Topic: Museums
Research Report
October 27, 2022
Art Museum Director Survey 2022
Documenting Change in Museum Strategy and Operations
In April 2022, with funding from the Kress Foundation and the Mellon Foundation, and in partnership with the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD) and the American Alliance of Museums (AAM), Ithaka S+R launched the second iteration of the Art Museum Director Survey. One hundred and eighty-one art museum directors completed the attitudinal survey, sharing perspectives about the institution they represent, as well as the museum sector as a whole.
Past Event
September 21, 2022
Closed Door Conversation: The Inaugural Art Museum Trustee Survey Report
Black Trustees Alliance for Art Museums
On September 21st at 4:00 – 5:30 pm, the Black Trustees Alliance for Art Museums (BTA) is hosting a closed-door conversation with BTA membership to share the complete findings from the Inaugural Art Museum Trustee Survey. Liam Sweeney and Deirdre Harkins will present “The Characteristics, Roles, and Experiences of Black Trustees,” alongside BTA Data Chair Celeste Watkins-Hayes. The session will end with a Q&A session, giving attendees the opportunity to ask questions and provide feedback. The final report will be…
Blog Post
September 15, 2022
Community Reflections on Ithaka S+R’s report about Digital Preservation and Curation Systems
In July 2022, we shared our findings from a broad examination of the digital preservation and curation systems landscape, drawn in part from deep dives into a number of third-party preservation platforms. Along with this research, we’ve held a series of online forums to gather feedback on the report from the community. Here, we synthesize what we heard during five invitation-only and three open webinars with 253 people, including preservation service providers, curation specialists, technologists, and more.
Blog Post
August 23, 2022
Understanding Archivists
Insights from the A*CENSUS II: All Archivists Survey Report
Earlier this week, we published the findings from the A*CENSUS II: All Archivists Survey, the first national survey in 17 years designed to gather information about the demographics, education levels, job placement, salaries, and student loan debt of archivists and community memory workers. The survey also explored the extent to which this community views the archival profession as inclusive, equitable, and diverse. Nearly 6,000 archivists took the time to share their experiences through the survey.
Past Event
November 14, 2022
The Effectiveness and Durability of Digital Preservation and Curation Systems
Association of Southeastern Research Libraries Webinar
On November 14 at 2:00 – 3:00 pm ET, Oya Rieger and Roger Schonfeld will share an overview of key findings from a recent Ithaka S+R report on the changing landscape of digital preservation and the sustainability of digital preservation and curation systems, funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). Learn more about the event, hosted by the Association of Southeastern Research Libraries.
Past Event
August 27, 2022
A*CENSUS II Forum
2022 Society for American Archivists Annual Meeting
On Saturday, August 27, at 11:00 am, Makala Skinner will discuss the A*CENSUS II All Archivists Survey Report at the Society for American Archivists Annual Meeting. Joining Makala at the A*CENSUS II Forum are Beth Myers, Director of Special Collections at Smith College, Jacqualine Price Osafo, Executive Director of the Society of American Archivists, and Erin Passehl Stoddart, Michigan State University.
Research Report
August 22, 2022
A*CENSUS II All Archivists Survey Report
Five thousand, six hundred and ninety-nine archivists and memory workers across the United States took the time to share their experiences within the archives profession by completing the A*CENSUS II All Archivists Survey. The All Archivists Survey, fielded 17 years after the original A*CENSUS collected foundational data for the field, provides a measure of how far the field has come in nearly two decades as well as introduces new or expanded areas of exploration.
Blog Post
July 19, 2022
Supporting the Future Discovery and Use of Digital Content
New Report
Regardless of their size, location, or the communities they serve, all heritage organizations are involved in curating digital content, whether that content is born-digital or reformatted from physical materials. There are a range of risks involved in managing this content, including technical malfunctions, media obsolescence, and organizational failures—just to name a few. In light of such threats, digital preservation to enable the discovery, access, and use of content by designated user communities over time…
Research Report
July 19, 2022
The Effectiveness and Durability of Digital Preservation and Curation Systems
In August 2020, with funding from the Institute of Library and Museum Services (IMLS), Ithaka S+R launched an 18-month research project to examine and assess the sustainability of these third-party digital preservation systems. In addition to a broad examination of the landscape, we more closely studied eight systems: APTrust, Archivematica, Arkivum, Islandora, LIBNOVA, MetaArchive, Samvera and Preservica.
