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Musarians: The bastard children of museums and libraries.
In today’s guest post, AAM staffer Lauren Silberman, continues her exploration of the entwined futures of libraries and museums. Her first, massively popular post, speculated on what museums can learn from librarians of the future. What … -
More Crowdsourced Scholarship: Citizen History
Today’s guest post is by Elissa Frankle, an education consultant at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. When not coordinating and raving about the Children of the Lodz Ghetto Citizen History project, she trains law enforcement … -
Can Museums Help Make Cities More Intelligent?
“Smart cities” is a big topic now. How big? Smart Planet recently reported that investment in smart city infrastructure will hit $108 billion by 2020. Yah, that’s big. What makes a city “smart?” Smart Planet defines it as “the … -
Campaign for the Abolition of Nouns
“I seem to be a verb”—Buckminster FullerMy beef with nouns:a) they are, at best, approximations—attempts to create clear boundaries for identities that are inherently fuzzy b) As they mutate over time, they accumulate archaic baggage, … -
What’s the Point of a Museum Website?
Ignite Smithsonian. Many of you have probably already heard that on April 11 the auditorium of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian was packed from 10 a.m.– 12:30 p.m. with people talking about museums, technology … -
An Idea for New Income and New Engagement: give your collections to as many people as possible
Got your attention with that headline, didn’t I? Calm down, I’m not talking about deaccessioning. I’m talking replication and teleportation of collections objects. Everyone has their own fav future tech. Phil’s is jetpacks: Mine is … -
Foreseeing the Future through Fiction
Good fiction tells the truth about something that never happened. Good futurist fiction tells the truth about something that may yet happen. That being so, reading (or watching) futurist fiction is a valuable part of scanning and … -
Advice on the Strategic use of Twitter from a Master Tweeter—Neil Tyson
Neil deGrasse Tyson, director of AMNH’s Rose Center for Air and Space, is an astrophysics rock star. How many museumers get interviewed four times by Jon Stewart? In the first interview, Jon reveals he is a “big fan” of AMNH and the Hayden … -
The Future of Reality
I highly recommend this talk, When Games Invade Real Life, by Jesse Schell . It’s worth taking half an hour to plonk yourself down with a soda and let him blow your mind. Museum-ers will find this lecture particularly heartening because, … -
The Whole World a Museum?
Take a look at “Tales of Things,” an interesting website that launched this month. It’s part of the TOTeM project—“exploring social memory in the emerging Internet of Things.” This UK-based project …
Tag: Technology Trends
Latest Stories from AAM
How to respond to new threats to nonprofits
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Center for the Future of Museums Blog
Last week, I learned that the IRS is planning to propose regulations that would give it …
Take Action to Protect the Independence of the Smithsonian Institution and America’s Museums
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Advocacy Alert
Advocacy Alert – July 20, 2026 AAM statement on the independence of the Smithsonian …
AAM Statement on the Independence of the Smithsonian and America’s Museums
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Press Release
The American Alliance of Museums condemns the Administration’s continued attacks on the …