Museums and collections

Visits in the statistics for museums: Visits to museums is defined as a person going to a museum to look at and use the exhibitions and arrangement service of the museum. Visits to an open museum is a visit at the area of the museum during the opening hours for use of the arrangement at the museum area. Persons staying in the rooms and open area of the museum are not to counted as a visit. Participants in educational activity are also to be included in the total number of visits.

Type of company: The real owner, sometimes unlike (different from) the financing source.

Revenue, total: Including public contributions, box-office receipts, gifts, and other revenue.

Expenditure, total: Including wages, social expenditures, other operating expenditure and investments.

Subjects/objects: Historical fine arts, cultural history, natural history, archaeological and photographs.

As of 2016 basic exhibitions (regular exhibitions) and temporary exhibitions (exhibitions set up for a limit time, duration from a few days to a year) are clapped together to a new category; exhibitions.

Travelling exhibitions: Exhibitions transported from one place to another.

Cultural historical buildings: In this context is ment historical buildings with information by being a witness of local information, aesthetics, traditions, way of living, architecture and economic conditions.

Revenue, total: Including public contributions, box-office receipts, gifts, and other revenue.

Expenditure, total: Including wages, social expenditures, other operating expenditure and investments.

Subjects/objects: Historical fine arts, cultural history, natural history, archaeological and photographs.

As of 2011 the museums are no longer classified in type of museum.

In the period 2007 to 2010 the museums were classified in five types of museums:

Art museums -Museums that collect, maintain and secure and give information about arts/applied arts and design products.

Social history museums- Museums that collect, maintain and secure and give information about social history materials.

Natural history museums- Museums that collect, maintain and secure and give information about natural history materials.

Mixed social /natural history museums - Museums that collect, maintain and secure and give information about social as well as natural history materials.

Mixed art / social history museums - Museums that collect, maintain and secure and give information about arts/applied arts and design products as well as social history materials.

Name: Museums and collections
Topic: Culture and recreation

Division for Education and Culture Statistics

Data are published on national and county level.

Yearly.

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The purpose is to give an overview of the museum activities during the year. The statistics intend to give useful information to central and local authorities and others that in some way or other are involved in the running or financing of the museums. The museum statistics has been published once a year since 1983, with exception of 1984 and 1990. Earlier the statistics has been prepared in co-operation with Statens museumsråd and with Norwegian Archive, Library and Museum Authority. From 2011 the statistics has been prepared in co-operation with Arts Council Norway.

In addition to central and local authorities, the users of museum statistics are: Arts Council Norway, Museum Net, media and other interested people

No external users have access to the statistics and analyses before they are published and accessible simultaneously for all users on ssb.no at 8.00 AM. Prior to this, a minimum of three months' advance notice is given in the Statistics Release Calendar. This is one of Statistics Norway’s key principles for ensuring that all users are treated equally.

The museum statistics are used in connection with other statistics as well; such as Norwegian Culture Barometer, a survey on peoples culture habits.

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Previously the statistics included all museums. From 2002 the statistics are based on a sample population including the open museums only, with at least one remunerated man-years.

The museums report electronically to the Arts Council Norway, and Statistics Norway receives a file with this data.

A sample population includes the open museums with at least one remunerated man-years.

Arts Council Norway are responsible for receipt of the museum questionnaires. The museums fill in the questionnaires and return them within the 1st of March. Then Statistics Norway receives a file with this data.

Assuming that one respondent needs about 60 minutes, and there are nearly 500 museums participating yearly in the survey. That gives 500 hours or 65 man-years totally.

While registering the questionnaires, both manual and mechanical control programs are used.

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Because of an unstable population and changing in reply percentage, it has been difficult to compare museum activities from one year to another. After establishing a sample population in 2002, this problem was easier to deal with.

Errors may occur when the institutions fill in the questionnaires by giving uncorrected or wrong information, but also by Statistics Norway during the preparing process, such as coding, data editing, imputation etc. Mostly the errors will be discovered and revised by means of different manual and mechanical controls. However, when some museums refuse to answer single questions, it would give an affect on the results.

Electronic questionnaires are made to all museums registered by Arts Council Norway. The reply percentage has gone up and down. However, there have been the small museums, mainly, neglecting to reply. It has hardly given any influence to the museum statistics as a whole, but it was difficult to compare the figures from previous years. Because of this problem a sample population was established in order to make the statistics more stable. Museums not included in the sample population, were estimated to about 5 per cent. The increase of the population is estimated to 3 per cent. The last years a consolidation process has been ongoing in the museum sector. Thus the number of museums in the statistics is lower than some years ago. Although we reckon that the statistics cover the same museums as earlier.

Principles for revisions in Statistics Norway.