Collections Management System

A Collections Management System (CMS), sometimes called a Collections Information System, is software used by the collections staff of a collecting institution — primarily museums and archives, and to a lesser degree, libraries and galleries — to organize, control, and manage collections objects by “tracking all information related to and about” those objects. A CMS is used by collections staff such as registrars, collections managers, and curators, to record information such as object locations, provenance, curatorial information, conservation reports, and exhibition histories, but that information is also accessed and used by other museum departments such as “education, membership, accounting, and administration."

Though early Collections Management Systems were cataloging databases, essentially digital versions of card catalogs, more recent and advanced systems are being used to improve communication between museum staff and to automate and manage collections-based tasks and workflows. They are also used to provide access to information about their collections and objects to researchers and the public, increasingly through online methods.

Among the many commercially produced Collections Management Systems are Axiell's Collections Management Software, Gallery Systems’ The Museum System (TMS), PastPerfect Museum Software, Re:discovery Software's Proficio, Argus, EmbARK, and Archivists' Toolkit. Some institutions, particularly smaller museums, have customized existing database management systems and relational database software such as FileMaker Pro and Microsoft Access to create homegrown Collections Management Systems. A recent trend has been the growing number of web browser-based and cloud-based systems. Both CollectionSpace — developed by multiple institutions led by the Museum of the Moving Image in New York — and CollectiveAccess — developed by Whirl-i-Gig— are free, open-source, and web-based systems. Commercial web-based systems include Vernon Systems’ eHive, Axiell Collections. Cloud-based systems include CollectorSystems, Zetcom’s MuseumPlus RIA, SKINsoft's S-museum, UniqueCollection.org and Eloquent Museum.

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