The National Trust is close to completing a major 10 year project to bring together over half a million objects and books in its collections into one giant computerised inventory for the first time.

The collections as a whole are even bigger than this, at least a million items and still growing.

The result should be amazing: a really big picture of a truly great national collection of fine and decorative art, rare books, scientific, domestic and other historical items from over 200 historic houses, industrial and other heritage sites throughout the country.

A remarkable collective effort

A small and extremely dedicated Inventory Team is hard at work, supported by an extended family of hundreds of volunteers and staff at properties and regional offices.

At just one house, Tyntesfield, our newly-acquired and vast Victorian time-capsule in Somerset, over 70 volunteers are busy cataloguing and marking an estimated 40,000 objects.

© NTPL / Steve Stephens

At properties large and small from Northern Ireland to the East of England the same pattern is being repeated: a fantastic collective effort.

A unique partnership

A core component of the project is a unique joint initiative with The Royal Collection to develop a new collections management system for separate use by both collections.

The new system uses the latest web technology and will be in place in 2007. For both organisations this will bring many advantages.

For us it will be possible for widely dispersed staff and expert advisers to gain new access to a wealth of information, and enable much greater sophistication in curatorial control, conservation planning and all aspects of collections management.

Opening up for the virtual visitor

Perhaps above all this development opens the prospect of public online access to our national collection, and new learning opportunities for all.

As the first stage of the project nears completion, the next big challenge is how to develop the basic inventory into a publicly searchable catalogue.

New work is already underway capturing digital images and auditing records. But there is still another stage to tackle, to provide the complete picture for all to see, with a full set of digital images and thoroughly-checked catalogue entries and indexes.

We have invested significant resources to complete the national inventory project so far. The project must close in 2007.

New funding, sponsorship and support are needed to build on this foundation, and finally to open up our collections to the virtual visitor.

The technology is poised for use. Funding for access has now to be found.

Further information

For further information please email Philip Claris, Collections Information Manager.