Some time ago Steve Lubar sent a question to the MUSUEM-L if anyone knows something about the application of ISO 9000 standards in museums. There was only one answer on the list, from Gary Acord.

In my museum, the National Museum of Fine Arts in Stockholm, Sweden, we are now doing a restructuring of a more than 100 year old organization. In the new organization the quality questions will be important. For the moment I am studying the ISO 9000 manual and I think that Gary Acord is right when he says that he is not sure whether ISO 9000 actually applies to museums since it is intended to be used as a measure of quality control in various industries. But I do think that it is necessary to work on internal quality standards. Probably you have to start with more limited processes such as registration, loans, documentation of the collection management.

Jan af Burén
Nationalmuseum, Stockholm
[log in to unmask]