New Online Community for Small Museums

Small Museum Online Community

Do you work at a small museum? Do you ever feel that you’re swimming against cultural tides all by yourself? Well, you’re not alone. There is help in the form of a recently launched social networking site: the Small Museums Online Community (www.smallmuseumcommunity.org). The American Association for State and Local History’s Small Museums Committee developed this extraordinary and ambitious project to address your needs. There’s something here for everyone. And it’s all free!

Forum exchanges and blog topics range from marketing and promotion, to changing perspectives of history, to conference reviews, to practical discussions on operating a small museum. You’ll also find networking opportunities, as well as an extensive resource library dealing with issues exclusively affecting small museums.

Please explore the SMOC at any time, and decide if you want to be one of the hundreds who have already joined. If you want to interact with other participants, you merely have to register to discover the benefits. That’s it. We know the financial realities many of you face. There are no strings attached. You don’t even need to be an AASLH member to join (though we hope you will join and help support AASLH's efforts in this area).

This is your online community. We welcome your experience and expertise. Whether you’re a volunteer, a director, or a board member, we’re here to help you in any way we can. As our numbers grow, we all become stronger and more effective advocates for small museums everywhere. Only you can breathe life into this community. Only you can help it thrive. We hope you’ll join us!

For more information, contact Terry Jackson or (615) 320-3203.

Background

About the Small Museum Committee

Most of the museums in the United States are considered small and include historic house museums, history museums, art museums, historic sites, general museums, and much more. The American Association for State and Local History Small Museums Committee is interested in assisting America’s small museums in their endeavors, helping to make them stronger and more responsive to their communities. The Committee encourages small museums to share their successful strategies in workshops and national meetings and demonstrate what the field can learn from small museums. Through its programming and initiatives, AASLH plans to strengthen the small museum, an important steward of local and national history.

About AASLH

AASLH provides leadership and support for its members who preserve and interpret state and local history in order to make the past more meaningful to all Americans. AASLH began in 1904, under the wing of the American Historical Association. Then called the Conference of State and Local Historical Societies, AASLH broke out on its own in December of 1940 to become the American Association for State and Local History.

Now, 100 years after the first organization was created in support of the burgeoning field of state and local history, AASLH is still the only comprehensive national organization dedicated to the field at large. From its headquarters in Nashville, Tennessee, AASLH is proud to provide a home for those who work and volunteer in the field of state and local history.