Technical Leaflet Sale from AASLH

FLASH SALE: $10 AASLH Technical Leaflet Bundles

One Week Only! Sale ends Friday, May 10 at Midnight

AASLH’s Most Popular Technical Leaflets
are available to download for $10

  --- Regular Price: $22.50 ---

Enter the Promotion Code "BUNDLE"
During Check Out to Receive the Sale Price

Archive Basics – BNDL001

Need help for your archival collection or trying to establish good archival practices?

Titles include:

• Conserving Local Archival Materials on a Limited Budget
• Local Historical Records: Programs for Historical Agencies
• Manuscript Collections: Initial Procedures & Policies
• Archival Materials in the History Museum
• Storage Solutions for Oversized Paper Artifacts

Exhibit Planning – BNDL006

Putting together a quality exhibition can be an intimidating task.

These leaflets provide a valuable overview of exhibit planning and contain bibliographies for further guidance. Titles include:

• Exhibit Planning: Ordering Your Artifacts Interpretively
• Planning Exhibits: From Concept to Opening
• A Systemized Approach to Exhibit Production Management
• Charting the Impact of Museum Exhibitions and Programs: Understanding the Public's Perspective
• Exhibit Conservation: Strategies for Producing A Preservation-Responsible Exhibition

Collections Management – BNDL010

Often there is a gap between the reality and the ideal of collections management.

The leaflets in this bundle are a combination of examining the reality and striving

for the ideal. This information can help you anticipate and resolve some common

issues and explain to others why these issues are significant. Titles include:

• Converting Loans to Gifts: One Solution to "Permanent" Loans
• Documentation Practices in Historical Collections: A Report from the Common Agenda
• Buried in Storage: The Alexandria Archaeology Collections Management Project
• Digitizing Your Collection
• Ethics Position Paper: The Capitalization of Collections

Using Oral History – BNDL012

The voices in your community can provide valuable insights into the past.

This bundle will help you capture those voices and use them effectively

to help tell the stories that will enlighten and engage your audience.

Titles include:

• Tape-Recording Local History
• Using Oral History for a Family History Project
• Using Memoirs to Write Local History
• Using Oral History in Museums
• A Guide to Oral History Interviews

Special Help for Small Museums – BNDL026

As a small museum staff person, you are responsible for a lot, including

areas outside of your expertise or training. This group of technical leaflets

is designed to give practical solutions to everyday challenges unique to small museums.

Titles include:

• Maximizing the Benefits of a Conservation Assessment: Some Tips for the Small Museum
• DIY Strategic Planning for Small Museums
• How Sustainable is Your Historic House Museum?
• The Gift of History
• Is Your Site Grant-Ready? How to Prepare to Attract Grants

Checklist of Small Museum Friendly Sessions at AASLH

We all eagerly await next year’s Small Museum Association Conference scheduled for February 17 – 19 in Ocean City. The SMA conference committee is hard at work planning sessions for the upcoming event titled, Superheroes: The Extraordinary Power of Small Museums. We are eager to hear your “Super” strategies for board development, fundraising, community engagement, or collections care. If you have an idea for a conference session, please submit a proposal by visiting http://www.smallmuseum.org/conference.html

While we wait for the SMA conference, I wanted to let you all know about some of the exciting sessions for small museums at the AASLH Annual Meeting in Salt Lake City (October 3-6). 

One session, Small Museums, Big Impact!, will feature representatives from three small museums who will share their successful experiences in developing exhibitions focused on members of their local community. These exhibits serve as role models of how a small museum can play a significant role in recognizing the achievement of local residents in, or their connections to, the wider world.

The AASLH Small Museum Committee has created a checklist (attached) including this and other small museum friendly sessions. Please pass it along to your co-workers and colleagues. 

For more information on this conference you can download the preliminary program at http://www.aaslh.org/documents/PrelimProgramforWebsite.pdf

Thanks to AASLH and to the conference committee, board members, and members of SMA for their continued commitment to excellence in small museums.

John Pentangelo

Small Museum Association

AASLH Small Museums Committee

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.

Small Museums Online Community from AASLH

AASLH's Small Museums Online Community (SMOC) has officially launched and is now open to the public. Break out the streamers & confetti! You can use SMOC to connect with museum professionals from around North America, find helpful resources, and discuss topics of importance to the museum community. (Trivial topics are also welcome. The seemingly trivial is often the most profound.)

Maggie Marconi, one of the members of AASLH's Small Museums Committee, has written a welcome blog post for SMOC that provides information on how to navigate the site. Check it out here: http://www.smallmuseumcommunity.org/blog/2012/03/welcome-to-the-small-museums-online-community/

Come on over to SMOC to lurk, to learn, and to comment. (Lurking and learning don't require registration, but commenting does. Don't worry, it's easy!) Please join us.

Mary Warner
AASLH Small Museums Committee

Small Museum Scholarships for AASLH

Small Museum Scholarship Application

2012 AASLH Annual Meeting

Salt Lake City, Utah, October 3-6

DEADLINE: June 30

The American Association for State and Local History will hold its 2012 Annual Meeting in Salt Lake City, Utah. This year, participants will explore the empowering, challenging and special connections between people and place. This year’s Annual Meeting, Crossroads: Exploring the Vibrant Connections Between People and Place, will examine the personal, communal, and organizational journeys that lead to vibrancy and authenticity. Learn how these journeys allow us to achieve meaningful social change and sustainability. Join us as we welcome speakers Pat Croce, Laura Thatch Ulrich, and Will Bagley and explore the theme together.

