Books in the Small Museum Toolkit series

Effectively managing people, facilities, and partnerships can make or break an institution. In this book, we look at managing those paid or unpaid staff who contribute daily to the museum, provide tools for operations, address maintenance and safety issues, and discuss collaboration with outside organizations.

Small museums need champions. In this book, we make a case for small museums and share what the broader museum field can learn from the small museum leadership. Because a few tools have been invaluable to small museum leaders and are referred to throughout the book series, we highlight the MAP and CAP assessment process, accreditation, and provide an overview of the StEPs program that inspired this book series in this first book.

A characteristic of all sustainable museums is long-term financial stability. In this book, we explore how to transparently and accurately account for the financial resources you have and then provide a template for fundraising more dollars to sustain your small museum. We address grant applications and legal issues as they pertain to financial management, human resources, and other topics in the Toolkit.

Museums exist to serve their audiences. This book describes how you can better relate to your audience, looking at how small museums are engaging with and advocating for their communities. We address marketing and public relations, visitor services, accessibility, and easy ways to find out what your audience members think about and want from you.

Interpretation helps the public understand our purpose and mission. In this book, we tackle how to orient your organization to be effective interpreters of what you collect; how to tell engaging stories; and how to address difficult issues you may have avoided. We provide a primer in historical research for the non-historian and the do-it-yourself basics for creating good exhibits, tours, and programs on a small museum budget.

Small museums need affordable ways to provide care for their collections and the tools to lobby for additional funds for their long-term health. In this book, we offer practical tips for collections care, including preservation strategies for historic properties, strategies for managing collections, developing policies, and planning for the future of your museum's holdings.