What Is a Collection Manager and How to Become One

By ZipRecruiter Marketplace Research Team

A collection manager at a museum, library, or similar facility ensures the proper care of objects that are a part of the facility’s collections. In this career, your responsibilities include managing storage, working with the catalog, and helping to preserve, curate, archive, and catalog the items at the library or museum. Other duties may include helping to develop the policies associated with the disposal and acquiring of objects for the facility. Such policies outline how the facility plans to collect items, the types of objects that they have interest in, and how and why they may need to dispose of these items.

The minimum qualifications for a collection manager job include a bachelor’s degree in museum studies, public history, or a related discipline. Some employers may require a master’s degree in these fields as well as experience in a library or museum. You should have strong communication, organizational, and computer skills, especially with maintaining and using database systems. You must also understand environmental control so that you can adequately protect objects at the facility, as well as rights and reproductions and intellectual property.