 |
|
|
 |
 |
HRC Home > Community Center > May 2009
|
|
La Piana Consulting, founded in 1998, is a for-profit firm dedicated to strengthening nonprofits and foundations. Their mission is to improve leadership and management practices throughout the sector for greater social impact.If you really want the latest thinking on strategies - what they are, how effective strategies differ from what we *think* of as strategies, and how to inspire dynamic strategic thought in your museum, www.lapiana.org a great place to begin Once you're looking at...
Continue reading La Piana Resources.
|
|
|
Ever wonder what happened to the "strategy" in strategic plan?If you have ever lost any sleep pondering how your supposedly strategic plan is going to address this current financial mess, then you will be overjoyed to find David La Piana's 2008 book, The NonProfit Strategy Revolution: Real-Time Strategic Planning in a Rapid-Response World.This little book (that comes with a very useful CD) offers a new way of creating a strategic plan that begins with...
|
|
|
The HRC thanks Kathleen Craughwell-Varda, Project Manager, Conservation ConneCTion, Connecticut State Library, in Hartford, CT, for volunteering to be a guest author for the following entry and for sharing her insight and experience with our readers.Trying to find reliable sources on caring for historic collections can be difficult, unless you know where to look. The Internet can be a wonderful tool for finding information and resources on collections care. Let me lead you on...
|
|
|
We can all remember a museum visit where we were unable to find the information we needed or a suitable place to sit and rest our feet when we tired; where we encountered a grouchy salesclerk or endured a dreadful tour; or where we found ourselves in a filthy bathroom or sticky café.Everything in life is about the first impression. When something bad happens it is easy to start pointing fingers. Even worse, we are...
|
|
|
The recent data collected by Reach Advisors in the Connecticut Cultural Consumers Study initiated by the CHC and Connecticut Landmarks confirmed what I had always suspected about visitors and historic sites: people want to play house.Visitors want to get closer to the objects, they want to sit in the chairs, dine at the dinner table and attend parties. Children and adults alike want to dress up and experience the house as it once was.Think...
|
|
|
The Museum Forms Book, edited by Kenneth D. Perry, comes under the category of "why re-invent the wheel?" First published in 1980, and now in its 3rd printing, the book is a compendium of all types of forms collected from museums in this country and as far flung as Great Britain and New Zealand. The Museum Forms Book includes sections on collections management, development, education, exhibitions, maintenance and security, and rights and reproductions.In most...
|
|
|
Is your museum ready if disaster strikes? Do you know what to do if your library's books become soaked after a burst pipe? What about if a mold outbreak happens in your collection storage area?dPlan is a FREE online tool that will help you and your institution simplify the process of writing a disaster plan. Enter information about your institution using the comprehensive fill-in-the-blank template and dPlan will guide you through the steps necessary for...
|
|
|
Nonprofit organizations are the lifeblood of vibrant communities. They fill social needs, provide needed services, and make our neighborhoods better places to live.In today's weak economy, however, nonprofits--including museums and historical societies--are needing to find ways to do more with fewer resources.The Hartford Foundation for Public Giving recognized that nonprofits in the Greater Hartford area were constantly seeking ways to deliver services effectively, recruit and retain qualified staff, secure and maintain an effective board, and...
|
|
|
One of my first assignments fresh out of graduate school was to create a student house tour of the Butler-McCook House in Hartford. And the first book I turned to for help was Great Tours!: Thematic Tours and Guide Training for Historic Sites. Great Tours! helps tour writers focus on the material culture and site specific significance of museums--and then turn around and train guide staffs to present the material to the public. The book...
