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Ben Fuller wrote:
 
>>On a related subject does anyone know of hard statistical research that has
>>been done on museum operations? I'm thinking about things like ratios:
>>dollars spent per visitor, volunteer hours vs. staff hours, inquiries vs.
>>reference service dollars spent, earned vs. contirbuted income in all its
>>various breakdowns etc. What we are talking about here is standards, ways
>>to measure your operation against others. Here you may also be able to
>>develop potentially useful goals. I remember setting up some spreadsheets
>>to analyse IMS GOS support requests to draw comparisons among a group of
>>museum of similar subjects but of widely differing sizes. It gave useful
>>benchmarks and comparisons. What has happened (happens to all of the
>>hugely useful data that the IMS collects?) I know it sounds like stuff a
>>B-School graduate would do which I'm not.
 
I am not aware of anything produced in Canada or the U.S., however there is a
1989 publication out of the United Kingdom.
 
"The Cost of Collecting" subtitled Collection Management in UK Museums and
published by Her Majesty's Stationary Office, London.
 
If memory serves it is a very complete look at the costs of collecting and
housing objects.  It has numerous appendices, figures, tables and case studies.
Although it is the result of a survey carried out in the U.K. it would have
application to anyone considering the problem on this side of the Atlantic. I
think many of us fail to realize the costs of our collections and the facilities
that hold them.  Certainly many of our public seem blissfully unaware.
 
Hope this helps.  If you wish a more specific citation, I can dig it out.
 
Richard Shockley
Director
Fort Whoop-Up Centre
Lethbridge Alberta Canada
 
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