National Museums Collection Centre
Museum | Edinburgh | Scotland | United Kingdom
Collection management and preservation
The National Museums Collection Centre in Edinburgh is a specialized facility dedicated to the care, research, and conservation of the collections of National Museums Scotland. Here, millions of objects and samples are stored, including whale skeletons, insects, motorcycles, and high-quality fashion. The center serves as a hub for advanced research, innovation, training, and education, as well as for preparing collections for exhibitions, loans, and tours.
Digitization of museum collections
Collection Management and Conservation
Research and loans in museums
The collection management and conservation teams take care of a variety of objects, from stabilizing ancient papyrus scrolls and cleaning fragile textiles to conserving large machines with moving parts. The natural sciences team prepares samples for exhibitions and research purposes, with tasks ranging from fossil preparation to taxidermy.
Preservation of ancient artifacts
Digitization
Advanced research at the national museum
Digitizing collections is a central concern of the center. By creating detailed visual records and making this information available online, access to collections is facilitated and research is supported. The center is the headquarters of the digitization program, producing hundreds of thousands of records and images accessible through the online database.
Loans and Research
The center manages loans to museums and institutions in the UK and internationally, and receives loans for exhibitions in its own museums. It also facilitates research loans from the natural sciences collection to allow for in-depth examination of samples. Each year, the center welcomes hundreds of guest researchers from around the world. The specialized labs and study areas allow for in-depth research of the collections.
Facilities and Equipment
The center has specialized conservation labs, photo studios, research rooms, and heritage science labs with state-of-the-art equipment, including PDA-UPLC, XRF, SEM-EDX, XRD, and FTIR. These facilities support the center's diverse tasks, from conservation to research to digitization.
