1. Measuring Museums Finding the Right Yardstick: Standards in Museums

2. What are Standards? To you? To your stakeholders? Why are they important?

3. Why? Successful institution (how do you measure success?) Internally satisfactory level of performance (what is that level?) Progress, growth

4. Why? Define desired results Benefit of others' experience, best practises Ease of knowledge transfer between institutions (including people)

5. De jure and De facto De jure standards are approved by an authoritative body (e.g., IEEE 802.3ae Ethernet) De facto standards are what everybody uses (e.g., Microsoft Windows ® )

6. Standards are Individual A unique Standards Portfolio can allow you to select what is important Pick standards that will provide the most direct benefit Museum standards are not De Jure, but adopting standards helps the whole community grow

7. Other ways of measuring Norms Value added, or growth Hybrid

8. Standards-Based Accountability Align your standards with others Create a rating system Report on performance Get/provide assistance Create consequences

9. Some Standards there is no single set of standards--such as a fixed, concrete checklist of specific criteria-- against which museums are measured Basic museum requirements Also covers: mission, governance, collections stewardship, interpretation and presentation, administration and finance AAMs Accreditation Criteria and Characteristics

10. Some Standards International Standards Organization (ISO) 9000:2000 A family of three standards that form a basis for continual improvement and business excellence by establishing quality management systems Use to assess your ability to meet customer and applicable regulatory requirements and thereby address customer satisfaction

11. Summary: What to do? Create an individual standards portfolio Cover: human, business, technology, collections, ethical Create a staged implementation Review your progress regularly