Book Review by Jennifer Ortiz, Museum Specialist

Published in 2016 by Rowman and Littlefield, Recruiting and Managing Volunteers in Museums: a Handbook for Volunteer Management was produced by the American Association for State and Local History on managing museum volunteers.

As the preface indicates, volunteers are integral to all museums' operations. From behind the scenes work to front desk management, volunteers provide the manpower that runs our museums. According to the 2015 Utah Museum Survey, museum respondents reported 4,139 unpaid staff or volunteers utilized in their respective museums; our states museums are dependent on our respective volunteers.

Recruiting and Managing Volunteers in Museums is a practical book. From the preface, the book is broken out into chapters that cover everything from identifying potential volunteers to recruitment to managing volunteers gone rogue. The book focuses not only on how to recruit qualified volunteers but to also find viable projects that may be of interest to your non-traditional volunteer. Chapters 1 and 2 discuss who potential volunteers may be and the demographics that make up our current pool of volunteers. Chapter 3 covers analyzing your institutional need and special considerations to think of when recruiting. The latter half of the book, chapters 4-7 present volunteer policy and procedures, developing your volunteer program, and dealing with difficult situations with your volunteers. It is the last half of the book that is the most practical and immediately helpful should you already have volunteers or a volunteer program in place.

Several questions and considerations bubbled to the top for me as I read through this reference, questions I would ask myself if I ran a volunteer program. Questions such as:

1.  Have I considered my local demographics when recruiting volunteers? Special interest groups may prove to be extremely helpful in targeted projects such as a local quilt guild assisting with cataloging and mounting an upcoming textile exhibition. Not only would my museum receive assistance gathering data and putting up the exhibition, I would also have a built in audience for the show.

2.  What are my museum's special needs? Do I have a living collection? If so, are volunteers allowed to handle them? What sort of training is involved? Do I have any special considerations that I need to be aware of before recruiting volunteers?

And finally, some interesting food for thought from the authors:

Volunteers tend to donate, not only their time and expertise, but also money to the organization in which they volunteer. The book cites that volunteers donate approximately $2,500 a year to non-profits or charities with 67% responding that they donated this money to the organizations they volunteered with (p.7). Volunteers not only generate good will for your museum but they may also generate potential profits to get started on your next project.

Recruiting and Managing Volunteers is an excellent guide to get you started on meaningful opportunities for both your volunteers and your museum. Better volunteer management will lead to overall success of your museum’s programmatic offerings.

Interested in purchasing? Find the book on AASLH’s website or on Amazon.com.

http://resource.aaslh.org/view/recruiting-and-managing-volunteers-in-museums-a-handbook-for-volunteer-management/

Fundraising the Dead (A Museum Mystery) by Sheila Connolly
I’m not going to lie: this short, entertaining novel kind of gave me nightmares. That may be because I tend to read before bed, or it may be because this former museum professional knows (and writes about) the crazy stuff that happens in museums. Hopefully our real-life problems fall short of murders during the annual gala. . .

The Art Forger: A Novel, by B.A. Shapiro
This fictional novel explores what could have happened to the art stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in the 90’s. While the Degas painting at the center of the story never existed, the book does present an interesting view of the work of forgeries while telling a good story.

From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg
If you never read this one as a kid, I feel sorry for you, and I highly recommend rectifying that now. This is the children’s story of a girl who runs away and hides out at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. (I will admit to having similar dreams. This may, in fact, have influenced my career choice.)

The New Yorker Book of Art Cartoons by Robert Mankoff
Before there were social media memes, there was the New Yorker.

The Modern Art Cookbook by Mary Ann Caws
Picasso’s Spanish Omelette, Roy Lichtenstein’s Roast Fillet of Beef, Marinetti’s Green Rice, and Georgia O’Keeffe’s Wild Aspargus are all included in this cookbook. Recipes by great artists, inspired by great artists, and yes, even one by Emily Dickinson (I know she’s not an artist, but there is both an artistic and literary bent here).

Modern Art Desserts by Caitlin Freeman
The Mondrian-inspired cake on the cover has had me salivating since this came out in 2013. I’m not sure my baking skills are up to it, but it would be fun to try. This cookbook has desserts inspired by works of (modern) art.

Membership in UMA
Give the gift of professional development! I may be biased, but a membership in the Utah Museums Association (or a renewal) could be a great, simple gift.

Socks with art on them
Who wouldn’t want a pair of socks with Vermeer’s Girl With A Pearl Earring on them? Here are two different box sets of socks with great works of art on them. There are also individual pairs with other works of art on them – stocking stuffers?

