The document provides an agenda for a workshop on managing working machinery collections. The workshop will include presentations on standards for caring for large objects, assessing regional significance, interpreting machinery for the public, and different approaches to operating collections. Attendees will participate in group discussions on developing relevant guidelines, interpreting significance, and debates around repairing versus replacing parts or displaying objects statically. The day-long event aims to help collections decide how to best work with and care for museum objects.

1. Machines in the collections: how to work them, why and is it really
worth the hassle?
Date: Thursday 17th
of October 2013
Venue: events suite Thinktank, Millennium point, Curzon Street,
Birmingham.
Programme
10.00 - 10.15 Arrive and tea and biscuits.
10.15 - 10.20 Welcome and introduction to the day.
10.20 - 10.45 A brief introduction to Thinktank’s MF project:
Significance, deciding how to work museum objects.
10.45 - 10.55 'Standards in the Care of Larger & Working Objects' for
the sector and how you can be involved .a presentation
by Tim Bryan (Gaydon Motor Heritage Centre).
10.55 - 11.05 How do you look put your collection in a regional
significance, a presentation by Philip Butler on the North
West Textile Industry mapping project.
11.05 – 11.35 Group discussion. How to make the guidelines fit for
purpose and can you assess significance?
11.35 – 12.00 Group feedback and questions to the panel. Can one set
of guidelines be relevant for all types of working
collections?
12.00 - 1.00 Ways to interpret working machinery. What do you tell
the public led by Nazia Ali. Practical session.
1.00 - 1.45 Free lunch (including cake).
1.45 - 2.15 Working with collections in different ways. 3
presentations by:
1- Janet Small (Black Country Living Museum).
2- Irene DeBoo (Sarehole Mill).
3- Christiaan Vanschaardenburgh (Coventry Transport
Museum).
2.15 - 2.25 Questions to panel speakers.
2.25 - 2.45 Group discussions. How and when to repair or replace
parts. When to go static? Is that better then working
them?
2.45 - 3.15 Working coffee break, feedback on discussions and final
questions to panel.
3.15 - 3.30 Closing thoughts from the day.