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 manuals, this book gives practical advice on how digital can enhance and improve all aspects of the museum. With chapters written by experienced professionals working at leading institutions such as the British Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Indianapolis Museum of Art, Bristol Culture, the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, and others, The Manual of Digital Museum Planning is an easy-to-understand, step-by-step guide for anyone planning a new museum, a museum expansion, or a new project in the Digital Age. Part 1 explains how digital technologies are transforming museums and their value proposition Part 2 explores how adopting a user-centric, omnichannel approach creates new relationships between museums and communities Part 3 offers a guide to integrating digital into the workflow of museums- from data analytics, to user experience design to project management Part 4 identifies the business models, infrastructure and skills and competencies for the digital museum, Each chapter culminates in ‘summary takeaways’ for easy recall, and key words are defined throughout. A glossary and reference list are also included as an accessible resources for readers.

All museum activities converge in the public forum of the exhibition – regardless of whether the exhibit is held in the physical museum or is on the Web. Since the first edition of this book in 2002, there has been a world-wide explosion of new galleries and exhibition halls, and new ideas about how exhibitions should look and communicate. The definition of what an exhibition is has changed as exhibitions can now be virtual; non-traditional migratory and pop-up spaces play host to temporary displays; social media has created amazing opportunities for participatory engagement and shifted authority away from experts to the public; and as time-constrained audiences demand more dynamic, interactive, and mobile applications, museum leadership, managers, staff, and designers are rising to these challenges in innovative ways. Drawing on years of experience and top-flight expertise, Barry Lord and Maria Piacente detail the exhibition process in a straightforward way that can be easily adapted by institutions of any size. They explore the exhibition development process in greater detail, providing the technical and practical methodologies museum professionals need today. They’ve added new features and expanded chapters on project management, financial planning and interactive multimedia while retaining the essential content related to interpretive planning, curatorship, and roles and responsibilities. This second edition of the standby Manual of Museum Exhibitions is arranged in four parts: Why – Covering the purpose of exhibits, where exhibit ideas come from, and how to measure success Where – Covering facilities and spaces, going into details including security, and interactive spaces What – A look at both permanent collection displays, and non-collection displays, as well as virtual, participatory, temporary, travelling displays, and retail sales How – Who is involved, planning, curatorship, and content development, design, multimedia, fabrication and installation, financial planning, and project management Over 130 figures and photographs illustrate every step of the exhibit process. No museum can be without this critical, detailed guide to an essential function.

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, and performing arts, this book responds to the reality that boundaries are being blurred among institutional types—with many gardens incorporating exhibitions, many museums part of multidisciplinary cultural centers and festivals.. As cultural leaders transform the arts in the twenty-first century, this “whole career” manual will prepare readers for every stage. Three key areas covered are: Leadership change. This chapter explains the role of strategic planning when an institution is going through the process of hiring a new director. A question we are frequently asked is “Should the strategic plan precede the search process or should it wait until the new director takes up the position?” Institutional change. Increasingly, cultural organizations are going through major change: from public-sector agencies to nonprofit corporations; from private ownership to non-profit status; from nonprofit status to a foundation, and many other variations. This book addresses the role of strategic planning during these transitions. Staff empowerment. This manual addresses the opportunities for staff at all levelsto grow by participating in strategic planning. This edition focuses on how to engage and empower staff. A Guide for Museums, Performing Arts, Science Centers, Public Gardens, Heritage Sites, Libraries, Archives, and Zoos is a game-changing book with broad reach into the cultural sector, while still serving the museum community.

Museum planners Gail Lord and Ngaire Blankenberg demonstrate how museums and cities are using their soft power to address some of the most important issues of our time.Soft power is the exercise of influence through attraction, persuasion, and agenda-setting rather than military or economic coercion.Thirteen of the world's leading museum and cultural experts from six continents explore the many facets of soft power in cities and museums to include: how it amplifies civic discourse, accelerates cultural change, and contributes to contextual intelligence among the great diversity of city dwellers, visitors, and policy makers. The authors urge city governments to embrace museums which so often are the signifiers of their cities, increasing real estate values while attracting investment, tourists, and creative workers. Lord and Blankenberg propose 32 practical strategies for museums and cities to activate their soft power and create thriving and sustainable communities. Follow the link below to watch co-author Gail Lord speaking about soft power on The Agenda, a popular public affairs program on TVO, a leading educational television broadcaster http://tvo.org/video/programs/the-agenda-with-steve-paikin/a-cultural-sleeping-giant. To Read More: http://tvo.org/article/current-affairs/shared-values/how-museums-help-cities-realize-their-soft-power

As museums have taken on more complex roles in their communities and the number of museum stakeholders has increased to include a greater array of people, effective museum planning is more important than ever. The Manual of Museum Planning has become the definitive text for museum professionals, trustees, architects, and others who are concerned with the planning, design, construction, renovation, or expansion of a public gallery or museum. Rewritten and reorganized, the third edition features revised sections on planning for visitors, collections, and the building itself, and new sections on operations and implementation, which have become an essential part of the planning process. This new edition of the Manual of Museum Planning has been updated to meet the needs of professional museum practice in the 21st century and includes contributions by leading museum professionals. This manual is intended to be used as a guide for museum professionals, board members or trustees, government agencies, architects, designers, engineers, cost consultants, or other specialist consultants embarking on a capital project—expansion, renovation, or new construction of museum space.

