Published in 1994 by The Collections Trust and regularly updated, SPECTRUM is a standard defining basic norms for documentation policies and museum collection administration processes, developed on the basis of expertise of museum workers from the United Kingdom and beyond.
Since first starting work with The Collections Trust in 2013 toward implementing and adapting the SPECTRUM standard, the National Institute of Museums strives to involve the largest possible number of museum workers in a collective effort to adapt the standard to Poland’s conditions and museum traditions, creating in the process a solid foundation for a Polish SPECTRUM Community.
As part of the Institute’s work to date, we have translated the SPECTRUM 4.0 standard, published in 2017, and adapted it to Polish conditions. We have also produced a number of supplementary guides on the basic procedures. Currently, we are working on translating the latest version of the standard, SPECTRUM 5.0, and preparing for its implementation in Poland.
Concurrently underway are training courses, attended by more than 300 Polish museum workers to date. Due to SPECTRUM’s growing popularity, we plan to publish in partnership with the Polish Association of Museum Inventorists a set of template forms for use in managing collections in museums compliant with the standard, which will in turn translate to wider application in museums and broad consistency in museum documentation practices.