4147.4.55.001 - Culture and Recreation News, 2009  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 18/03/2009   
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New Publication - Key Measures for Archives, Galleries, Libraries And Museums


The National Centre for Cultural and Recreational Statistics (NCCRS) has just completed a partnership project between the Cultural Ministers Council Statistics Working Group and the Australian Bureau of Statistics which aims to improve the quality and comparability of key data collected by Australia’s cultural heritage sector including archives, galleries, libraries and museums.

The publication
Information Paper: Towards Comparable Statistics for Cultural Heritage Organisations, 2008 (cat. no. 4916.0) was released on the ABS website on 17 November 2008. This paper provides detailed guidelines for cultural heritage organisations on how to collect and report on 18 key industry measures. It also provides users of the data with detailed information such as definitions and collection guidelines to consider when analysing the data. The aim of the paper is to encourage more consistent and comparable reporting between cultural heritage organisations.

The 18 key measures are:

  • Number of on-site visits to the organisation
  • Number of on-site visits by students as part of an organised educational group
  • Number of visits to the organisation's website
  • Age group distribution of on-site visitors to the organisation
  • Sex distribution of on-site visitors to the organisation
  • Highest level of educational attainment distribution of on-site visitors to the organisation
  • Labour force status distribution of on-site visitors to the organisation
  • Visitor satisfaction with overall on-site visit
  • Total income
  • Total expenses
  • Number of employees
  • Number of full-time equivalent employees
  • Number of volunteers
  • Number of full-time equivalent volunteers
  • Size of the organisation’s collection
  • Purchased additions to the organisation’s collection
  • Donated/bequeathed additions to the organisation’s collection
  • Field collected/transferred additions to the organisation’s collection.