies has been available since the 1980s. It is being updated and reviewed in 2021.

The local history world continues to evolve with technology like online catalogues, digitisation and webinars changing some of the ways historical information is accessed and shared.

This Guide will direct you to resources to assist in the setting up and running of historical societies. The content, references and examples have been selected because of their relevance to historical societies.

Historical societies are as diverse as the history they collect, record and interpret. Each society will need to consider the Guide as it applies to its circumstances. The aim is for historical societies to be able to reach out to their communities; making their research, collections and programs accessible and so contribute to the community’s interest and excitement in the history of Victoria.

Articles

Managing the organisation

Incorporation – Model Rules – Roles of Office Bearers – Mission Statement

Policies and Procedures

Planning – Strategic Plan/Forward Plan – Business Plan

Notes for Treasurers plus Income Generation

Grants & Sponsorship

Occupational Health & Safety

Risk Management

The Building

Computers and historical societies

Involving people

Volunteers

Is the organisation ready for additional volunteers?

Community engagement (Interpretation, Publications, Working with schools, Heritage trails, Cultural tourism)

Research

Visitors and accessibility

Exhibitions on a shoestring

Style guides for local history publishing

Media

Partnerships and networking

Website design and maintenance

Communication – email, forums and mc2

Web 2.0 and social media

Podcasts

Online exhibitions

Developing a significant collection

Collection management

Safe storage of collection items

Conservation and Collection Management Plans

Conservation suppliers’ list

Cataloguing collections

Provenance – Significance – Preservation surveys

PODs – Museum Accreditation

Copyright

Archives in collections

Indexing for historical societies

Digitisation

Bibliography

Bibliography

Policies, Procedures, Guidelines and Forms

The following sample policies, procedures, guidelines and forms are provides as guides only to assist groups preparing documents for managing their own collections

Policies

Sample collection policy for artefacts

Sample collection policy for a research collection

RHSV collection policy

Sample volunteers policy

Sample grievance or complaints policy

Sample privacy policy

Sample OH&S policy

Procedures and Guidelines

Sample acquisition procedure for artefacts

Sample acquisition procedure for items in a research collection

Sample deaccession and disposal procedure

Sample loans procedure

Sample copyright, reproduction rights and access rights guidelines

Forms

Potential donations form

Potential donations receipt

Outward loans form

Inward loans form

Photograph information form

Copyright form

Oral history interview form

Recording authorisation for podcasting form

OH&S forms

Ergonomic checklist

OH&S audit checklist for volunteers

General safety checklist

Incident information form

Volunteer safe work plan OH&S

Emergency evacuation checklist

Risk management forms

Example of a risk management plan

Risk management template

More information examples, checklists and tools

Incident register

Risk register

Job safety analysis

Volunteer forms

Is organisation ready for volunteers? – checklist

Developing volunteer roles

Volunteers review form

Volunteer Co-ordinator’s checklist

Volunteer induction form

Volunteer information form

Templates

MAP collection policy template (Museums Australia (Victoria))

Developing a conservation plan (Museums Australia (Victoria))

MAP forward planning template (Museums Australia (Victoria))

Links to resources

Museum Management

Fact sheets on museum management (Museums & Galleries NSW)

Museum methods (sections) (Collections Australia Network)

National standards for Australian museums and galleries (National Standards Taskforce)

MAP forward planning template (Museums Australia (Victoria))

Museums and galleries collections law (Shane Simpson)

Legal information for community organisations (pilchconnect)

Guide: Community organisations and Victoria’s occupational health and safety laws (pilchconnect)

Collection management

Information sheets – caring for collections (Museums Australia (Victoria))

Caring for collections (Australian Institute for the Conservation of Cultural Material)

Preserving Australia’s documentary heritage (National Library of Australia)

Conservation information guides (State Library of Victoria)

reCollections: caring for collections across Australia (Collections Australia Network)

Preventative conservation fact sheets (Museums & Galleries NSW)

Guidelines for environmental control of cultural institutions (Collections Australia Network)

Safe in the shed: caring for historic farm machinery (Collections Australia Network)

Conservation standards, policies, strategies and guidelines (Collections Australia Network)

MAP collection policy template (Museums Australia (Victoria))

Developing a conservation plan (Museums Australia (Victoria))

Cataloguing

Small museums cataloguing manual (Museums Australia (Victoria))

Cataloguing guidelines for historical societies (blog)

Indexing

Australian and New Zealand Society of Indexers

Significance

Significance 2.0: a guide to assessing the significance of collections (Collections Australia Network)

Significance training (Collections Australia Network)

Digitisation

Creating and keeping your digital treasures – a user guide (State Library of Western Australia)

Image digitisation of local history collections (State Library of Victoria)

Guidelines for digitization projects (International Federation of Library Associations)

Copyright and cultural institutions: guidelines for digitisation (Centre for Media and Communications Law – University of Melbourne)

Electronic media collections care for small museums and archives (Canadian Conservation Institute)

Capture your collections – a digitisation course for remote and regional museums and galleries(Collections Australia Network)

Information technology for local history – digitisation (blog)

Copyright

Australian Copyright Council

Copyright and cultural institutions: guidelines for digitisation (Centre for Media and Communications Law – University of Melbourne)

Copyright in cultural institutions

Websites

Designing and maintaining websites

Exhibitions

Creative volunteering: work with collections (Volunteering Australia)

Exhibition fact sheets (Museums & Galleries NSW)

Significant events (Collections Australia Network)

MAP interpretation policy template (Museums Australia (Victoria))

Display interpretation and writing (History Trust (South Australia))

Box making

Box making fact sheet (Museums & Galleries NSW)

Make a box with lid ()

Make a clamshell box ()

Make a flapped folder ()

Volunteers

Victoria’s Volunteering Portal

Volunteering Victoria

Volunteering Australia

Volunteers fact sheets (Museums & Galleries NSW)

Willing and able (Museum & Gallery Services Queensland)

Disaster preparedness

Be prepared: guidelines for small museums for writing a disaster preparedness plan (Collections Australia Network)

DISACT – disaster recovery planning weblinks (DISACT)

Disaster support

Arts Victoria’s Disaster Response Protocol (pdf 243 kb)

Australian Institute for the Conservation of Cultural Material

Bushfires … Protect your precious possessions

How do I salvage flood-damaged records National Archives of Australia

Networking

Building a better relationship with your local council (Chris Brophy – MA Conference 2004)

Tourism

Tourism with integrity (Collections Australia Network)

Successful tourism at heritage places (Collections Australia Network)

Access

Fact sheets on access (Museums & Galleries NSW)

Improving access to heritage buildings (Australian Heritage Commission)

Aboriginal items in collections

Information for Victorian museums with Aboriginal collection items (Museums Australia (Victoria))

Resources for Victorian museums with Aboriginal collection items (Museums Australia (Victoria))

Conservation of indigenous objects (Collections Australia Network)