Reading List: Registration Methods for the Small Museum

Well... I just don't have much to say about this one. I usually have lots to say about nearly every book I read, but this just wasn't one of them. And I don't know why. 

It's a fine enough overview of registration needs, methods, policies, forms, etc. It's the kind of thing you could give to someone NEW to collections and registration (a new volunteer, or someone running a museum starting their Collections department, including procedures and policies, from scratch), and it would give them the very basic knowledge about why we do things and how to go about doing them. But it was dry at times (most of the time?), and just... so basic and factual that there was no pizzaz or pah! to the book. It was just "Here it is. Just the facts, ma'am." Even the author's first-hand anecdotes were just blah.

The upsides:

• It has the very basic info, including the What, Why, and How. 
• Sample forms and policies
• It has a good chapter on using computers for your collections - what to look for in software, security, hardware, and networking. Again, just basics, but enough ideas to get you started.

The downsides:

• It felt boring. I mean, okay, maybe some people wouldn't find this kind of thing interesting or exciting in the first place, but you and I do, right? That's why we're here, writing and reading this blog post. So for *me* to say "Eh, it's dry" says something.

Overall:

I feel like there are other books covering the same info, and more in-depth, but if you just want a Basic "How and why we do this," this would work. And that type of book absolutely has a place and an audience, but if you've been doing this for a while, or want something less snoozy, maybe look for another book. I'd still give it 2.5 or 3 stars out of 5, though: a nice middle-of-the-road, did-what-it-came-here-to-do rating.

Because I feel like I'm so down on the book and not doing a good job of explaining its value, here's the Table of Contents, so you can see that it *does* cover useful topics:

1. Why Have a Museum Registration System?
2. Acquisition
3. The Accession Number
4. Accessioning
5. Documentation
6. The Catalog
7. Loans
8. A World of Computers

and then sample forms and policies.

Registration Methods for the Small Museum, 2018

Daniel B. Reibel, updated by Deborah Rose Van Horn

105 big pages of text, 33 pages of samples, and a bibliography

Reading List: Recording Oral History: A Guide for the Humanities and Social Sciences, Third Edition

One of my favorite types of projects for museums is transcribing oral histories and interviewing people about their lives. Mostly I do transcription, but for a while I was also interviewing a certain group of people. Between hearing over and over one particular interviewer whose style I didn't particularly care for, and wanting to maybe do more interviews myself (while not wanting to sound like the interviewer whose style I didn't care for), I decided to expand my library to include books about oral histories. 

Valerie Raleigh Yow's book is a really great overview of oral histories, and possibly answers every question you might have about preparing for an interview, conducting the interview, what to do after the interview, and how to use the quotes and information you get. 

Yow starts at the very beginning of the history of oral interviews and passing down information orally, which made it seem like the book was going to be dry and boring. (A good portion of each chapter is bibliography/other reading and notes/citations, which also made it seem like the book was going to be super long. This is a good-sized book, but when you take into account how much of it is reference material, it's much less daunting.) But then she gets into what we really came here for. 

Yow starts at the beginning of the interviewing process: asking what the purpose of your project is, who you need to talk to, what you want to ask them about, and whether they can give you names of other people to talk about. (You thought the beginning of the interviewing process was when you showed up at the interviewee's house? Wrong!) She also discusses interviewing techniques and strategies, legal issues and ethics, fact-checking, and getting a range of voices for your project.

Other chapters include topics like how to choose a recorder, work-for-hire (ethics, warnings, scope of work), chapters for those specifically doing family histories or community (not necessarily geographic) histories, and where to store your final product (accessible archives!).

The upsides:

• Yow covers everything about an oral history project, from figuring out who to talk to, how to get additional people to talk to you, how to act around the interviewee, having an informal meeting with the interviewee to get to know each other before the real interview, cultural differences, ethics, having the interviewee read the transcript or your finished product, how to choose your audio recorder, transcribing, finding a repository, ... everything from your first "I have to do an interview" to your very final "It's done, has been used, and has been stored somewhere safe but accessible."
• The bibliography and suggested reading at the end of each chapter. Yow breaks them down by topic, and tells why each resource is a good resource. 
• Sample forms, questionnaires, and instructions.

The downsides:

• Since Yow is writing for different audiences (the family historian, the public historian, the work-for-hire for a company project, etc.), she sometimes repeats information from other chapters. If you're reading the book straight through, you'll start to feel the repetition. But if you're only reading chapters that are relevant to your type of project, this is actually an upside: no matter why you're reading the book, you're going to get all the information you need.

