Museum Basics


Book Description

Drawing from a wide range of experience, the authors propose the simple ideas which should underpin all professional museum training courses. Organised on a modular basis Museum Basics provides a basic guide to `best practice' in every aspect of museum work, from museum organisation, through collections management and conservation, to marketing and security. It is designed for training courses, to be supplemented by case studies, project work and group discussion.




Museum Basics


Book Description

Museums throughout the world have common needs and face common challenges. Keeping up-to-date with new ideas and changing practice is challenging for small and medium-sized museums where time for reading and training is often restricted. This new edition of Museum Basics has therefore been produced for the many museums worldwide that operate with limited resources and few professional staff. The comprehensive training course provided within the book is also suitable for museum studies students who wish to gain a full understanding of work within a museum. Drawing from a wide range of practical experience, the authors provide a basic guide to all aspects of museum work, from audience development and education, through collections management and conservation, to museum organisation and forward planning. Organised on a modular basis with over 110 Units, Museum Basics can be used as a reference work to assist day-to-day museum management and as the key textbook in pre-service and in-service training programmes. It is designed to be supplemented by case studies, project work and group discussion. This third edition has been fully updated and extended to take account of the many changes that have occurred in the world of museums in the last five years. It includes over 100 new diagrams supporting the text, a glossary, sources of information and support as well as a select bibliography. Museum Basics is also now supported by its own companion website providing a wide range of additional resources for the reader.




Museum Basics


Book Description

This fourth edition of Museum Basics has been produced for use in the many museums worldwide that operate with few professional staff and limited resources. The fourth edition has been fully updated to reflect the many changes that have taken place in museums around the world over the last six years. Drawing from a wide range of practical experience, the authors provide a basic guide to all aspects of museum work, from audience development and learning, through collections management and conservation, to museum management and forward planning. Museum Basics is organised on a modular basis, with over 100 units in eight sections. It can be used both as a reference work to assist day-to-day museum management, and as the key textbook for pre-service and in-service museum training programmes, where it can be supplemented by case studies, project work and group discussion. This edition includes over 100 diagrams to support the text, as well as a glossary, sources of information and support and a select bibliography. Museum Basics is also supported by its own companion website, which provides a wide range of additional resources for readers. Museum Basics aims to help the museum practitioner keep up to date with new thinking about the function of museums and their relationships with the communities they serve. The training materials provided within the book are also suitable for pre-service and in-service students who wish to gain a full understanding of work in a museum.




Starting Right: A Basic Guide to Museum Planning


Book Description

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 prospects, avoid pitfalls, and take advantage of many kinds of available help. Addressing current and perennial issues facing new museums, from digital technologies to fund raising concerns, Starting Right takes you step-by-step through the process of creating a sound plan for starting your museum.




Museum and Gallery Studies


Book Description

Museum and Gallery Studies: The Basics is an accessible guide for the student approaching Museum and Gallery Studies for the first time. Taking a global view, it covers the key ideas, approaches and contentious issues in the field. Balancing theory and practice, the book address important questions such as: What are museums and galleries? Who decides which kinds of objects are worthy of collection? How are museums and galleries funded? What ethical concerns do practitioners need to consider? How is the field of Museum and Gallery Studies developing? This user-friendly text is an essential read for anyone wishing to work within museums and galleries, or seeking to understand academic debates in the field.




Museums in Motion


Book Description

In 1979, Edward P. Alexander's Museums in Motion was hailed as a much-needed addition to the museum literature. In combining the history of museums since the eighteenth century with a detailed examination of the function of museums and museum workers in modern society, it served as an essential resource for those seeking to enter to the museum profession and for established professionals looking for an expanded understanding of their own discipline. Now, Mary Alexander has produced a newly revised edition of the classic text, bringing it the twenty-first century with coverage of emerging trends, resources, and challenges. New material also includes a discussion of the children's museum as a distinct type of institution and an exploration of the role computers play in both outreach and traditional in-person visits.




Museum Texts


Book Description

Ideal for students and professionals alike, this book uses a wide range of examples, and answers key questions in the study of how museums communicate and provides an excellent set of frameworks to investigate the complexities of communication in museums.




The Politics of Museums


Book Description

This is the first book to examine how and why museums are political institutions. By concentrating on the ways in which power, ideology and legitimacy work at the international, national and local levels of the museum experience, Clive Gray provides an original analysis of who exercises power and how power is used in museums.




Building Type Basics for Museums


Book Description

Tremendous opportunities are opening up as architecture becomes more generalized and firms accept commissions for a widening range of building types. To take advantage of these opportunities, architects need instant information on the general issues, materials, systems, requirements, and general design guidelines associated with different types of structures. Building Type Basics books fulfill this need. Building Type Basics for Museums is a one-stop source for the essential information architects need to fast-start the design process. In this book, author Arthur Rosenblatt draws upon the expertise of leading architects from around the world to present all aspects of museum and cultural facility design. This book provides critical information on the process, potential problems, design concerns, and recent trends in museum and cultural facility design, along with complete coverage of energy issues, mechanical systems, and structural concerns as well as acoustic control, lighting, internal traffic, security, and other important topics. This indispensable guide: * Asks and answers twenty questions that frequently arise in the early phases of a project commission * Provides project photographs, diagrams, floor plans, sections, and details * Includes guidelines for art, science, and natural history museums; ethnic art and cultural centers; and more This conveniently organized quick reference is an invaluable guide for busy, dedicated professionals who want to get moving quickly as they embark on a new project. Like every Building Type Basics book, it provides authoritative, up-to-date information instantly and saves architects countless hours of research. Engineering consultants will also find a wealth of information to help them tackle museum commissions of all kinds.




Twentieth-century Popular Culture in Museums and Libraries


Book Description

Although libraries and museums for many centuries have taken the lead, under one rational or another, in recovering, storing, and displaying various kinds of culture of their periods, lately, as the gap between elite and popular culture has apparently widened, these repositories of artifacts of the present for the future have tended to drift more and more to what many people call the aesthetically pleasing elements of our culture. The degree to which our libraries and museums have ignored our culture is terrifying, when one scans the documents and artifacts of our time which, if history in any wise repeats itself, will in the immediate and distant future become valuable indices of our present culture to future generations. As Professor Schroeder dramatically states it, "No doubt about it, it is the contemporary popular culture that is the endangered species." The essays in this book investigate the reasons for present-day neglect of popular culture materials and chart the various routes by which conscientious and insightful librarians and museum directors can correct this disastrous oversight.