Leading the Historical Enterprise

Bruce W. Dearstyne

doi:10.5771/9780759124004

Summary

Leading the Historical Enterprise: Strategic Creativity, Planning, and Advocacy for the Digital Age presents new ideas and strategies for leading and innovating in museums, historical societies, historic sites, and other state and local history programs. The book blends insights from the best practices of model historical programs and museums with themes from the best recent studies of leadership.

This is a practical book with concrete suggestions that can be applied in just about any program setting. It covers:

Demographics, technology, resource constraints, and other forces that are affecting the work of historical programs and museums
Developing mission and goals to keep programs responsive to changing needs, challenges, and opportunities
Effective strategies for leading and innovating to keep programs vibrant
Engaging users and audiences for our programs in new ways
Putting information technology to work and engaging users in new ways
Day-to-day leadership of historical programs and museums

The book will be of interest to trustees, directors and staff of museums, historic sites, historical societies, and other state and local history programs; policy makers, e.g, legislative staff with responsibility for policy or budgets of cultural programs; professors and students of public history; libraries; and other people interested in state and local history and in innovation in cultural programs.