Overall:

This is a great one-stop reference for all aspects of an oral history project. If you're spearheading an oral history project or the only one involved in one -- for a museum, community, school, or company -- I'd recommend reading this whole book; if you have others helping you, such as students or volunteers who will be less involved in the whole process, I'd recommend giving them portions to read, but not necessarily the whole thing. There's definitely something for everyone involved in an oral history/interviewing project! 

Recording Oral History: A Guide for the Humanities and Social Sciences, Third Edition, 2015

Valerie Raleigh Yow

406 pages, including sample documents and recommended reading

Reading List: Museums 101 by Mark Walhimer

"101" usually implies a basic-level introduction to a subject: Sociology 101, Math 101, etc. Reviewers on Goodreads also refer to this as an introduction, either for themselves or for their students, and I came across it as a book being used in a Museums Studies class. As a very basic introduction to museums and museum management, this book is fine.

But, if you know nearly anything about museums, this book is not really for you, unless you just want it to skim, or maybe get a few ideas, or to have on hand to give to someone who is new to museums. If you've been around museums, you're not really going to get much out of this.*

And if you're new to museums, I don't think I'd recommend reading this unless you're reading it for a class and have a teacher to walk you through it. There are places where Walhimer doesn't really explain jargon he uses; there are places with mistakes (he refers to a 503(c)(3). I googled 503 instead of 501 in case a 503 is a less-common tax status that I have never heard of, and every result was for 501(c)(3)s. A museum newbie without a guide might be confused); and through the majority of the book, I felt like I was putting things together on my own, based on my experience, rather than him doing a good job of explaining them, their connections, or their relevance. 

* That said, there are some things I found interesting or things I didn't know or things to keep in mind for the future. But overall, eh. 

The upsides:

• This covers a little of everything involved in museums: where to put your museum, creating exhibits, collections access, building an integrated atmosphere, ... on and on. 
• Early chapters have "Next steps" at the end of the chapters (such as organizations to look up or a suggestion to visit a museum in your area). These are cool for those just getting into museums; I wish he'd continue them after those first few chapters, though. They can get your brain jogging on things to do or other institutions to visit for ideas. Granted, he includes a lot of examples of museums in most of his chapters, so you could figure out on your own what the "next steps" should be to research a topic further, but I wish he'd continued it for consistency and for that extra push of "No, really. I'm not just blowing smoke in the chapter when I name-checked that museum. Look them up!" (especially because a number of times it felt like it was name-checking of how great he is, or just how many different museums he could list).
• Short chapters - he gives you only the very basic information.
• He provides resources, sample documents, and additional reading. (The additional reading can come in handy for anyone who wishes that maybe this were Museums 102 or 103, and not 101.)
• There's a website associated with the book where you can download the above resources (rather than just looking at the not-so-great-quality scan that's in the book) as well as some not included in the book.

The downsides:

• Typos and mistakes! Some are little (quite a few times of missing words), some are ones that you can figure out but are still annoying (he refers to Telsa Motors and Telsa Museum in a paragraph; like the 503(c)(3), I googled these just in case there's something I'm unaware of, but no, every result was actually for Tesla), some are bigger but not relevant (Bill Gates wasn't the founder of Microsoft; he was the co-founder; but if I can't trust you to get that right, what else are you getting wrong? [see also Telsa and 503(c)(3)]), and some are more important, like claiming your organization can be a 503(c)(3). 
• There are times -- especially when talking about finances -- that I think he's trying to give the reader a realistic picture of what it takes to plan and run a museum, but it comes across more as "Do not do this! You can't do this!" 
• The index isn't very helpful. I found myself writing in a number of topics (like endowments), and although he mentions mission statements a few times, it's not listed in the index. He says in the introduction that you can either read the whole book, or just the chapter(s) related to your questions, but when topics like mission statement are scattered throughout, including in a chapter about a museum's physical building (!), but not in the index (!), you basically have to read the whole book to answer your question about mission statements. 
• Some of the organization felt odd. Not only does he talk about mission statements in the chapter about the museum's building, but he also talks about background checks for board members in the chapter about collections care. I do see how these can be linked (your building should represent the museum's mission and tone; you want to be able to trust your board members with your collections [and finances]), but why aren't these in their own chapters? Or with a better index so you know to read the chapter about buildings if you want stuff about mission statements and the chapter on collections so you know to give your board members a background check! 
• I didn't understand some of his charts and references.
• Short chapters - in most cases, he only gives you the very basic information.

