Collections in the rain: Maintaining and protecting building collections at open air historic village museums.

摘要

Open air historic village museums are a unique type of museum. However, other than in the area of interpretation, there is very little general literature on this type of museum in the museum field. This leads one to question: are all open air historic village museums the same type of museum; can they be classified into different sub-categories; and what are the specific characteristics that could be used to classify these museums?;Furthermore, many open air historic village museums face a lack of information when it comes to developing and putting into practice comprehensive maintenance and disaster plans. While the general topic of maintenance and disaster planning are documented, information on how to adapt them to a museum setting as immense as a historic village is almost non-existent. Many open air historic village museums do not have a maintenance plan for their historic structures, nor do they have a disaster plan for their museum. It is easy to view the historic structures on the museum as just "buildings." However, these structures are collection pieces and need to be cared for with the same level of maintenance and protection that any object within a museum's collection would receive.;If these museums hope to continue as a viable type of museum in the future, research into the topic of what defines an open air historic village, as well as guidance on how to prepare a maintenance plan and a disaster plans for this type of museum is needed. This study serves as an initial dialogue that will hopefully open the door to further research into the field of open air historic village museums.