I Love Working in a Museum shirt
I’m not much of one for printed t-shirts, but something about this retro cartoon appeals to me.

Kaia Landon is the director of the Brigham City Museum of Art and History and the Box Elder Museum of Natural History. She also serves as the Secretary for the Utah Museum Association, and as the AASLH state team leader for Utah.

The book is composed of four parts: the definition/history/role of museums in the United States, museum careers (interviews), getting a job, and resources from the author.

For those who do not already know the history of museums or where they started, museums are basically the beginning of hoarding, but not to the degree seen on modern television shows that we’re familiar with. Burdick takes us from the Museum of Alexandria, to the Silk Road, to Europe, and in 1773, finally takes us home to the Charleston Library of South Carolina. I appreciated this historical overview. It seemed our country began with a love of history and culture, while at the same time, making history.

The second section is comprised entirely of interviews of museum professionals. Burdick asked professionals from all over the U.S. to write a short article about themselves, what they do, how they got there, and what their favorite part(s) of their job is. From the beginning most of those who were interviewed didn’t get their degree with the intention of working in a museum. Such as a man who built rockets for NASA, or a woman with a degree in environmental science and biology! It was reassuring to discover that museum pathways are not set in stone, meaning… you can have a degree that you wouldn’t think in a million years would help you in a museum, but it actually could! Find your niche!

On the other hand, I discovered that a lot of the museums these folks worked for were medium to large museums, and as a disclaimer, Burdick DOES say that these positions that the interviewees have differ in EVERY institution. Not every job is created equal, even if they’re called the same thing. Every museum is comprised of different pieces. For example, the museum I work for has one fulltime person (our fearless director), two part time folks, and me, a part-time grant funded person. On the other hand, 50 miles down the road are multiple museums with many full time people with more funding! Positions may require you to wear one or many different hats.

The interview section is divided into six segments in which Burdick has put the positions of a museum: collections/research, conservation/documentation, exhibiting/interpreting, education/outreach/visitors’ services, administration/support, and long range planning. This is a great breakdown of the different areas of a museum. Not only that, she gives a glossary of terms, breaking down each position of a museum and what that job generally entails.

The book ends with helpful tips and explanations on different parts of the hiring process, what should be on your resume, the cover letter, how to search for jobs, and where to search for jobs. This last part is very helpful, especially those who don’t know where to begin. I found some websites that Burdick listed very helpful.

I would definitely recommend this book to those with an interest in working in the museum community. It’s a great introduction to museums. The book explains the basics and mechanics of museums and you’re able to hear directly from those who work for and work with museums. This book instills in you an appreciation of what the museum community does and what these people take responsibility and care for.

Don’t forget to check out the Utah Emerging Museum Professionals group on Facebook here!

Katie Conrad is the Curatorial and Development Assistant at the Box Elder Museum of Art, History, and Nature.

I think it’s fair to say that most of us could improve how we store our collections. This set will help you do it – in ways that are both right and smart. While some chapters will be irrelevant to those of you in art or history museums (such as Storage in Fluid Preservatives) most of the chapters will be useful to all. The two volume set was first published in 1992 and 1995 with a grant from the Institute of Museum Services. Each volume has a glossary and an index.

A Preventative Conservation Approach

The first of the two volumes covers the big picture types of issues that are often identified in a Conservation Assessment Program (CAP) report. What sort of fire detection and suppression systems do you (or ought you to) have? Do you have a way to measure and record temperature and relative humidity? Are you storing objects in a way that is lkely to lead to damage (perhaps on the floor or without adequate supports)?

Filled with case studies, checklists, citations, and recommended reading, this volume will walk you through the processes needed to analyze your current protections for your collections, and will give you the literature-backed information to improve those protections. While it will not hand you the money necessary for such improvements, there is a section on finding funds for collections care, and it provides a healthy dose of evidence for what improvements will do (or prevent) with regard to your collections. I love facts to help in making my case, and so do funders. I can also personally attest that this book has helped me sound smarter than I am in grant applications.

Section IV addresses the storage of archival collections, including photographs. There are figures to help you select appropriate housings for different types and sizes of items as well as explanations of what improper storage conditions of varying types will do to your archival collections. (I don’t know about you, but I always like to know why we do things the way we do, or rather what could happen if we did not.) The appendices cover deterioration problems in collections and offer phased solutions to those problems (with some needing the skill of a conservator, and others more readily accomplishable), appropriate housing options, and document handling guidelines.

