What types of organizations were selected to participate in the National Museum Survey pilot?

The Institute of Museum and Library Services is seeking input from many types of organizations. For the purposes of the National Museum Survey, "museums" include, but are not limited to:

• Botanical Gardens, Arboretums, and Nature Centers
• Zoos and Aquariums
• Science and Technology Centers/Museums and Planetariums
• History Museums and Historic Sites
• Art Museums
• Children's Museums
• Natural History and Anthropology Museums
• General and Specialized Museums

How was my organization selected for the National Museum Survey?

The team of statisticians working on the National Museum Survey (NMS) pilot randomly selected around 7,050 organizations from its list of institutions that could potentially meet the criteria that IMLS is using to determine institutions’ appropriateness for inclusion in the National Museum Survey pilot. Yours is one of the organizations that was invited to participate in the NMS pilot.

What kinds of questions does the National Museum Survey pilot ask?

The content of the National Museum Survey pilot was developed with the input of hundreds of organizations like yours. It is designed to provide data that will be useful to the field and relatively easy for most organizations that meet the project’s inclusion criteria to complete. The survey requests high-level information about institutional characteristics, facilities, finances, human resources, admissions and visitors, digital presence, and the presence of a written diversity, equity, and inclusion plan.

The pilot survey also includes questions about your experience taking the survey so that we can be sure the survey design is the best it can be! We do not intend to include these questions in future versions of the survey – which is why we need your input now.

What if I’m not the right person at my museum/institution to answer these questions?

Please forward the email to the right person in your organization and copy the researchers at the American Institutes for Research (who are conducting the survey on behalf of the Institute of Museum and Library Services) at nms@imls.gov. This will allow us to reroute future messages.

What is the National Museum Survey pilot’s purpose?

We are conducting this pilot as a step toward establishing an annual National Museum Survey (NMS). The NMS will aim to capture the scope and scale of museums’ presence and reach within the United States over time. The survey will collect data directly from institutions to inform policymakers, the museum field, and the public about the social, cultural, educational, and economic roles that the nation’s diverse museums play in American society.

Why should I participate in the National Museum Survey pilot?

Although the pilot survey is voluntary, your cooperation is essential to make sure that the future National Museum Survey (NMS) meets the needs of organizations like yours. The future “full” NMS will for the first time provide the museum field with vital baseline data against which you will be able to compare your organization. It will also inform policies relating to federal grant funding for organizations like yours and will allow policymakers, the media, and the public to better understand the vital importance of the museum field. Since the survey includes only a sample of all the nation’s museums, we need every response we can get to ensure that our findings are accurate!

Who is conducting the National Museum Survey pilot?

The American Institutes for Research is conducting the National Museum Survey pilot on behalf of the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

How will my information be reported?

The data from the National Museum Survey (NMS) pilot will be used internally by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) for designing the full NMS. Public reporting from the pilot will therefore focus on the pilot's data collection processes and the long-term feasibility of the National Museum Survey as an annual collection, and not on findings from the survey's questions. IMLS and the American Institutes for Research will announce publicly the agency’s potential next steps toward a full survey in early 2024. Only the project's researchers from IMLS’s Office of Research and Evaluation (ORE) and the American Institutes for Research (AIR) will have access to collected responses. No one outside the research team has, or will have, access to individual survey responses. All survey data will be safeguarded in password-protected files. The data you provide will only be reported in aggregate so that neither you nor your institution is individually identifiable. IMLS will not publicly release any individual data that contains your or your institution’s name or contact information. The data collected will not affect any past, current, or future relationship you might have with IMLS in any way.

How will my information be protected and maintained?

The survey’s data collection platform is password-protected and certified to meet the federal government's data security requirements. All collected data is maintained on servers that meet federal data security requirements. Only the project's researchers from IMLS’s Office of Research and Evaluation (ORE) and the American Institutes for Research (AIR) will have access to collected responses. No one outside the research team has, or will have, access to individual survey responses. The collected data will be disposed of in compliance with all relevant federal statutes. The data you provide will only be reported in aggregate so that neither you nor your institution are individually identifiable. Public reporting from the pilot will focus on the pilot's data collection processes and the long-term feasibility of the National Museum Survey as an annual collection, and not on findings from the survey's questions.

How long will it take me to complete the National Museum Survey pilot?

The National Museum Survey pilot’s design incorporated the input of hundreds of organizations like yours with the goal of being relatively easy to complete (although if it isn’t easy for you to complete, we hope you’ll share that information with us too!). The length of the survey will depend on the availability of the data requested at your specific organization, but in total our best guess is that it should take about 90 minutes to complete, including the time spent filling out the survey and the time spent referring to your records to find the answers.

Who authorized the National Museum Survey pilot?

The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) is administering this survey. IMLS has authority under 20 U.S.C. 9108 to conduct data collection, analysis, evaluation, and dissemination of information to extend and improve the Nation’s museum, library, and information services. You are not required to respond to a federal information collection unless it displays a currently valid U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) control number; the OMB control number is 3137-0125 and the control number’s expiration date is 4/30/2024.

Whom can I contact to answer additional questions we have regarding the National Museum Survey pilot?

Please contact us at nms@imls.gov. Someone should respond within one business day.

What is the deadline for completing the National Museum Survey pilot?

Please complete the survey as soon as possible. We intend to close the survey on September 15, 2023.

Does my organization get anything for participating in the National Museum Survey pilot?

By participating in the National Museum Survey (NMS) pilot, your organization will be able to ensure that the future full NMS meets your organization’s needs in terms of collecting the most valuable data possible while minimizing the burden required to collect it. The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) will use the data from the pilot internally to design the full NMS. IMLS and the American Institutes for Research will publicly announce the agency’s potential next steps toward the full survey in early 2024.

When can we expect to see the “full” National Museum Survey?

We will not know for sure until we have the results from the pilot survey, but the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) currently plans to run the full survey for the first time in January 2025. IMLS intends to publish the data from the full National Museum Survey in ways that will allow you to compare your organization with other similar organizations. IMLS also intends to produce a number of reports and publications that will be useful to you, the field, policymakers, the media, and the general public.

Can I decline to participate in the National Museum Survey pilot?

We hope that you will contribute to the pilot survey so we can create a data source that will be used to support organizations like yours across the United States. However, the survey is voluntary, so you may decline participation. Click here to request to be removed from further contacts about the pilot survey. Please note that you may be contacted again when the full survey is run in the future.