Management of museum artifacts at Uganda Museum

Abstract

Management of museum artifacts is very vital because it prolongs their life without being damage. However, their management is deemed susceptible to several challenges that included uninsured artifacts, inadequate financing, limited professional skilled staff, lack of policy and regulatory guidelines. This study therefore focused on examining the management of museum artifacts and propose strategies for improving on their management at Uganda museum. The methods used in the study include interview and questionnaire. The methods were simultaneously used to ensure quality data collection. A pilot to the study area as a way to pretest data collection instruments was another applied to ensure quality of results obtained. The challenges faced by the museum included absence of sound documentation for museum artefacts, inadequate staff, inadequate funding, lack of insurance policy for artefacts, inadequate space and there are no existing policies designed to aid in management of artefacts at Uganda museum and general lack of awareness of the importance of management of artefacts amongst museum visitors and negligence and disregard of the value and importance of the diverse cultural heritage that Uganda is endowed with among other challenges. This study therefore recommended that Uganda museum management should consider increasing space provided for the museum so as to increase on the space for educating museum visitors and display of artifacts. In this, proper development of an ICT component for virtual display of artifacts should be undertaken to reduce on the issue of storage space thus successful management of museum artifacts. Furthermore, to ensure secure movement of artifacts, documentation of entry and exit of artifacts should be emphasized for proper inventory This study was limited by time, finances and unwillingness of the respondents to cooperate fully but this had minor effects on the results.