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1. Concept of Networking Cultural Heritage How familiar is your organization and its constituents with the terms of this vision and with the current issues that have to be grappled with to make this vision a reality?
As with most organizations, the AAM staff has varying degrees of expertise with these terms and issues. AAMís Policy and Programs Division and AAM's Office of Government and Public Affairs are deeply involved with these issues, while recognizing an ongoing need to immerse and educate ourselves, especially in the area of standards and technological developments. Overall, the AAM reflects its constituents which, taken as a whole, are somewhat familiar with these terms and issues. The AAM represents a broad and diverse museum field both with regard to type and size. Our membership includes art museums, natural history museums, historical sites, science and technology centers, arboretums, planetariums, childrenís museums, zoos, and botanical gardens. While more than half of American museums have annual incomes of less than $100,000, about 8% have budgets of more than $1 million with some as large as $300 million. Of Americaís roughly 8,000 museums, some have been at the cutting edge in the development of networked cultural heritage while others are not at all familiar with its terms and issues. Understanding that in the context of the information age, two years ago may as well be ten years ago, from a 1995 Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) survey on U.S. museums on the Internet, 77% stated that they either have or would have access to the Internet by the fall of 1996. 47% of respondents currently had access, and 69% of those planned an upgrade. 31% had no access but planned to have access with most of those planning to have access within a year. However, 23% had no access and no plans to have access. Museums most frequently indicated between 2-5 computers in the museum with Internet access and between 2-5 staff using the Internet connections regularly. In short, both the AAM and its constituents, as a whole, are somewhat familiar with the terms of NINCH's vision and with the current issues that have to be grappled with to make this vision a reality. |
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2a Given this definition of advocacy, how does your organization advocate for networking cultural heritage? Both the AAM's Policy and Programs and Government and Public Affairs work to keep the field informed of developments at the national level and of the AAM's position with regard to these issues. |
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2b Do you have a different working definition of advocacy than the one we offer here? Yes. We do not think nor does our constituency thinks of advocacy in the same way. What NINCH defines as advocacy, we would define as field education. We think of advocacy as consonant with lobbying. The AAM, through its Office of Government and Public Affairs lobbies for the museum community as a whole. We monitor federal legislation and regulatory policy issues of importance to museums and educate legislators and policy makers about the needs and concerns of the museum community. With the help of AAM Government and Public Affairs staff, the Museum Advocacy Team (MAT), a dedicated group of museum activists located in communities nationwide, advances the museum communityís interests through targeted grassroots calls and letters to Congress. In addition, we keep the field informed through articles in Aviso, our monthly newsletter, and through mailings to the field when developments warrant. We also handle calls from the press and answer numerous inquiries from the field and the general public on a host of government affairs-related issues. We offer a reminder that "lobbying" is a legal term which must be determined within the context of the laws and regulations governing nonprofit organizations and NINCH will have to consider its "advocacy" activites within this context. For example, if NINCH ìargues and gives voice to a cause and a point-of-viewî and proposed legislation exists on point, the coalition may be making a "call to action" which could implicate the laws and regulations governing lobbying activities and nonprofits. We also would ask why NINCH would foreclose the option of campaigning for specific legislative change?
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2c Projects? Of the projects that your organization participates in, which are related to digital networking? The AAM is active in NINCH as a member of the Management Committee and is on both the Advocacy Committee and the Fair Use Education Committee. AAM is co-chair of the Conference on Fair Use (CONFU) subgroup on Educational Fair Use Guidelines for Digital Images. AAM participates in Telecommunications Policy Roundtable meetings, a loose coalition of nonprofit and public interest groups who meet monthly to share information on federal legislative and regulatory developments on the telecommunications front. In addition to working on a museum image licensing project, the AAM is in touch with the Consortium for the Computer Interchange of Museum Information (CIMI) which is working on standards. AAM has a number of publications, with others in the works, available for the fieldís ongoing education in networking cultural heritage.
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2d Partners? If you collaborate with partners in any networking advocacy activity, who are they? American Zoo and Aquarium Association Association of Art Museum Directors Association of Systematics Collections The Getty Information Institute The Museum Computer Network See response to 2(c).
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2e Measure Success? How do you measure the success of your networking advocacy projects? The AAM measures the success of its networking advocacy projects by its inclusion in policy deliberations and formulation and by securing opportunities for the museum field at the federal level. |
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2f Target? Besides NINCH members, what groups should NINCH target for advocacy? Higher education organizations, K-12 organizations, other service organizations, such as the American Symphony Orchestra League, the Association of Performing Arts Presenters, OPERA America, and Dance/USA. Other holders of major cultural heritage databases, e.g. National Register of Historic Places. |
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The AAM could use further education with regard to the technical issues involved in networking, such as standards development. We also would appreciate NINCHís help in keeping abreast of intellectual property developments, such as reporting on Digital Future Coalition meetings. In addition, we would value reports on the status and activities of NINCH members with regard to networking cultural heritage. |
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1.--economics 1a.--intellectual property (copyright law, fair use, licensing) 1b.--standards (vocabulary/description/data; cataloging; technical, etc.) 1c.--access 2.--internationalism 3.--preservation |
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