Overall:

Eh. It can't hurt for seasoned professionals to read this. It does include topics like building a culture at your organization, both an internal culture and with your audience; museum feasibility studies; project management; and a questionnaire to give artifact donors. So yeah, there's probably a chance even people who work in museums will find something new or memorable in the book.

For people new to the museum field, there are other books you can read. This does have the benefit of being sort of a one-stop-shop for very basic information about running a museum, but I don't know how useful it would really be to anyone starting out in the industry, since you'll find most of this information elsewhere and the book's writing and organization seem scattered. 

The writing also felt outdated, even though it's from 2015 and does include current topics like sustainability. Other places felt like he was writing about the old way of thinking of museums, though, like pay, treatment of employees, things like that. 

If you know about museums already, don't waste your money buying this. If you really want to have it as a resource, look for it at a used bookstore or someone cleaning out their library. 

If you don't know about museums already... there are other places to find enough of this information that I would suggest you not waste your money, either. Check it out from a library, instead! 

Museums 101, 2015

Mark Walhimer

160 pages of text, 50 pages of sample documents (14 documents), approximately 5 pages of Bibliography

WWII Planes: Follow-Up and Thoughts

As I read Dave's comment on my "You Are My Sunshine" post about the California Sunshine possibly being too worn-out to take when its squadron moved, I started to have more thoughts about these planes. I've had this thought before, but had it again as I'm researching these individual planes: it's really a shame when these amazing aircraft are scrapped, re-used, or just abandoned.

For one, think of the history of these planes: How many people worked on assembly lines to make this specific plane? How many hours did it take to build it? How hot and sweaty were the factories? How many people had to learn new skills to build it? What did the people who built this specific plane talk about on their lunch breaks? What did they eat for lunch? Who packed their lunches for them -- wives for the men, themselves or roommates for the Rosies, themselves for single men? -- and what were they thinking about when they packed the lunch for that day? How proud were the workers when the plane was finished and rolled out the hangar doors? What were the life stories of the men who flew it? Whose head(s) would have been visible in the cockpit? (Look at the picture again -- Can you imagine them there?) What did the maintenance crew members think about while working on its day-to-day routine? "Tighten this screw"? "I miss my wife"? "I wonder how big my kids have gotten"? "What's for dinner tonight"? 

Then the plane itself: This huge, massive thing that worked on amazing rules of physics that most people don't understand; this loud plane that rumbled through the sky and could bring feelings of pride, fear, or hope; this metal tube that was the everyday work office for some people... 

And the art! What a shame to just leave our California gal to rot! And for the artists who did the art on planes, how did they feel about the fates of their work? Did they wish they could take it with them? Did they wish there was some way to transfer the art of the plane, either to another plane or to a canvas or a photograph? Or were they so talented that it meant nothing to them to leave something behind (which is something I often wonder about people who are artistically talented)? 

Looking back at my grandfather's picture (?) as I read Dave's comment, I felt immense sadness. That junky-looking plane once was majestic, mighty, shiny, and full of hope and potential... and now she's just broken down and left behind. 

*sniffle*

Reading Dave's comment also made me wonder more about where/when my grandfather was stationed, so I decided to Google his squadron.  (Note to self: try to Google his different units again. It's been a while since we've done this.) One of the results listed one of the airfields mentioned in my research of the American Beauty; I don't know what that means for me, but it was noteworthy in my head. If nothing else, it's "Hey! I know that name now!" and "Everything's related!"

And then I had another "Everything's related" moment: a site suggested that P-38s might have been one of the planes my grandfather was in contact with while he was in the South Pacific. I'm transcribing an oral history this week, and the interviewee (who is also someone I've worked with in the past) talks about his family living near Lockheed's P-38 factory in WWII and his father building P-38s... Wouldn't it be wild if my grandfather worked on or near a P-38 that the father of a man I know in-person helped build? I know that's a stretch, but wouldn't it be mind-boggling?!? 

So now I obviously have more research to do: researching each of my grandfather's units with the rough dates he was in them to see if there's new or additional information out there (using trusty Google, but also Library of Congress and the National Archives); going back through my mother's files to see if there's anything about what types of planes my grandfather worked on (I remember a transcript or something showing the different type of maintenance he was certified for, but was there anything that listed the types of planes he was certified for, or had worked on?); ... and I'm sure more stuff will come to mind as I get to work.

All of this research makes me wish again/more that my grandfather was still around. Looking at his photos and then doing the research has brought up so many questions for me! Formerly working at a museum of WWII planes always made me wish I could talk to him and ask him stuff; and the location of the museum (being on the same base he was once stationed at) brought up questions every day. I wish I could ask him all of these things, or just talk to him about his life and service.