Library and Information Science Commons^™

What Do I Do With That?, Abby Stambach

Staff publications

“What Do I Do with That” describes a museum once housed in an academic library which became part of the institution's archives, and discusses how this legacy collection impacted the work of today's Archives & Distinctive Collections Department.

The academic archive staff identifies preservation needs such as storage and documentation, as well as how they work with the dedicated campus gallery to provide access to its art collections.

Accessibility For All: Digitization In Museums, Shayna Diamond

Museum Studies Theses

The role museums have in society is an ever-changing one. As institutions of knowledge, culture, and humanity, they are subject to the same evolutions as the people they represent, educate, and serve. Thus, as digitization movements have swept the world, efforts to bring museums into the digital age have increased. This paper discusses digitization in the museum context, addresses the digitization of collections and exhibitions, and examines how digitization tools open those resources for public access – in particular for people with disabilities. The aim of this topic is to demonstrate how said digitization can best be utilized for the …

The Natchez Museum Of African American History And Culture, Danielle A. Terrell

SLIS Connecting

The Natchez Association for the Preservation of African American History and Culture (NAPAC) is a repository of local history that spotlights the life of black citizens from the turn of the century to the modern-day. What makes the NAPAC Museum unique is that it collects history that is only native to Natchez, Mississippi. The rich heritage of the African American culture is interpreted through artifacts and other relics that allow one to focus on what was then and what is now. The purpose of this study is to document the collections, organization, events, and degree of digitization of the museum.

A Museum’S Guide To Queer Inclusivity, Ashtin O. Ashbrook

Museum Studies Theses

LGBT+ (gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender, also called queer) people have always existed. The history of queer people has been repressed and destroyed. As culture changes and becomes more accepting of these identities, queer people are living more openly, and history is being well recorded. Museums are institutions that are responsible for representing and perpetuating cultural views, and therefore have a responsibility to include a diverse variety of people. One strategy to normalize queerness is to integrate it into museums. This guide will explore queer inclusion, with an emphasis on transgender inclusion, in all different types of museums. The following …

Online Interpretation Guideline For Historic House Museums, Olivia A. Weixlmann

Museum Studies Theses

What does it mean to be a museum in 2020? How do cultural institutions, charged with preserving our history, navigate the challenges of the modern world? Technological advances including the internet, quickly produce an abundance of media outlets baiting attention that impact the sociopolitical climate driving civil unrest, and ideological division. The surplus of competing information from technology driven outlets result in audiences being overwhelmed and left questioning if the information they're receiving is from a reliable source.

Review Of Things Great And Small, Lydia Tang

Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies

Things Great and Small: Collections Management Policies, 2nd edition, by John E. Simmons is a helpful overview and guide for crafting museum collections management policies.

Making The Grade: Do Art Museums Have An Impact On Student Achievement Within Low Socio-Economic Communities?, Alison M. Rebmann

Museum Studies Theses

This thesis evaluates the connections between art museums across the country with their communities. With many of the country’s museums located in city centers, there is a large population of children who live within the vicinity of art museums. Many of these children also come from low socio-economic backgrounds. They may not have access to the resources needed to gain access to art museums. This thesis examines what art museums are doing to ensure all community members can experience what they have to offer. Four main categories are examined in this research: (1) the price of entry to the museum, …

Making Do With What You've Got: Improving Your Collections Storage Now, Adam Stephen Guy Smith, Heather Hoagland

Library Services Publications

Don’t wait until that inventory grant money comes through, get started improving your collection storage today using things you have right now or can get without breaking the bank or begging the board! Come ready to share your ideas as well as learn from your presenters and colleagues in this informal discussion-style session. Attendees will leave the session with easily implemented and inexpensive ideas for storing, displaying, and rehousing objects of all shapes, sizes and materials.

