Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Pages: 186
•
Trim: 8¾ x 11½
978-1-4422-6329-1 • Hardback • March 2016 • $116.00 • (£89.00)
978-1-4422-6330-7 • Paperback • March 2016 • $56.00 • (£43.00)
978-1-4422-6331-4 • eBook • March 2016 • $53.00 • (£41.00)
John W. Jacobsen, president of White Oak Associates, Inc. and CEO of the White Oak Institute, was associate director of the Museum of Science in Boston. During that time, the Museum served 2.2 million visitors during a twelve-month period, an unsurpassed record.
List of Tables and Worksheets
Foreword by Ford W. Bell, DVM, President & CEO (retired) American Alliance of Museums
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Part 1: Theory: How and why do museums do what they do?
Chapter 1: Finding the Museum Theory of Action
Chapter 2: Identifying Potential Museum Impacts
Chapter 3: Measuring Impact
Part 2: Practice: How do you measure your museum’s impact and performance?
Chapter 4: Shift from Theory to Practice
Chapter 5: Prioritize your Museum’s Purposes and Impacts
Chapter 6: Determine your Museum’s Performance Metrics
Chapter 7: Compare your Museum to your Peers
Summary
Chapter 8: Report Changes in Your Impact and Performance
Chapter 9: Summary and Future Potentials
Appendixes
Appendix A: Definitions and Assumptions
Appendix B: Source Documents for MIIP 1.0
Appendix C: Potential Museum Impacts: Selected Examples
Appendix D: Measurement Formulas and Worksheet Templates
Appendix E: Worksheets: Blanks and Versions by the Sample Museum
Index
About the Author
Veteran museum planner John Jacobsen has prepared a meticulous analysis of how museums organize, manage, and document their operations. . . .The book is a treasure house of information and strategies for understanding the nuances of what museums are, want to be, and sometimes wind up being. . . . The book finishes with a very useful presentation of the diverse and complex world of museums, a helpful listing of the sources of the 1,025 indicators, and then numerous pages of key performance formulas and worksheets that enable museums to organize, interpret, and compare their activities. . . .[I]t is an extremely useful volume that fully acknowledges both the diversity within the museum world and the need for institutions to fully locate themselves and present to their particular locale their social, economic and intellectual roles and successes.
— Informal Learning Review
“This book is a toolkit that can help museums move from the subjective to the objective in communicating the value that they bring to communities. … By helping museums measure the value of the work that they do, this groundbreaking book will enable them to effectively communicate their impact to key stakeholders, allowing museums to have the support that they need to serve their communities in new and creative ways, for the benefit of all.”
— Ford W. Bell, American Alliance of Museums (AAM) President, 2007-2015