I would like to hear from other small museum administrators who have
either participated in the Museum Assessment Program (MAP) or
accreditation.  We are considering submitting an application for a MAP
grant, but my college president has some concerns.  He is concerned that
if participate in MAP or later on in accreditation, someone from outside
the museum will come in, "tear us apart," and "label us as
substandard."  He's also concerned that the evaluators will demand
changes in staffing that he cannot fund right now.  (We have a paid
staff of 1 1/2 FTE and 60 active volunteers.)  I've explained to him
that the purpose of MAP is to help us identify strengths and weaknesses
and plan for our future.  It would strengthen my argument substantially
if I could back that up with some anecdotal evidence from other museums,
especially small museums who have participated in MAP or accreditation.
What were your experiences with MAP?  With accreditation?

Thanks much.
Julie

--
Julie Holcomb, MLIS, CA
Director of the Pearce Collections Museum/Navarro College Archivist
Pearce Collections at Navarro College
Navarro College Archives
3100 W. Collin St.
Corsicana, Texas 75110

Phone: 903-875-7438 ~ Fax: 903-875-7593
E-mail: [log in to unmask]

Internet: http://www.pearcecollections.us/ or http://www.navarrocollege.edu/library/archives/

"Men make their own history, but they do not make it just as they please; they do not make it under
circumstances chosen by themselves, but under circumstances directly found, given, and transmitted
from the past.  The tradition of all the dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brain of
the living." Karl Marx, The Eighteenth Brumaire

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