Museum Administration & Museology

Historical environments delight visitors because of their ability to make them feel transported to another time and place. These environments, found in both museum exhibitions and historic structures, are usually rich with objects that hint at deeper...

New Directions for University Museums is intended to help university museum leaders to help them plan strategically in the context of the issues and needs of the 2020s by examining trends affecting them and directions in response to those forces. It will...

This book demonstrates how museums can use personal stories to make visitors feel welcome while inspiring them to engage with new ideas. It also explores the responsibilities of museum practitioners toward the storytellers included in their narratives...

Museums are amazing places doing astonishing things, often with little time and money. How do you create quality museum programming without breaking the bank? This book presents successful programs that have been successfully presented in real museums...

The Manual of Strategic Planning for Cultural Organizations adopts a hollistic approach to the creative world of cultural institutions. By encompassing museums, art galleries, gardens, zoos, science centers, historic sites, cultural centers, festivals,...

This is the second edition of John H. Falk and Lynn D. Dierking's ground-breaking book, Learning from Museums. While the book still focuses on why, how, what, when, and with whom, people learn from their museum experiences, the authors further...

Drawing from innovative organizations across the United States, Reimagining Historic House Museums is an indispensable source of field-tested tools and techniques drawn from such wide-ranging sources as non-profit management, business strategy, and...

Interpreting Anniversaries and Milestones at Museums and Historic Sites is an invaluable resource for a wide range of cultural organizations that are attempting to plan an historical anniversary celebration or commemoration, including museums, churches,...

Collections of textiles-historic costume, quilts, needlework samplers, and the like-have benefited greatly from the digital turn in museum and archival work. Both institutional online repositories and collections-based social media sites have fostered...

Here's a one-stop marketing guide just for small museums and historic sites. In an age when many local historical associations and museums take money from their marketing budget because resources are tight, which can start a vicious cycle of reduced...

The Amistad incident, one of the few successful ship revolts in the history of enslavement, has been discussed by historians for decades, even becoming the subject of a Steven Spielberg film in 1997, which brought the story to wide audiences. But, while...

Collection Care: An Illustrated Handbook for the Care and Handling of Cultural Objects provides a solid overview of basic collection care procedures and policies. The topics covered address the decision making criteria and risk assessment solutions...

Museum facility management is a vital part of running a museum, but can involve special challenges that even knowledgeable facility managers have not encountered before. The target audience for this book is both museum administrators who need to learn...

Are you thinking of starting a museum? Starting Right has been helping non-professionals learn the basics of museum planning for nearly three decades. This fully-revised, third edition will help you understand what you are getting into, evaluate...

Traditionally, city museums have been keepers of city history. Many have been exercises in nostalgia, reflecting city pride. However, a new generation of museums focuses increasingly on the city's present and future as well as its past, and on the city...

Harold and Susan Skramstad, two of the field's most highly regarded experts in museum management, outline the tools you and your board need to handle the challenges facing museums today. A Handbook for Museum Trustees was written to help museum trustees...

Interpreting Difficult History at Museums and Historic Sites is framed by educational psychoanalytic theory and positions museum workers, public historians, and museum visitors as learners. Through this lens, museum workers and public historians can...

Leading the Historical Enterprise: Strategic Creativity, Planning, and Advocacy for the Digital Age presents new ideas and strategies for leading and innovating in museums, historical societies, historic sites, and other state and local history programs...

Interpreting Slavery at Museums and Historic Sites aims to move the field forward in its collective conversation about the interpretation of slavery-acknowledging the criticism of the past and acting in the present to develop an inclusive interpretation...

Museums, libraries, and cultural institutions provide opportunities for people to understand and celebrate who they are, were, and might be. These institutions educate the public and civilize society in a variety of ways, ranging from community events to...

This authoritative guide from the American Alliance of Museums and overseen by a blue-ribbon Editorial Advisory Board is intended for museums and donors alike, on the donation process, current standards and best practices, ethical and legal issues, and...

This updated edition of Defining Memory: Local Museums and the Construction of History in America's Changing Communities offers readers multiple lenses for viewing and discussing local institutions. New chapters are included in a section titled...

Winner of the 2018 Ontario Museum Association Award of Excellence Creating Exhibits that Engage: A Manual for Museums and Historical Organizations is a concise, useful guide to developing effective and memorable museum exhibits. The book is full of...

Interpreting Maritime History at Museums and Historic Sites lays the groundwork for keeping this heritage alive in museums and historic sites. It provides the broadest spectrum of discussion and direction for those approaching new installations, projects...

The Manual of Digital Museum Planning is a comprehensive guide to digital planning, development, and operations for museum professionals and students of museums studies and arts administration. In the tradition of Lord Cultural Resource's renowned...

Here is a complete introduction to the history of museums, types of museums, and the key roles that museums play in the twenty-first century. Following an introductory chapter looking at what a museum is today, Part I looks at the history and types of...

Nearby History by David E. Kyvig and Myron A. Marty is one of the essential volumes on any public historian's bookshelf and syllabus. Whereas every other "how to do history" book seems aimed at fledgling academic historians and grounds its advice on...

Interpreting Religion at Museums and Historic Sites encourages readers to consider the history of religion as integral to American culture and provides a practical guide for any museum to include interpretation of religious traditions in its programs and...

Interpreting Naval History at Museums and Historic Sites demonstrates the broad appeal of naval themed commemoration, centering on military aspects from both times of war and peace. Transcending place and time, naval history is shaped into public...

Cemetery Tours and Programming: A Guide shows the range and opportunities of cemetery programming that go beyond basic starting points like dog-walking or traditional historic walking tours. It illustrates the reuses of both historic and contemporary...

In today's busy world, museums compete for visitors not only with other museums, but also with a worthy selection of cultural institutions from performing arts to libraries. Add to these magnets a slew of enticing leisure activities, from theme parks to...

Membership marketing and management is an ever more demanding role within the institutions served-meeting fiscal demands, keeping pace with online marketing opportunities, and making data-driven decisions. The demands are diverse and ever-changing. This...

Food is such a friendly topic that it's often thought of as a "hook" for engaging visitors - a familiar way into other topics, or a sensory element to round out a living history interpretation. But it's more than just a hook - it's a topic all...

Wondering what a museum director actually does? About to start your first director's job? Looking for guidance in starting up a museum or working with a museum director? Hugh Genoways, Lynne Ireland, and Cinnamon Catlin-Legutko have taken the mystery out...

Interpreting Agriculture in Museums and Historic Sites orients readers to major themes in agriculture and techniques in education and interpretation that can help you develop humanities-based public programming that enhance agricultural literacy. Case...

Organizing a traveling exhibition for the first time or the tenth time? On the Road Again: Creating and Managing Traveling Exhibitions, Second Edition, covers all one needs to know about putting together an exhibition that travels to multiple venues...

This book takes the readers behind the scenes to learn how the American Museum of Natural History innovated visitor digital engagement through a public-facing iterative design process while highlighting design techniques used both there and at museums...

This book shows the importance of the Maker Movement for museums and historic sites, and presents a roadmap to building, planning, researching, and using a makerspace alongside more traditional museum programming. It calls for a revitalization of living...

The book is particularly suited for staff members in small or medium-sized museums who are interested in understanding and developing basic budgets. It would also serve as a helpful resource for individuals advancing into leadership positions which...

If you're part of the leadership team of a small historic house museum or historical society, you might consider rebranding -- either renaming your organization or developing a new look - to make your organization more appealing to a younger, more...