Unfortunately, many working in our nation’s small museums feel as if we can only dream of attending this meeting. In a perfect world, boards would grant every request to fund our professional development. Institutions of modest means, however, may not have the resources to help us become effective stewards of our community’s memory.

Websites, listservs, and social media constantly offer new sources of technical and psychological support, but nothing is better than the face-to-face fellowship of sharing survival strategies. Every year, increasing numbers of Annual Meeting sessions address issues specifically affecting small museums. These sessions can be as practical and wide-ranging as training, marketing, and strategic planning. Other sessions focus on creative ways to forge and re-energize relationships with the surrounding community.

Now in its seventh year, AASLH’s Small Museums Committee is offering scholarships to any AASLH members who are full-time, part-time, paid, or volunteer employees of small museums. The $500 scholarship will cover the cost of the conference registration and the Small Museums luncheon. Any remaining funds may be used to offset travel and/or lodging expenses.

To qualify, the applicant must work for a museum with a budget of $250,000 or less. They also must either be an individual AASLH member or work for an institutional member. Application forms are available at www.aaslh.org/SmallMuseums.

The deadline for applications is June 30. The committee will email award winners by July 15. For questions, please contact Bruce Teeple, Small Museum Scholarship Subcommittee Chair, at mongopawn44@hotmail.com

                                

Nominations for 2012 Leadership in History Awards Program

Contact:          Bethany Hawkins

                        AASLH

                        (615) 320-3203

                        hawkins@aaslh.org

American Association for State and Local History Invites Nominations for 2012 Leadership in History Awards Program

NASHVILLE, TN—October 2011—The American Association for State and Local History (AASLH) invites nominations for the 2012 Leadership in History Awards.  Now in its 67th year, the Awards Program is the most prestigious national recognition for achievement in the preservation and interpretation of local, state, and regional history.  AASLH initiated the Awards Program in 1945 to establish and encourage standards of excellence in the collection, preservation, and interpretation of state and local history throughout America.

      The AASLH  Leadership in History Awards Program recognizes exemplary work completed by state or federal historical societies, institutions, or agencies; regional, county, or local historical societies, institutions, or agencies; specialized subject societies in related fields such as oral history, genealogy, folklore, archaeology, business history, railroad history, etc.; junior historical societies; privately owned museums or foundations; individuals; and organizations outside the field of traditional historical agencies.  Awards are given for general excellence, exhibits, public and educational programming, special projects, publications, multimedia, individual achievement, and preservation or restoration projects. Nominees need not be members of AASLH to qualify.

      Nomination forms may be obtained by visiting www.aaslh.org/aaslh_awards.htm, or by contacting the AASLH office by phone: 615-320-3203 or email: hawkins@aaslh.org.

      Nominations are due to state award representatives on March 1, 2012.  A list of state award representatives can be found at the AASLH website.  Nominations are then reviewed by a national committee in the summer of 2012 with formal presentation of the awards made during the AASLH Annual Meeting, October 3-6, in Salt Lake City, Utah. 

      The American Association for State and Local History is a not-for-profit professional organization of individuals and institutions working to preserve and promote history.  From its headquarters in Nashville, Tennessee, 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 publishes books, technical publications, a quarterly magazine, and monthly newsletter. The association also sponsors regional and national training workshops and an annual meeting. For more information about the Leadership in History Awards Program, contact Bethany Hawkins in the AASLH office at 615-320-3203.

###

AASLH: Small Museum Toolkit Available for Pre-Order

The Small Museum Toolkit is Now Available to Pre-Order

Order Your Copy Now and Save 30%!

As a small museum staff person, you are responsible for a lot, including areas outside of your expertise or training. You need a quick reference that makes the process of becoming a sustainable, valued institution less overwhelming. The Small Museum Toolkit is a collection of six books that serve as a launching point for small museum staff to pursue best practices and meet museum standards. Each brief volume, written in a friendly tone by experienced museum professionals, helps you define the questions you should be asking, gives you tools to achieve your goals, and guides you where to go for help.  

About the Editors
Cinnamon Catlin-Legutko is chief executive officer at the Abbe Museum in Bar Harbor, Maine. She was the founding chair of the AASLH Small Museums Committee and serves as a peer reviewer for the American Association of Museums.  

Stacy Klingler is assistant director of Local History Services at the Indiana Historical Society. She serves as chair of the AASLH Small Museums Committee and is a member of the Field Services Alliance. 

Use promo code BESLH11

Pre-order through AltaMira Press
CALL 1-800-462-6420
OR ORDER ONLINE
www.altamirapress.com

Paper Retail Price: $150.00
DISCOUNT PRICE: $105.00

Cloth Retail Price: $300.00
DISCOUNT PRICE: $210.00 

Toolkit Ships: December 2011 

Pre-Order Promo Ends October 20, 2011