The Care and Keeping of Cultural Facilities: A Best Practice Guidebook for Museum Facility Management - Softcover

Person-Harm, Angela; Cooper, Judie

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0759123608 ISBN 13: 9780759123601

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2014

Synopsis

Museum facility management is a vital part of running a museum, but can involve special challenges that even knowledgeable facility managers have not encountered before. The target audience for this book is both museum administrators who need to learn more about facility management and facility managers who are stepping into the museum environment for the first time. This book fills a gap in museum administration literature by providing best practices guidance that can be used to increase efficiency, save money, and improve the guest experience.

Special attention is paid to:
-Strategic planning for cultural facilities,
-Special event preparations,
-Implementing sustainability initiatives,
-Predictive and reliability centered maintenance (RCM),
-Environmental controls for collections conservation, and
-Training for maintenance and operations personnel.

About this title

About the Author:

Angela Person-Harm holds a bachelor of science in environmental design and master of science in museum studies, both from the University of Oklahoma. She works with the Office of Facilities Management and Reliability of the Smithsonian Institution to document and describe best practices in museum and cultural facility management. She has given presentations on facility management at the American Alliance of Museums and International Facility Management Association (IFMA) conferences, and has been awarded an “Editor’s Pick” award for her work published in the Facility Management Journal. She is currently writing her dissertation about the architecture of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C.

Judie Cooper is a facility management analyst in the Office of Facilities Management and Reliability of the Smithsonian Institution and is responsible for strategic initiatives, organizational development, benchmarking, research, staff professional development and implementation of best practices. She is a Certified Facility Manager and past chairperson of the IFMA Capital Chapter Education Team and the current president of the Museums/Cultural Institutional Council of IFMA. She is active in the International Association of Museum Facility Administrators, the American Society for Training and Development, and the Society for Human Resources Management.

Review:

From the foreword:

From benchmarking to best practices, energy efficiency to artifact preservation, The Care and Keeping of Cultural Facilities shows the way. Judie Cooper and Angela Person-Harm have crafted a book that is both a guide for those new to the field, as well as a reference for experienced professionals. (G. Wayne Clough, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution)

I have been in museum facilities for 26 years and I learned a lot from this book. I will use this as a reference tool for all new employees as well as use portions to retrain existing staff. It is a great resource for any staff member of the museum, whether facility member, curator, collection manager, etc. The Care and Keeping of Cultural Facilities gives a very well-rounded look into the world of cultural facility management.
(Oren Gray, Head of Facilities Services, J. Paul Getty Trust)

Review by Deborah Rose Van Horn, registrar, Kentucky Historical Society: The Care and Keeping of Cultural Facilities is an in-depth look at facilities management in several different types of cultural facilities. This book takes the reader through an overview of facilities management and the ways in which these tasks impact the daily workings of a cultural institution. The book offers compelling examples throughout the text from institutions ranging from museums and libraries to botanical gardens and zoos. It is a great resource for professionals that are new to facilities management, are new to cultural facilities, or have to work with the facilities management staff in a cultural institution. . . . I would recommend that anyone that works in facilities management, institutional leadership, or collections at a cultural institution read this book. (Collections: A Journal for Museum and Archive Professionals)

About this edition

• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0759123608
• ISBN 13: 9780759123601
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 328