Museum Management Resources

A collage of some of the objects preserved in Keweenaw National Historical Park's museum collection.

NPS photos, Dan Johnson.

 

U.S. Government Sites

 

National Park Service Museum Management Program
The Museum Management Program (MMP) is part of the National Center for Cultural Resources Stewardship and Partnership Programs that provides national program support functions for park resources and advises the Associate Director, Cultural Resource Stewardship and Partnership in Washington, DC, on policy. MMP supports development and coordination of servicewide policies, standards, and procedures for managing museum collections, including natural, cultural, archival and manuscript materials.

Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the nation's oldest federal cultural institution and serves as the research arm of Congress. It is also the largest library in the world, with more than 130 million items on approximately 530 miles of bookshelves. The collections include more than 29 million books and other printed materials, 2.7 million recordings, 12 million photographs, 4.8 million maps, and 58 million manuscripts. The Library's mission is to make its resources available and useful to the Congress and the American people and to sustain and preserve a universal collection of knowledge and creativity for future generations.

The National Archives
Of all documents and materials created in the course of business conducted by the United States Federal government, only 1%-3% are so important for legal or historical reasons that they are kept by us forever. Those valuable records are preserved and are available to you, whether you want to see if they contain clues about your family’s history, need to prove a veteran’s military service, or are researching an historical topic that interests you.

 

National Organizations

 

American Association for State and Local History
The American Association for State and Local History provides leadership, service, and support for its members, who preserve and interpret state and local history in order to make the past more meaningful in American Society.

American Association of Museums
The American Association of Museum’s mission is to enhance the value of museums to their communities through leadership, advocacy, and service.

Society of American Archivists
Founded in 1936, the Society of American Archivists is North America's oldest and largest national archival professional association. SAA's mission is to serve the educational and informational needs of more than 4,600 individual and institutional members and to provide leadership to ensure the identification, preservation, and use of records of historical value.

Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collection
SPNHC is a multidisciplinary organization composed of individuals who are interested in development and preservation of natural history collections. Natural history collections include specimens and supporting documentation, such as audio-visual materials, labels, library materials, field data, and similar archives.

Oral History Association
Oral history is a field of study and a method of gathering, preserving and interpreting the voices and memories of people, communities, and participants in past events. Oral history is both the oldest type of historical inquiry, predating the written word, and one of the most modern, initiated with tape recorders in the 1940s and now using 21st-century digital technologies.

The Oral History Association, established in 1966, seeks to bring together all persons interested in oral history as a way of collecting and interpreting human memories to foster knowledge and human dignity. With an international membership, the OHA serves a broad and diverse audience. Local historians, librarians and archivists, students, journalists, teachers, and academic scholars from many fields have found that the OHA provides both professional guidance and a collegial environment for sharing research.

 

Education Resources

 

Smithsonian Institute, Center for Museum Studies
Museum studies, sometimes called museology, is the field that encompasses the ideas and issues involved in the museum profession—from the practical, day-to-day skills needed to operate a museum to theories on the societal role of museums.

The Smithsonian Center for Education and Museum Studies (SCEMS) assists the museum community in acquiring and strengthening its understandings and practices of museology. This website is one of the Center's tools for serving the educational and informational needs of the field.

The Campbell Center for Historic Preservation Studies
The Campbell Center offers continuing education to meet the training needs of individuals who work to preserve historic landscapes and cultural, historic, and artistic properties. The Center offers courses in Historic Preservation — architectural conservation and landscape preservation; Collections Care — archives, books, furniture, paintings, photographs, and textiles to name a few; and Conservation Refresher Courses for the mid-career conservator.

Collections Australian Network
Australian Museums and Galleries OnLine is a comprehensive Internet site designed to help Australian Collecting Institutions make information about their collections available to a world-wide audience. It is also the principal gateway to the Australian Collections Sector for professionals and volunteers, community users and researchers.

 

Preventive Conservation

 

Canadian Conservation Institute
CCI was created in 1972 to promote the proper care and preservation of Canada's cultural heritage and to advance the practice, science, and technology of conservation. The Institute has worked closely with hundreds of museums, art galleries, academic institutions, and other heritage organizations to help them better preserve their collections.