Open Forum

A colleague and I are examining the best ways that we can design touring exhibitions that address museums' financial and staffing capacities. To understand those capacities, we are using Guidestar to collect profile dossiers on museums of different foci and size. We're very interested in understanding how these criteria map for museums and galleries associated with colleges and universities, but we are having trouble getting the search parameters dialed in for these organizations within Guidestar. It may be that some of these organizations are not nonprofits and are seated in a different way under academic institutions, but we have found *some* so we know this is not true for all academic museums. It's a puzzle.

Would it be possible to hear from people working for and adjacent to academic museums about whether their orgs are listed in Guidestar, and if so what search strings we can use to find them? 

Note: This broad canvassing approach is just a single prong of the work we are doing, and we are indeed talking directly with organizations that we hope to serve to learn their needs! Thanks for any insights folks are willing to provide!


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Sarah Lima
Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service
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Dear Sarah,
Great project!

You may be interested in the 2014 IMLS Dataset. The dataset is part of the IMLS research into the number of museums in the USA, Government Doubles Official Estimate: There Are 35,000 Active Museums in the U.S..

In the past, I have contacted IMLS, and they said there are plans to update the dataset, but a date has not been set. 

All the best, 
- Mark

Mark Walhimer
Museum Planning, LLC
https://www.museumplanning.com/


Original Message:
Sent: 04-27-2022 10:50 AM
From: Sarah Lima
Subject: Search guidance - Guidestar for College & University Galleries and Museums

A colleague and I are examining the best ways that we can design touring exhibitions that address museums' financial and staffing capacities. To understand those capacities, we are using Guidestar to collect profile dossiers on museums of different foci and size. We're very interested in understanding how these criteria map for museums and galleries associated with colleges and universities, but we are having trouble getting the search parameters dialed in for these organizations within Guidestar. It may be that some of these organizations are not nonprofits and are seated in a different way under academic institutions, but we have found *some* so we know this is not true for all academic museums. It's a puzzle.

Would it be possible to hear from people working for and adjacent to academic museums about whether their orgs are listed in Guidestar, and if so what search strings we can use to find them? 

Note: This broad canvassing approach is just a single prong of the work we are doing, and we are indeed talking directly with organizations that we hope to serve to learn their needs! Thanks for any insights folks are willing to provide!


------------------------------
Sarah Lima
Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service
------------------------------

Hi Sarah, 
Another place you might look is the Association of Academic Museums and Galleries: https://www.aamg-us.org/ 
Best,
Megan

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Megan Ennes PhD
Assistant Curator of Museum Education
Florida Museum of Natural History - University of Florida
Gainesville FL
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Original Message:
Sent: 04-27-2022 10:50 AM
From: Sarah Lima
Subject: Search guidance - Guidestar for College & University Galleries and Museums

A colleague and I are examining the best ways that we can design touring exhibitions that address museums' financial and staffing capacities. To understand those capacities, we are using Guidestar to collect profile dossiers on museums of different foci and size. We're very interested in understanding how these criteria map for museums and galleries associated with colleges and universities, but we are having trouble getting the search parameters dialed in for these organizations within Guidestar. It may be that some of these organizations are not nonprofits and are seated in a different way under academic institutions, but we have found *some* so we know this is not true for all academic museums. It's a puzzle.

Would it be possible to hear from people working for and adjacent to academic museums about whether their orgs are listed in Guidestar, and if so what search strings we can use to find them? 

Note: This broad canvassing approach is just a single prong of the work we are doing, and we are indeed talking directly with organizations that we hope to serve to learn their needs! Thanks for any insights folks are willing to provide!


------------------------------
Sarah Lima
Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service
------------------------------