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

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments Preface Foreword PART I: ESSENTIAL MUSEUM BACKGROUND Chapter 1: Defining a Museum Chapter 2: A Quick History of Museums PART II: CREATING AN INTEGRATED MUSEUM Chapter 3: The Integrated Museum Chapter 4: Starting a Museum Chapter 5: Museum Governance Chapter 6: Museum Feasibility Studies Chapter 7: Museum Planning Strategies PART III: EXHIBITIONS Chapter 8: Collections Chapter 9: The Museum Building Chapter 10: Museum Exhibition Development/Curation Chapter 11: Exhibition Design and Fabrication Chapter 12: Museum Programming: Education PART IV: BEHIND THE SCENES Chapter 13: Museum Finances Chapter 14: Museum Fundraising Chapter 15: Museum Marketing Chapter 16: Museum Project Management Chapter 17: Museum Evaluation Chapter 18: Museum Operations Chapter 19: Museum Accessibility Chapter 20: Museum Research Chapter 21: Collections Care Chapter 22: The Museum of the Future Chapter 23: Putting Your Museum Online Chapter 24: Working in Museums PART V: THE MUSEUM TOOLBOX American Alliance of Museums: Code of Ethics for Museums Sample Bylaws American Alliance of Museums: Developing a Mission Statement Sample Museum Constitution Sample Museum Feasibility Template Sample Board Member Responsibilities Sample Policy for Donations of Objects Sample Donor Questionnaire Sample Museum Exhibit Sponsorship Agreement Timing and Tracking Study Visitor Exit Interview Museum Job Descriptions Sample Museum Director Job Description Object Cataloging Record Museum Exhibition Design Process Resources Bibliography Index