Inventaarioaineisto

Inventaarioaineisto is a Finnish term used in libraries, archives, and museums to denote the set of materials and the accompanying documentation created to record the current state of a collection during an inventory. It covers both the physical items and the metadata needed to identify, locate, and assess them.

The inventories include item identifiers (barcode or RFID), object titles, creators, dates, physical characteristics, provenance, location, acquisition details, and condition notes. It also records discrepancies between the holdings registered in catalog records and the actual items found during the inventory, triggering reconciliation processes.

Inventory material is managed in inventory management systems or integrated with broader collection management systems. The process is cyclical (annual, biennial, or project-based) and may be triggered by relocation, digitization, or loss risk assessment. Data structures often align with metadata standards such as Dublin Core, MARC for libraries, METS/MODS, or ISAD(G) for archives, with institution-specific vocabularies for material types, storage locations, and provenance.

Purpose and use include quality assurance, inventory reconciliation, reporting for governance or funding, and supporting access by researchers and staff. Accurate inventory material supports accountability, collection care, and planning for conservation, digitization, and relocation projects.

In Finland, inventory frameworks are influenced by national archival and cultural heritage sector practices, and the term is commonly used in policy and procedural documents to describe systematic checks of holdings.