New Zealand Museums Standards Scheme 

Latest Standards Scheme news

Congratulations!

$250 worth of Conservation Supplies vouchers are going to Otautau Museum, Waiuku Museum and Taranaki Aviation, Transport and Technology Museum for completing the Standards Scheme. The three museums were the first to finish the scheme as part of our promotion to recieve free conservation supplies.

Free Conservation Supplies

Here’s a good New Year resolution for your museum − commit to formally complete the Standards Scheme. What’s more, we have $2000 worth of Conservation Supplies vouchers as an incentive. 

Contact us to find out more

What is the Standards Scheme

The New Zealand Museums Standards Scheme Ngā Kaupapa Whaimana a Ngā Whare Taonga o Aotearoa supports museums to reach new levels of professionalism. It’s a tool for continuous improvement, for any museum - large or small.

The Standards Scheme is a free, practical, and user-friendly tool for museums to see where they are doing well, and to identify areas needing improvement. Museums can participate in the Standards Scheme in two ways: through a formal review process, or by using the manual as a resource guide for operating and governing your museum.

The Standards Scheme is made up of five modules, they are:

  • Governance, management and planning
  • Care of collections and taonga
  • Public programmes (including exhibitions)
  • Customer service
  • Relationships with communities

Participating in the Standards Scheme sends a signal to current or potential funders that a museum is committed to best practice and continuous improvement.

Each organisation is entitled to one free copy of the Standards Scheme manual.

Using the manual

You use the manual in the way that suits you best:

  • In a formal review process. You review your own practices against the standards in the manual, then a bicultural pair of peer reviewers visit you and do a review.
  • Informally, as a resource guide for operating and governing your museum.

Contact us to recieve your museum's free copy

Download the manual in PDF or Microsoft Word format

Participate in the Standards Scheme

Participating in the Standards Scheme is the formal review process. Below are the steps of the process:

  1. Contact us and recieve your free folder.
  2. Complete the registration and self declaration forms and send them to us.
  3. We will send you the five Standards Scheme modules on a USB stick, or you can complete the modules on the hardcopy modules in the folder.
  4. Once completed you send the modules back to us.
  5. We will them set you up with two peer reviewers who will visit the museum and meet with you and other museum staff, trustees etc.
  6. Once the peer review is complete a follow up process will be put in place.

We are here to help. So if you have any concerns while undertaking the Standards Scheme, please contact us.

New Zealand Museums Standards Scheme
Here’s a good New Year resolution for your museum − commit to formally complete the Standards Scheme!

Register for the Standards Scheme

Download the following two forms in Word or PDF format.

 

Self Review Declaration Form

Word 106 KB | pdf 68 KB


Self and Peer Review Registration Form

Word 106 KB | pdf 54 KB

 

Once you have completed them, send them to us:

National Services Te Paerangi
       Te Papa
       Cable Street
       PO Box 467
       Wellington

or email natserv@tepapa.govt.nz