The MAP assessment can be viewed as part of your institution's
preliminary preparation for the accreditation process.   This
institution (the New Jersey State Museum) decided to apply for a MAP
assessment because of the same fears I hear coming from your president.
  The MAP assessors were gentle but truthful....there were no
demands....just honest assessments of strengths and weaknessess. Each
institution, then, can address the weaknesses in whatever ways - and
there are literally hundreds of potential solutions - are realistic for
them.

We found the MAP narrative a very persuasive part of our arguments as we
approached our funding sources for money to solve various problems.   No
one, it seems, wants to hear from a squeaky staff but the voices of
outside consultants seem to ring true - even it they do no more than
echo what staff have been saying for years.   The other thing a MAP
assessment will do for you is identify what you're doing right....it
cuts down then on all the sectors that may require a bit more
introspection and work on your part.    And that's OK.   In my opinion,
I wouldn't even go for accreditation without a MAP assessment first.

When your institution is ready to tackle reaccreditation, you'll be
wiser and stronger.   And a good thing, too, because the work that goes
into accreditation is not for the faint of heart.   The self-study
questionnaires that you will need to complete aren't there just to
intimidate (although they DO that!), but to guide you through a true and
thorough inspection of every facet of your museum.    What you do NOT
have answers to will be as instructive as the questions you can easily
complete.   Even for venerable institutions who are going through
re-accreditation, there is something to be learned and improved upon.

I've found these assessment teams extremely knowledgeable about the
varieties of pressures that university museums and museum of every ilk
face today....many of which we have little control over.   We can all
aspire to an ideal, even if we fall short time and time again.    Good
luck as you prepare your arguments.

Shirley Albright
Assistant Curator of Natural History
New Jersey State Museum

Julie Holcomb wrote:

> 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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