Welcome to the coldest and snowiest Museum in the News roundup yet! The biggest news of the week has been the partial looting and continued danger at the Egyptian National Museum in Cairo. We’ve talked about it already here and here. Today brings a video …
The Egyptian National Museum is still not entirely safe, unfortunately. Turns out that it’s right next door to the national headquarters for Egypt’s ruling party, the focus of much of the protesters’ ire. Said building is still on fire, and firefighters worry that if the …
Nina Simon’s recent post at Museum 2.0 about museums using Wikipedia reminds me that I had meant to post about a recent interview with Sue Gardner, executive director of the Wikipedia Foundation.
Gardner, who spoke on NPR’s On the Media last weekend, addressed some of the challenges that Wikipedia faces for the future: increasing the diversity of its editing group, sustaining peak activity, increasing the quality of articles’ scholarship, and reaching new audiences.
Any of those sound like familiar challenges?
Here’s one of the most interesting bits:
BROOKE GLADSTONE: So how do you stop the plateau from becoming a decline?
SUE GARDNER: The first thing that you need to do is figure out what are the impediments to people’s editing that have no benefit and you just want to get rid of them. Wikipedia was started in 2001. At that time, everything you did on the Internet was difficult. Now, ten years later, it’s really easy, right? Flickr is easy. Twitter is easy. Facebook is easy. Editing Wikipedia is not as easy.
So the first thing that we did was kick off a project to increase the user friendliness of Wikipedia. And then the second thing that we’re doing is trying to create invitations and persuasive messages to people about why we think they should edit.
Gardner’s questions can and should be applied to any and all parts of a museum, from exhibit design to participatory experiences to fundraising to visiting. They signal a user-friendly attitude, which museums haven’t always had. To answer those questions, you have to think like a visitor, not like a staffer.
What do we most want people to do? How do we make it easier for them? Sometimes, it’s as simple as that.
Breaking news from Cairo, where government protesters have been filling the streets for several days now: fires are breaking out near the Egyptian National Museum. The whole country is in a communications lockdown, so reporting is very much in flux. Reuters has confirmed however that …
Krakow’s newly renovated Sukiennice Museum of 19th-century Polish art has a splashy video showing off the interactive campaign they did to publicize their 2010 reopening. In an attempt to make the art “come to life,” they recorded audio and video recreations of stories behind the artists, …
Next up in our Museum Professional Organizations series is one near and dear to all of our hearts. In fact, if you’re in your first year as a Tufts student, you’re already a member!
Let’s talk about the New England Museum Association.
To quote from their website:
The mission of the New England Museum Association is to strengthen member museums and museums in the region. To achieve this mission, NEMA fosters communication and ethical conduct; provides professional development; promotes excellence in museum operations; and encourages support for the museum community.
Membership fees are actually pretty reasonable; $45 per year for a museum professional, and $35 for full-time students, job-hunters (unemployed), and retirees or volunteers. With that membership you get access to NEMA News, special pricing on conferences and workshops, and admission to a number of member institutions. Check out the membership page for a full list of benefits.
NEMA also maintains a terrific listing of jobs, found here. They’re updated every Friday morning, so keep checking back!
I know I met several Tufts students at the NEMA Fall Conference this year in Springfield; if you missed it, you can download recordings of some key panels through the website. Next year’s conference, “Museums in the Mirror” (all about reflecting diversity), will be November 16 – 18 in Hartford, Connecticut. There’s a call for proposals out right now, due on February 1.
NEMA also sponsors thirteen “Professional Affinity Groups,” or PAGS. PAGS sponsor workshops and networking opportunities. Look over the whole list, but the one you particularly want to check out is the YEPs: the Young Emerging Professionals. You’ll want to follow them on Facebook, too.
So I’ll see you all in Hartford next November, right?