Blog Post
April 5, 2022
Launching the 2022 Art Museum Director Survey
In early 2020, Ithaka S+R launched the inaugural art museum director survey. This survey gathered the attitudes of museum directors on topics including leadership and strategy, budget and staffing, visitors and the public, and collections. When the COVID-19 pandemic closed the doors of museums across the country, the museum director survey had been in the field only a few weeks. We closed the survey with a fifty percent response rate. The evidence gathered…
Past Event
April 8, 2022
Data for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging in the Arts
Ithaka S+R with Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
Mark your calendars! Next Friday, April 8th at 12:30pm Eastern, Ithaka S+R will be in conversation with the Mellon Foundation via Instagram Live (@mellonfdn) to discuss the value and impact of data for diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging in the arts. Now and over the next few months, please send your questions or comments to sr-amsds@ithaka.org. We encourage all art museum employees and stakeholders to engage with us in this future-forward discussion about the Art Museum Staff Demographic Survey. …
Blog Post
March 17, 2022
Art Museum Staff Demographic Survey Cycle 3
Interim Updates
On Monday, February 7, 2022, Ithaka S+R opened Cycle 3 of the Art Museum Staff Demographic Survey—a survey funded by the Mellon Foundation and fielded in partnership with the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD) and the American Alliance of Museums (AAM). Cycle 3 has now been open for approximately one month, and we would like to offer the following updates to support art museums still compiling their employee…
Past Event
March 2, 2022
Art Museum Staff Demographic Survey “How to” Webinar
On March 2, to support the data collection process for the Art Museum Demographic Survey, Ithaka S+R staff will walk through the instructions for the survey and discuss the frequently asked questions. The session will end with a Q&A for attendees to ask questions of their own that address the specific concerns of their institutions. We encourage all art museum senior staff and human resources staff to attend. If you have not received the link to the Survey,…
Blog Post
March 2, 2022
The A*CENSUS II: Archives Administrators Survey is Live
The A*CENSUS II: Archives Administrators Survey launched this week! In 2004, the original A*CENSUS broke ground by surveying archivists from across the country. It had a tremendous impact on the archives profession. The findings empowered archival institutions to advocate for resources and benchmark against peers, allowed researchers to study trends in the workforce, and informed curricula and educational offerings by academic institutions and professional organizations. A*CENSUS II builds upon the foundation of the original…
Blog Post
March 1, 2022
How to Navigate Remote Learning when Teaching with Cultural Heritage Materials
When the COVID-19 pandemic reached the United States, instructors had to adapt quickly to new teaching and learning environments. For those instructors who teach with cultural heritage materials, the shift to remote learning was even more complex. They had to discover new ways to incorporate archives, museum collections, special collections and place based learning within restricted learning environments, and often they had to contend with uneven levels of access to adequate technology while doing so. Through these challenges,…
Research Report
March 1, 2022
Teaching with Cultural Heritage Materials During the Pandemic
Cultural heritage materials can offer rewarding learning opportunities and impactful experiences for students across a variety of disciplines, especially in the humanities and social sciences. These learning opportunities create important historical and/or cultural context within a discipline, allowing students to deepen their engagement with a discipline, or see themselves, perhaps for the first time, as a scholar. However, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the attendant move to online instruction at many colleges and universities, disrupted pedagogical practices and the ways that…
Blog Post
February 11, 2022
Announcing the Next Cycle of the Art Museum Staff Demographic Survey
The Mellon Foundation and Ithaka S+R opened the third cycle of the survey on February 7
In 2014 and 2018, Ithaka S+R partnered with the Mellon Foundation, the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD), and the American Alliance of Museums (AAM), to conduct a quantitative study on diversity within art museums who are part of these associations. We are excited to announce the continued collaboration through a third cycle of the demographic survey examining diversity amongst art museum employees. Previous Cycles The idea…
Blog Post
January 18, 2022
Ithaka S+R is Growing: Join Us!
Over the past few years, the scope and breadth of Ithaka S+R’s work has grown substantially. The Libraries, Scholarly Communication, and Museums program has seen increases in cohort projects that explore critical issues facing libraries; grant funded initiatives focused on digital preservation, higher education in prison, student success, and museum leadership; national surveys of faculty, community college administrators, and archivists; and sponsored work on topics including the health of the research enterprise and diversifying collections. To…
Blog Post
November 12, 2021
Announcing a New Research Collaboration
Black Trustee Alliance for Art Museums and Ithaka S+R Are Fielding the First Art Museum Trustee Survey this Fall
We are excited to announce the launch of Ithaka S+R’s collaboration with the Black Trustee Alliance for Art Museums (BTA). BTA, a sponsored project of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, is a membership organization working to increase the inclusion of Black perspectives and narratives in North American art museums to make these institutions more equitable and excellent spaces of cultural engagement. Using programming, research, and strategic communications, BTA is helping its members–Black trustees…
Blog Post
November 12, 2021
Three Questions for Deirdre Harkins
On November 1, Deirdre Harkins joined Ithaka S+R’s Libraries, Scholarly Communication, and Museums team through a collaboration with the Black Trustees Alliance for Art Museums (BTA). In this interview, she reflects on what brought her to BTA and what she hopes to accomplish during her fellowship. What attracted you to the BTA fellowship? I found BTA’s mission statement of increasing the inclusion of Black perspectives in museums especially compelling. It directly coincides with the research approach…