ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at how to define and address a collection need like time-based media (TBM) conservation. Preservation of collections has increasingly become a museum-wide responsibility, not just the responsibility of the conservation department. Security, operations, and art handling are just a few of the departments/operations within a museum that have direct responsibility for the safety and the preservation of the collection. With TBM, this base of support should become even larger as at least some of the skills and knowledge to exhibit it, if not also preserve it, will be called upon from other departments. One of the best ways to understand what one ultimately will need for a TBM preservation strategy is to undertake one or two small “pilot projects.” The goal of such projects is not only to better understand the complexity of the works of art themselves but to also grasp and articulate the scale of the problem in both day-to-day restoration work and long-term planning.
