Museum Studies Internet Resources

The purpose of this guide is to list relevant sites relating to Museum Studies on the Internet. This is not a comprehensive guide or gateway but rather a starting point to information in the area.

Subject Directories and Search Engines

Heritage & Environment
University of Sydney ready reference guide to websites in the field.
* url: /subjects/readyref/heritage.html

Museums around the World
Produced by Jonathan Bowen of London South Bank University, this directory lists World Wide Web services connected with museums around the world as part of Virtual Library Museums Page.
* url: http://vlmp.museophile.org/world.html

Mouseia
Designed by the staff at the Museum Studies Program, University of Toronto to to provide a place for scholarly information on museum studies and museology.
* url: http://www.utoronto.ca/mouseia/index.html

Conferences and Listservs

JCMS
An email list for the Journal of Conservations & Museum Studies. As information is updated on the JCMS site, alerts are received by email.
* url: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology/conservation/jcms/registration.html

Museums and the Web
Held annually since 1997, this conference is designed to exchange information between museums that publish on the Web. Abstracts are available, but complete works must be purchased.
* url: http://www.archimuse.com/conferences/mw.html

Departments, Organisations and Associations

Museum Studies, University of Sydney
Course descriptions and staff contacts.
* url: http://www.arts.usyd.edu.au/Arts/departs/museum/

AAM: American Association of Museums
The Association provides advocacy, professional education, information exchange, accreditation, and guidance on current professional standards of performance for the US.
* url: http://www.aam-us.org/

CHIN: Canadian Heritage Information Network
Links to a wealth of information on museums of international interest as well as Canadian.
* url: http://www.chin.gc.ca/English/index.html

Council for Museums, Archives and Libraries
British organisation designed to promote change and provide strategic direction in the field. It replaces the Museums & Galleries Commission and the Library and Information Commission.
* url: http://www.mla.gov.uk/website/home

EMII: European Museums' Information Institute
The Institute aims to facilitate online access to the cultural heritage of Europe's museums and create partnerships between museums.
* url: http://www.emii.org/

ICOM: International Council of Museums
ICOM is dedicated to the development of museums and the museum profession, and operates globally for the preservation of cultural heritage. The site contains press releases, definitions, a code of ethics, activity reports and lists of publications.
* url: http://www.icom.org/

ICOMOS: International Council on Monuments and Sites
An organisation for the conservation of the world's historic monuments and sites. Australia has a national committee.
* url: http://www.icomos.org/

IMLS: Institute of Museum and Library Studies
This agency was formed in response to 1996 US legislation. Publications and reports produced by them are available on the Web.
* url: http://www.imls.gov/

mda: Museums Documentation Association
Based in Britain, the mda provides advice on how to document collections.
* url: http://www.mda.org.uk/

Museums and Galleries Foundation of NSW
The mgf works to improve standards, foster self-development and strengthen support for museums and galleries in NSW. It is an independent organisation, largely funded by the NSW Ministry for the Arts, with additional funding from the Australia Council, and project grants.
* url: http://www.mgfnsw.org.au/

Museums Australia
The national association representing the museum and gallery sector. Their quarterly publication "MuseumsAustralia Magazine" (formerly Museum National); is held at the State Library of NSW, NQ069.0994/4 Vol. 12, no. 2 (Nov. 2003)+
* url: http://www.museumsaustralia.org.au/

NAME
The National Association for Museum Exhibition (NAME)is the AAM's Standing Professional Committee on Exhibition. It aims "to foster excellence in museum exhibition and to aid in the professional enrichment and advancement of all those involved in the exhibition process.".
* url: http://www.n-a-m-e.org/

SCEMS: Smithsonian Center for Education and Museum Studies
This site serves as a gateway to the Institution's education resources and aims to promote the understanding and use of museums through research, publishing, and staff development programs.
* url: http://museumstudies.si.edu/

