Museum documentation is the activity of recording and generating diverse knowledge and evidence, in analogue and digital formats, in order to preserve the history of society and nature as reflected by museum collections. It is a core strategic, operational, and transdisciplinary activity that enables the social role of museums as public memory institutions. As a dynamic information resource, it is central to the care of collections by:

• Reflecting and underpinning museum activities such as research, interpretation, audience engagement, conservation, curation, exhibition, education, administration and legal oversight, security, and collections management.
• Interconnecting and synthesizing information about physical, digital, and intangible collections around multidimensional aspects such as identity, materiality, preservation, aesthetics, conceptual associations, and social and historical contexts.
• Providing a living resource that evolves and responds to new knowledge that is supported by evidence, such as collection history and provenance.
• Acting as a conduit for promoting meaningful, ongoing collaboration among different communities to participate in the creation of diverse and inclusive knowledge.

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