Ideas and Practical Solutions

The second of the two volumes covers in great detail how to improve storage of collections at the object level. 113 short articles walk you through creating supports, trays drawers, padded hangers, covers, folders, microenvironments, and more for different sorts of objects. It shows how to create your own custom-sized boxes from museum board (I once had a bright volunteer figure this out on her own, but my spatial reasoning skills aren’t that great). It suggests ways to house objects of abnormal shape, size, fragility, or materials.

I think we all know that the broken glass plate negatives should not still be in the (not archival) envelopes they came to us in. But how should they be stored? A chapter written by the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts provides a list of needed materials, illustrations, and step-by-step construction instructions for making the proper housing. Some of the materials may be unfamiliar, but the volume also includes an extensive appendix which gives other names for materials, as well as recommendations on where to acquire them.

While there are sections not immediately applicable to museums without natural history collections, those sections of this volume are rare and can generally serve as a basis for other types of storage. For instance, the “Support for Fin Whale Skulls” section may not seem relevant for most of us, but the concepts in the chapter may help guide your thinking on how to safely and securely store large artifacts (how many of you have plows or other large heavy farm machinery?).

Final Thoughts

I know many of us have concerns about the cost of improving our collections care. Completely rehousing a collection can be an expensive and time-consuming endeavor. But these two volumes provide detailed steps to make rehousing collections easy for any museum professional – paid or volunteer – to accomplish.

For most of us, the most reasonable way to go about this is in small sections. Pick a particular collection – maybe by donor or by type of object or by severity of problem (there’s nothing wrong with picking low-hanging fruit) -- and make a plan to improve how it’s stored. There are a variety of project-based grants that can help you with discrete projects of this type. While it may take many years, eventually you will have made substantial progress.

After Museum Registration Methods, this set should be a top pick for any museum’s collections-related library.

Storage of Natural History Collections: A Preventative Conservation Approach
Carolyn L. Rose, Catherine A. Hawks, Hugh H. Genoways, editors.
1995, Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections
446 pages, $45 from University Products

Storage of Natural History Collections: Ideas and Practical Solutions
Carlyn L. Rose, Amparo R. de Torres, editors.
1992, Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections (most recent printing in 2009)
346 pages, $45 from University Products

Reviewed by Kaia Landon

Kaia Landon is the director of the Brigham City Museum of Art and History and the Box Elder Museum of Natural History.  She also serves as the Secretary for the Utah Museum Association, and as the AASLH state team leader for Utah.

There seem to be a lot of common misperceptions about the legality of lobbying and advocacy efforts by museums and their staff. I think we’ve all heard some variation of “But you’re not allowed to lobby!” in the course of our work. One of the best features of this small book is a chart of things a nonprofit museum employee can and cannot legally do on the job.

The book is specifically written with those who work for 501(c)(3) organizations in mind, although much is applicable to those of us who work in museums with other legal structures. A section covering what sorts of advocacy are minimally allowed in general would be a useful addition.

AAM also provides http://speakupformuseums.org/, a website that disseminates timely information on issues of interest within the museum field, as well as a number of advocacy resources. The first 41 pages of the book are essentially expanded versions of content available there. Chapter 9 also deals largely with information easily available elsewhere (general information about the political process, for instance) or applicable strictly to those attending Museums Advocacy Day.

Chapter 6 “Start Advocating Today! A Week-by-Week Plan” includes 57 ideas for advocacy. For those who are generally familiar with governmental processes, this is the most useful part of the book. Most institutions will find they are already doing at least a few things on the list, and all will find some easily doable options (although I know my small staff couldn’t work through all 57 in the course of a year).  Some include items not often thought of as advocacy, but the author makes a convincing case that most positive sorts of attention are components of a good advocacy plan.

In all, this book offers a good, thorough coverage of advocacy for museums. I feel $32.95 for a 127 page book to be a tad bit outrageous, however. I was pleased when AAM decided to make the pdf a free download for museum members. This move is very much in keeping with AAM President Ford Bell’s hope “that everyone in the museum profession will read this book, absorb its lessons, follow its advice and work at becoming good advocates.” My entire board, small staff, and committed volunteers will all benefit from reading this small book.

Kaia Landon is the director of the Brigham City Museum of Art and History and the Box Elder Museum of Natural History.  She also serves as the Secretary for the Utah Museum Association, and as the AASLH state team leader for Utah.