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DOCUMENTATION FOR COMMUNICATION

PRIYATOSH BANERJEE

The documentation of Museum objects primarily means keeping a proper record of the objects to their movements and use on different occasions.  The work of documentation includes in its scope almost the entire gamut of museum activities right from the entry of an object into the object into the museum to its study and use for exhibition and other such activities, like research and publication.  Documentation for communication is an important part of museum's activities, for it is obligatory for it to make its material known to the public.  There are many ways and means of publicizing a museum, Publications are, however, one of the most important among them.  Museum all over the world, especially those in Europe and America, where the Museum movements is very popular, issue a large number of publications which include picture-postcards, guides, handbook bulletins, catalogues, research monographs, etc.  These publicaions not only tell the visitors  about the exhibits, but they are also souvenirs for them and are useful to students and scholars as important aids to their study and research.  Again the museum publications prolong the benefit of museum visits.  However much one may desire, it is possible only for a few to repeat their visits to a museum.  Hence it is very useful to one to have picture-postcards, guides and other publications which will serve as a reminder of one's visit to a museum and its collections.  While picture-postcards, photographic and colour reproductions and guides are popular museum literature, meant primarily for the general public, the handbok, bulletins, catalogues and monographs, especially the last two, are based on serious research, as additions to knowledge.  The preparation of catalogues and monographs are easily possible if the Museum card-indexes and kregisters contain detailed information about the objects.  A museum cannot fulfil it educational and other obligation if it is not in possession of the basic information about its collection.  The museum record should be full and include all information as to the name and nature of the object, its mesurement, date, place of original, material, condition, mode of acquisition, price, its previous owner, etc.  If the museum records are full, they are not only an aid to study and research, but also useful in meeting any legal complications which complications which may arise about any object after its acquisition.  The value of a museum object depends upon the amount of information a museum can supply about it to the visitors and scholars.

Of all the museum publications catalogues can be called the most important research publications as they contain the fullest documentatio of the objects.

If it is not possible for a museum to bring out its handbooks, bulletins and other well-documented informative literature in time, it is desirable to publish at least its annual reports which would acquaint the public with the acquisition and activities of la museum during a particular year.

Museum publications, however small they may be, in size and scope, should be well planned and accurate.  The information these publications convey should be  dependable and worthy of ebing used by the scholars and students.  The museum staff should be engaged in research so that they may contribute to knowledge.  The manuscripts should be prepared and edited in time and the text figures and illustrations should be ascertained in advance.  The sizing of the illustrations and their dispostion on a page should also be properly looked into.

The museum publications should be cheap so that they are within the means of the public in general.  Further, their complimentary copies should be sent to different sister institutions so that they may know each other's collections and research which is very useful for comparative study of historical and art trends in a particular country and region.  Museum material can hardly be of any value, if they are not properly studied and catalogued.  If there is no spirit of enquiry among the museum staff, the museum cannot properly it will be prepared.'

While most of the Indian museum have rich collections, very few of them have shown any active interest in research, documentation and educational educational activities, whatever the resons behind this apathy may be.  It is, however, worth mentioning that the research and publications of the Indian Museum, Calcutta, The Government Museum. Madras, the prince of Wales Museum, Bombay, the national Museum, New Delhi and a few others are of a high standard and of an admirable nature.  It is further to be mentioned that the Archaeological Survey of India have brought out informative guide-books on most of their monuments and site museums.

Exhibitions serve the best purpose of documentation.  Exhibition is a link between the museum and thepublic. However exhaustive the publications may be, the written words can hardly have the same impact on the mind as a well-organized can have.  That is why the exhibition has been considered as the central function of a museum.  An exhinition is not a mere assemblage of objects, it is a purposeful showing of them so that their main lfunctions and significance can be brought our.  A well-organized exhibition contribution to knowledge inasmuch as the objects areshown in such an exhibnition from the standpoint of both aesthetic qualities and historical evidence.

Thought the purpose of an exhibition is different from part of a boom (the book enriches the academic or formal education, while the exhibition of original objects stimulates creative thinking and enriches aesthetic or spiritual experience), it is often found desirable or necessary to provide short labels for individual objects and long explanatory lables explaining the historical and artistical significance of the exhibited objectes as a group, to help the visitors to understand the purpose of the exhibition and significance of the objects.  Fuller documentation of the exhibited objects (in the form of catalogues) is also essential to communicate the message or purpose of the exhobition.  All efforts should be directed towards unfolding the story the objects can yeild by means of careful planning and layout of the exhibition, and comparative study.

While the permanent and temporatory exhibitions of a museum are enjoyed by those who come to visit the musem, the travelling exhibitions, though necessarily of a smaller dimension and scope, going out to school, colleges and community-halls bring the museum in contact with the larger public.  They are also an advertisement or means to attracting the students and common people to mueseum.  The travelling exhibitions need more extensive documentation as the people to whom they are shown may not be in the same receptive frame of mind as those come to a museum which has a congenial environment and can offer all emplanatory aids readily.

Papers by Dr. Priyatosh Banerjee

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