University of Leicester, Museum Studies
A major academic institution providing Museum Studies programmes. The site contains bibliographies, papers and links.
* url: http://www.leicester.ac.uk/museumstudies/

Museums, collections and libraries

AUMOL
Australian University Museums Online allows you to search across the collections of many universities, and view information and images. Includes the University of Sydney Macleay Museum.
* url: http://aumol.usyd.edu.au/

British Museum
An online display of part of the British Museum's collections. Images are organised by themes and accompanied by text and thematic essays.
* url: http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/introduction.aspx

CAN
Collections Australia Network is the gateway to more than 1,500 museums, galleries, archives and libraries throughout Australia. The CAN site allows you to search for news, events, exhibitions, collections...etc., from institutions around Australia.
* url: http://www.collectionsaustralia.net/

National Museum of Australia
The National Museum holds a number of significant collections relating to each of the three primary subject areas: Land, People and Nation. The Library collection includes works in various formats on museum studies, conservation, Australian Aboriginal people and Torres StraitIslanders, Australian history and environment.
* url: http://www.nma.gov.au/

RAAM
The Register of Australian Archives and Manuscripts is a guide to collections of personal papers and non-governmental organisational records held by Australian libraries and archives.
* url: http://www.nla.gov.au/raam/

National Virtual Museum
A gateway to over 2,500 museums, galleries and heritage attractions in Britain.
* url: http://www.24hourmuseum.org.uk/

UNESCO Archives Portal
Links to archives on the web as well as primary sources, education and training resources, preservation and conservation, organizations, conferences and meetings, standards, publications, job opportunities, etc.
* url: http://www.unesco.org/webworld/portal_archives/pages/index.shtml

Reference sources in full text

Conserv O Grams
Short fact sheets providing information on collection preservation; storage and artifacts. The PDF format requires Adobe Acrobat.
* url: http://www.cr.nps.gov/museum/publications/conserveogram/cons_toc.html

Getty Provenance Index
This Index accumulates and disseminates information related to the history of collecting and the provenance of individual works of art.
* url: http://piweb.getty.edu/starweb/pi/servlet.starweb?path=pi/pi.web

Grove Dictionary of Art
A comprehensive online reference resource for all aspects of the visual arts worldwide from prehistory to the present day.
*Availability: For current USYD staff and students, on campus and off-campus.
* url: http://www.groveart.com/index.html

International Guidelines for Museum Object Information: The CIDOC Information Categories
produced by the International Committee for Documentation (CIDOC) of the International Council of Museums (ICOM). This is a description of the Information Categories that can be used when developing records about the objects in museum collections.
* url: http://www.willpowerinfo.myby.co.uk/cidoc/guide/

mda fact sheets online
Advice from the Museums Documentation Association on such topics as: Developing a Documentation Procedural Manual, accession records, multimedia, cataloguing, and more.
* url: http://www.mda.org.uk/facts.htm

Museum Handbook
This is a reference guide on how to manage, preserve, document, access and use museum collections, produced by the US National Park Service Museum Management Program. A bibliography on museum management is also provided.
* url: http://www.cr.nps.gov/museum/publications/handbook.html

New South Wales Heritage Office
This office advises the government, the Heritage Council and the wider community about the management of heritage across NSW. It maintains a computerised database, the NSW State Heritage Inventory, designed, on completion, to list all recognised heritage. The Office also produces publications on heritage policy and guidelines and administers shipwrecks. The site also contains the NSW Heritage Manual.
* url: http://www.heritage.nsw.gov.au/

Vocabulary Program
The Getty Vocabulary Program builds, maintains, and disseminates vocabularies. Produced by the Getty are the AAT (Art and Architecture Thesaurus), the ULAN (Union List of Artist Names), and the TGN (Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names). These thesauri are particularly useful for finding variations of names, and contain references to sources where more information can be found.
* url: http://www.getty.edu/research/conducting_research/vocabularies/