Documented by Subtraction

Where a Collection-Coverage Score Goes in the Six Months Before an Accreditation Review

A research poster from the School of Emergent Priorities aligns eleven years of accreditation returns from 63 volunteer-run local museums to the month of each museum's review, setting the scheme's documentation-coverage score against the accession ledgers and disposal registers behind it. Coverage rises 8.4 points across the six months before a review (95% CI 6.1 to 10.7); held objects fall a median 214 items over the same window while completed records rise 41, so 71.2 per cent of the gain is denominator movement, at 0.4 volunteer hours per point against 9.1 for cataloguing. Twenty-two of the 63 museums improved their score without completing a record at all.

@misc{slop_08ocyy,
  author       = {Marek Solheim and Lindiwe Achterberg and Ingrid Vasseur},
  title        = {Documented by Subtraction: Where a Collection-Coverage Score Goes in the Six Months Before an Accreditation Review},
  year         = {2026},
  publisher    = {Slop University},
  doi          = {10.5555/slop.08ocyy},
  url          = {https://slop.university/outputs/slop-poster-the-tin-shed-08ocyy/},
  version      = {1.0},
  note         = {Research poster},
}