When I have a work question, I often try to find a book for it. At work I was added to a project team for a landscape preservation project which includes some preliminary archaeological field work. My role was to provide additional historical background information for the archeologists and then provide guidance for how we wanted any finds curated for preservation. I felt ready for most of that work, but as we do not have anyone on staff with a background in archaeology, and our archaeological collections need improvements anyway, it was time to get a resource to feel more confident.
Enter my life Using and Curating Archaeological Collections edited by S. Terry Childs and Mark S. Warner. The book is written from the point of view of archaeologists – specifically those who work in training new archaeologists – on the full life cycle of archaeological collections beyond the fieldwork, which is where people like me come in. The various chapter authors lay out a system in a perfect world in which trained archaeologists are with the collections throughout, but that just is not the case. Because this book was written more for my archaeology brethren there were plenty of sections which applied less to me primarily in the first section Valuing, Benefiting from, and Using Archaeological Collections, but it was a good refresher overall.
The second section (and third) was where the biggest benefit was for me as it focused on tackling issues which included best practices for collections management planning, curation, determining ownership, preservation, management, orphan collections, and long-term management including possibilities for deaccessioning (basically… all the parts where my job comes in). What I took away from the totality here is that much like how I approach my other collections, these ones need to be holistically dealt with and do what you know how to do and do no harm to the rest. Problem mostly solved. Excellent job, book.