Safeguarding For The Future: Managing Born-Digital Collections In Museums, Kimberly Kruse

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Over the past few decades, advancements in technology have changed society entirely. Every bit of information about world news, popular culture, and art is just a tap of a touchscreen away. So many aspects of the contemporary world have become digitized so that it was only a matter of time before museums would have to face the issue of born-digital media in their collections. From videos to web-based art, museums have to tackle how to save this new form of cultural heritage. Museums have to do so now before it gets lost forever. The challenge of born-digital objects lies in …

Controversy In 20th Century Museum Exhibits: A 21st Century Perspective, Jennifer K. Weber

Museum Studies Theses

This paper examines how museums can be impacted by public responses to their exhibits. This is accomplished by studying two specific contexts from the late 20^th century: first, observing the changes and influences that occurred over a relatively short period of time involving the National Endowment for the Arts funding in the late 1980s, and another compares the social responses to the same exhibition, “Sensation” as shown in two different countries. The social and political responses to museum exhibits can play a huge role in how the exhibits, the museums, and the artists are viewed. This can have long-lasting …

Northwest Coast Native American Art: The Relationship Between Museums, Native Americans And Artists, Karrie E. Myers

Museum Studies Theses

Museums today have many responsibilities, including protecting and understanding objects in their care. Many also have relationships with groups of people whose items or artworks are housed within their institutions. This paper explores the relationship between museums and Northwest Coast Native Americans and their artists. Participating museums include those in and out of the Northwest Coast region, such as the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia, the Burke Museum, the Royal British Columbia Museum, the American Museum of Natural History and the Smithsonian Museum. Museum professionals who conducted research for some of these museums included Franz Boas, …

Preserving, Interpreting, And Displaying Mental Health History: Establishing The Patton State Hospital Museum And Archive, Shannon Rene Long

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

There are few museums in the western half of the United States that provide an opportunity to educate the public about the history of mental health care. Recently, a mental health museum and archive of artifacts, photographs, and documents was established on the grounds of Patton State Hospital in Highland, California. The purpose of this paper is to reflect on the establishment of this museum and archive and to provide an account of the 125 year history of Patton State Hospital. Understanding the history of Patton provides an opportunity to understand the history of mental health care in the United …

Accommodating Individuals With Autism Spectrum Disorder In Museums, William S. Tyler

History Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the question of how current museum access programs meet the needs of individuals with Autism Spectrum disorder (ASD). ASD is an umbrella classification that presents many challenges for individuals in terms of social development and academic growth. It is important that all individuals are given the opportunity to experience the museum setting to their full ability. With this population of individuals at the forefront, an analysis will be done to examine what needs are present and how museum programming serves them. There are a variety of strategies and accommodations that museums can …

Artifacts As Ambassadors: Sharing Special Collections Through Collaboration With Student Curators, Carolyn Sautter

All Musselman Library Staff Works

Special Collections and College Archives at Musselman Library, Gettysburg College, regularly collaborates with various academic departments to conduct class visits utilizing the primary sources in Special Collections Reading Room. In the last two years, some of these opportunity have grown into semester long student curation experiences both inside Special Collections and in collaboration with Schmucker Art Gallery at Gettysburg College.

The exhibits discussed included:

Slaves, Soldiers, Citizens: African American Artifacts of the Civil War Era

Slow to Heal: The Evolution of Medicine from the Civil War Era to WWI

Owl & Nightingale Players, 1914-2014: One Hundred Years of Drama

Art …

Preserving Artifacts: A Survey And Research Into The Struggle Of Smaller Institutions' Need For Budgeting, Emily Busch

Museum Studies Theses

This paper will discuss the budgeting and preservation problems that are prevalent in institutions specializing in historical collections. The sizes of the institutions that will be reviewed include small and medium-sized specialized museums along with local and regional historical societies, based on research and a survey sent to these kinds of institutions. Three types of artifacts that are commonly found in these institutions – paper, photographs, and textiles- will be examined to get a clear understanding of their preservation problems and needs. This is followed by reviews of proper storage techniques for artifacts and descriptions where the institutions can acquire …

The Lesbian And Gay Past: An Interpretive Battleground, Polly Thistlethwaite

Publications and Research

The lesbian and gay past is an interpretive battleground that mainstream archives have refused to enter, assuming few risks in collecting, naming, or identifying archival collections. At the same time, libraries offer up worlds to those who work to unearth the secrets there.

The New York Public Library's 1994 "Becoming Visible" exhibit trumpeted The Arrival of lesbian and gay history to New York's cultural mainstream. The NYPL exhibit denies the library's role in secreting lesbian and gay history, and diminished the contributions of community-based archives to the exhibit.