Continue reading Great Tours!.
|
|
|
Want to add the sound of rain drops falling or a lion roaring to your exhibition, but don't know where to look for good, free digital files? Looking for advice about the best types of adhesives to use on painted walls without leaving sticky residue behind? Need a free, on-line photo editing tool?If you are a curator, exhibitions preparator, or employee of a small museum who does a little bit of everything, you can find...
|
|
|
Formative, summative, out-come-based, quantitative, qualitative, post-test, benchmarking ...Is this all jargon, or does it all really do something? Or does everyone do it just to please their funders? As a funder, I can tell you having some sort of measurement strategy in place is an important assessment tool--not just to please the Humanities Council, but for you and your institution as well. Figuring out a way to take a snap shot of your project or...
|
|
|
The HRC thanks Linda Hocking, Curator of Library and Archives at the Litchfield Historical Society in Litchfield, CT, for volunteering to be a guest author for the following entry and for sharing her insight and experience with our readers. The Basics of Archives Continuing Education Program (BACE) provides participants with a great overview of the theory and practice behind the archives profession. Developed as a joint project between the American Association for State and Local...
|
|
|
The HRC thanks Julie Frey, Curator of Collections at the Litchfield Historical Society in Litchfield, CT, for volunteering to be a guest author for the following entry and for sharing her insight and experience with our readers.Are you struggling to manage your museum's collection?Are you unsure what records are important to properly document a new donation?Are you stuck with an antiquated cataloging or numbering system?Are there resources available that can help you?Absolutely! Managing museum collections...
|
|
|
At heritage sites, the best school programs start from a fundamental understanding of the goals of history education.In Historical Thinking and Other Unnatural Acts, Sam Wineburg, a Professor of Education at Stanford University, explains how historians think about the past and how they use primary sources.Good history instruction, he tells us, promotes a kind of literacy, not one of names and dates, but one based on discernment, judgment, and contextualization The "Historical Thinking Skills" that...
|
|
|
If museum field trips are to be considered truly educational, and worthy of the ever-shrinking transportation dollars, etc., and not merely a day away from the classroom, the museum's teaching goals should be aligned with those of the classroom teachers.The Connecticut State Department of Education has posted their Curriculum Frameworks outlining the content standards for Connecticut students grades K-12:The Arts (dance, music, theatre, and visual arts)Health and SafetyLanguage ArtsLearning Resources and Information TechnologyMathematicsPhysical EducationScienceSocial StudiesTechnologyWorld...
|
|
|
Student field trips to museums are a great way for teachers to enhance their curriculum using authentic objects in a unique and enriching environment.However, the student-centered approach to teaching in the modern classroom (interactive group work for example) can look very different than the more traditional methods often employed in the museum gallery setting (such as the lecture-style guided tour).So Each May Learn by Harvey Silver, Richard Strong, and Matthew Perini is a great place...
|
|
|
People like to learn.That's the good news.The challenge for museums, however, is that people have many options competing with museum collections and exhibitions when it comes to where and how they learn new things. Lessons Without Limit by John Falk and Lynn Dierking introduces the reader to the concept of free-choice learning and outlines the characteristics of the learning public at various ages in ways that can help a museum stay competitive. The authors define...
|
|
|
"Excellent museum programs change adult lives." That's a quote from the introductory pages of Adult Museum Programs by Bonnie Sachatello-Sawyer, et al., a helpful book that takes a fresh and professional look at educational programs geared for adults in the museum environment.Adults are a growing audience for educational programs in museums, and appear eager to participate in both traditional learning events such as lectures, tours, and workshops as well as newer presentation models such as...
|
|
|
A good tour will be remembered for a long time. A bad tour will be remembered longer. Indeed, many museum visitors would rather grapple on their own with new information in a museum than succumb to the potential horrors of a guided tour. However, the elements that make up for a great tour are teachable skills, often common sense, and are all clearly explained in The Good Guide by Alison L. Grinder and E. Sue...
|
|
|
Are your storage facilities clogged with unidentified or undocumented objects?In A Deaccession Reader, museum ethics and legal issues writer Stephen Weil argues that when carefully applied, deaccessioning can provide institutions with an important opportunity to chart institutional priorities, control expenses, renew collecting policies, and evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of existing collections. Common reasons why objects should be considered for deaccession include:The object does not contribute to the institution's mission The object lacks authenticity or...
|
HRC Home > Community Center > May 2009
|
|
 |
|
|
