Project Summary – With Quality Management in the Focus

The priority project Museum and Library Development for Everyone, identification number EFOP-3.3.3-VEKOP-16-2016-00001, managed by the Museum Education and Methodology Centre, Hungarian Open Air Museum, in consortium partnership with the Metropolitan Szabó Ervin Library, is realized between 1 February 2017 and 31 January 2020.

The aim of the project is the methodological development of museum and library professionals regarding their work with younger generations and teachers at public education institutions, and also through sensitization of trainee teachers, so that they can contribute to dealing with new social and economic challenges.

The main museum elements of the project are:

  • Development of research and methodology

4 different niche museum research and 11 methodology development is carried out.

  • Realizing model projects

Linked to the methodology development 20 model projects are realized, which can be examples to be followed by museums.

  • Development and operation of nationwide coordinator network

Regarding the operation area, a coordinator network of 41 museum professionals is operated covering the whole country.

The coordinators work as links between their own museum, other museum institutions, public education institutions in their region and the Museum Education and Methodology Centre. Their primary task is to familiarize the development of the project with museums and public education institutions, as well as provide methodology advisory services.

  • Accredited training courses for museum professionals and teachers

10 different accredited training courses are being worked out and organised.

As professional dissemination, 30 publications are issued and promoted by a communication campaign.

One of the outstanding results of the project will be the development of a quality management system that takes the particularities of the Hungarian museum system into account, by which a new perspective will open up for rationalizing museum procedures, for boosting the efficiency of their operation and for increasing quality work, all of which may lead to the rise of the number of visitors in the long run.

The research conducted in the framework of the project and the related methodology development include realizing 4 niche museum research and 11 methodology development, then the new methodology worked out in the framework of the project will be implemented in 80 institutions.

One of the four planned research is focused on developing the framework of the quality management system, within which three strands are launched which will form one single system in the end, harmonizing with the methods of the culture field including the library quality management methods.

  1. Conducting a survey of the Hungarian museum system to find out how suitable the circumstances are for implementing a quality management system.
  2. Assessment of quality management systems used in higher education and in the non-profit sphere in Hungary.
  3. Surveying the quality management systems known and used in the international museum world and collecting the experience gained through practice.

As a result of the survey, a proposal and recommendation will be elaborated to develop and operate the museum quality management system. In order to familiarize museum managers with the aims and effects of implementing the quality management system, a quality management module is included in the training course organised in the framework of the project for museum managers.