This series contains the Digest of Museum Statistics, a database launched by the Museums and Galleries Commission (MGC) in 1994.
This series contains three datasets which were extracted at various times from the DOMUS database. The content of each dataset varies owing to changes in the DOMUS system and the survey itself. Each dataset represent only a partial snapshot in the sense that the following was omitted:
- Data gathered in the most recent DOMUS survey relating to questions where museums were asked to supply information on their last full financial year.
- Data relating to the most recent supplementary questionnaire.
Unsuccessful attempts were made by Resource to transfer another DOMUS dataset to the National Digital Archive of Datasets (NDAD) in 2000. In the event, no usable or complete dataset was transferred until September 2002, when NDAD received a copy of the merged DOMUS and Registration Scheme database from the Library and Information Statistics Unit (LISU) of Loughborough University. The dataset also reflects the substantial changes to the DOMUS database which occurred in 1998-1999 as a result of the Core Database project. Several tables relating to the Registration Scheme have no equivalents in the first two datasets.
The following sections summarise the information contained in the datasets. Although there are significant differences in the structure of the final dataset and the two earlier datasets, much of the content is broadly the same.
1) Core museum information:
- Official name, address and other contact details of the museum; any alternative name; administrative district; registered charity number, registered company number and VAT number; Area Museum Council (AMC); whether the museum was an AMC member; year of most recent visit by the MGC's security adviser; status under the MGC's Registration Scheme; registration number; year of foundation; type of museum – contained in ADDRESS in 1998, 1999 datasets. Contained in tables INST and T_INST_FROM_DOMUS_AND_BRANCHES in final dataset.
- Types of collections held by the museum - DOMUS in 1998, 1999. DOMUS_DETAIL table in final dataset.
- Facilities and services offered by the museum - FEATURES in 1998, 1999. DOMUS_FACILITY table in final dataset.
- Names and contact details of individuals associated with a museum. PERSON, ROLE, and ADDRESS in 1998, 1999. PERSON, POSITION, PERSON_COMMS tables in final dataset.
- Names and contact details of institutions associated with a museum - INST, INSTROLE in 1998, 1999. INST table (while INST_INST records links between institutions) in the final dataset.
2) Annual museum information, All three datasets include 'annual' data covering the following areas:
- The year the questionnaire was sent out (field QYEAR) and the year to which the data relates (field DOMYEAR).
- The start date and end date of the financial year to which the data relates.
- The museum's opening hours.
- Whether the museum charged for admission to its core collections.
- Data on staffing levels.
- The types of policies, plans and programmes in place during the most recent financial year.
- Whether the museum had a friends organisation.
- The types of bodies managing the museum and owning the museum.
- The status of the museum in the Registration Scheme.
3) Supplementary questionnaires:
- Care of collections (1996): Museum buildings and utilities; environmental controls and monitoring; storage space; whether the condition of collections had been assessed; conservation training of staff and volunteers; who undertook conservation work; museums' conservation budgets; energy expenditure in the previous financial year.
- Public services (1997): Existence of written policies and action plans on visitor care, disabled access and education; training for staff and volunteers in these areas; measures taken to improve the accessibility of the museum and its collections; opening hours; research into users and non-users; disabled facilities and disabled staff; educational and outreach facilities.
- Collections (1998): Types of collections held by the museum as a percentage of the museum's total number of collections; proportions of displayed collections corresponding to each collection type; strengths of collections by collection type; employment of specialist curatorial staff; accessibility of collections not on display; museum stores; the three 'most famous' objects in the museum; and how respondents would describe their museum.
- Information technology (1999): Numbers of computers used by the museum, by type of hardware and operating system, and whether computers belonged to the museum or to staff/volunteers; use of computers for cataloguing, environmental monitoring and other activities/services; access to computerised catalogues; digitisation activities; whether the museum had internet access, and type of connection; use of email, newsgroups and the World Wide Web; the museum's web presence; URL of the museum's website; what the museum was doing or intended to do in the area of IT; respondent's understanding of IT and attitude towards IT developments.
4) Registration Scheme: All three datasets provide this basic level of Registration data. However, the final dataset contains significantly more data on the Scheme, as a result of the merger of the DOMUS and Registration Scheme databases in the Core Database project. In particular, three tables (MEETING, OUTCOME and POINTS) contain the following information:
- The dates of Registration Scheme meetings.
- The outcome of Registration Scheme meetings for individual museums.
- 'Points' relating to individual museums at Registration meetings. 'Points' are categorised by 'type' (e.g. 'Documentation: Backlogs', 'Care of Collections: Plan') and by whether the point was 'Action' or 'Monitoring'.
5) Designation Scheme: The Designation Scheme was introduced by the MGC in 1997 in order to identify collections of national and international importance in England's non-national museums. The final dataset contains a single table (DESIGNATED_COLNS) which records details of museums' designated collections.
The datasets in this series are available to download. Links to individual datasets can be found at piece level.
The National Archives
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