Museum learning is a vital component of the lifelong-learning process. In this new edition of The Manual of Museum Learning, leading museum education professionals offer practical advice for creating successful learning experiences in museums and related institutions (such as galleries, zoos, and botanic gardens) that can attract and intrigue diverse audiences. The original Manual of Museum Learning was published in 2007. The editors have totally rethought this new edition. This second edition focuses on the ways museum staffs (and the departments for which they work) can facilitate the experience in a way that capitalizes on their individual institutional strengths. The goal of this new edition is to provide museums with guidance in developing a strategic approach to their learning programs. There is a close connection between institution-wide strategic planning – where an institution decides what course and direction it will take for a five to seven-year period – and its approach to museum learning. One size does not fit all, and what each museum is (or aspires to be) will affect its individual approach. Thus there are many routes for museums to take, many alternative ways for them to play this role. No one museum can be all things to all prospective learners; they will be better suited to some approaches than to others. This new edition identifies these approaches and enables museums to find the paths for which they are individually best suited, to help them identify their own unique approaches to facilitating museum learning. Each one’s mission and vision, its relationships with institutional and public stakeholders, local cultural and market factors, its individual collection and programmatic strengths, its financial position – all of these things matter. This second edition aims to help each museum find the right approach to learning for its unique situation by showing them the range of museum “personalities” in terms of their being learning institutions, what constitutes each type, and what the implications are of choosing one or another approach for a particular museum. A major theme of the 2nd edition of The Manual of Museum Learning is museum as connector; the ways in which museums are facilitating self-directed learning by connecting people with resources. Not all will connect audiences with learning vehicles in the same way. If museum learning is affective learning, then it is the role of the museum to connect its visitors, program participants and others who benefit from its knowledge to the learning resources that best suit the institution’s strengths and matches them to the learning needs of the museum’s audiences. By connecting users to the resources they are most interested in, or which best suit each individual’s particular learning styles, museums are at their best when they empower individuals to design their own learning experience in ways that resonate best with each individual.

Looking for an A-Z, one-stop, comprehensive book on museums? Wish you were able to have one of the world’s leading museum consultants spend a couple of days with you, talking you through how to start a museum, how museums work, how to set up an exhibit, and more? If so, Museums 101 is the answer to your wishes. In one short volume, Mark Walhimer covers: • Essential Background, such as what is a museum, a quick history of museums, and 10 steps to starting a museum • Operational Basics, such as branding, marketing, strategic planning, governance, accessibility, and day-to-day operations • What goes on behind the scenes in a museum, ranging from finances to fundraising to art handling, exhibit management, and research • The Visitor Experience, planning a museum, designing exhibits for visitors, programming, and exhibit evaluation. Features that even the most experienced museum professionals will find useful include a community outreach checklist, a fundraising checklist, a questionnaire for people considering starting a new museum, and an exhaustive, well-organized list of online resources for museum operations. The book’s contents were overseen by a six-member international advisory board. Valuable appendixes you’ll use every day include a museum toolbox full of useful forms, checklists, and worksheets, and a glossary of essential museum-related terms. In addition to the printed book, Museums 101 also features a companion website exclusively for readers of the book. The website— museums101.com—features: • links to essential online resources in the museum world, • downloadable sample documents, • a glossary, • a bibliography of sources for further reading, and • photographs of more than 75 museums of all types. Museums 101 Advisory Board • Jim DeMersman, Executive Director, Museum on Main, Pleasanton, California, United States of America • David L. Godfrey, C.P.A., Allison & Godfrey, Certified Public Accountants, Norwalk, Connecticut, United States of America • Van A. Romans, President, Fort Worth Museum of Science and History, Fort Worth, Texas, and Board of Trustees, American Alliance of Museums, United States of America • Sergey Solovyev, Ph.D., Department of Greek & Roman Antiquities, The State Hermitage Museum, Russia • Alison Spence, Exhibitions and Loans Registrar, National Museum of Australia, Canberra ACT, Australia • Audrey Vermette, Director of Programs and Public Affairs, Canadian Museums Association, Ontario, Canada