How Are Libraries, Archives, Museums and Cultural Activities Classified?

Libraries, archives, museums and other cultural activities in ISIC Rev. 5, UN Statistics Division, cover operating libraries, archives, museums, historic sites, botanical and zoological gardens, and nature reserves for public access, education and preservation. The core work is collecting, preserving, cataloguing and exhibiting material, whether books, documents, objects, plants or animals, and making it available to visitors, readers and researchers.

Preservation first, access second, and both at once

Libraries, archives, museums and cultural activities are often pictured as quiet buildings with collections inside, but the statistical work in this scope is active in two directions at once. One direction is preservation: collecting, cataloguing and conserving material so that it survives, whether that material is books, documents, objects, plants or animals. The other direction is access: lending, exhibiting, opening reading rooms, welcoming visitors, and helping readers and researchers find what they need. A library that only stored books and never lent them, or a museum that only conserved objects and never exhibited them, would be doing half the work described here. Rev. 5, UN Statistics Division, covers operating libraries, archives, museums, historic sites, botanical and zoological gardens, and nature reserves for public access, education and preservation, and it is the combination of keeping and sharing that defines the scope. Much of the value is in work the public never sees, such as cataloguing and conservation, and much of the public value is in access that is free or low cost.

Inside the scope: four kinds of institution, one shared task

• Library work, including lending books and other material, running reading rooms, and reference services that help readers find information
• Archive work, including preserving records and providing access to researchers, whether the records are governmental, organisational or personal in origin
• Museum work, including conserving objects, curating exhibitions and welcoming visitors to see collections
• Operation of historic sites, botanical and zoological gardens, and nature reserves for public access, education and preservation

A public library that lends books, runs reading rooms and helps readers find information shows the first strand in its everyday form. A national archive that preserves government records and provides access to researchers shows the second: the records matter precisely because they are originals that cannot be replaced, and access must be managed so that preservation is not destroyed by use. A museum that conserves objects, curates exhibitions and welcomes visitors shows the third, where selection and interpretation are part of the service. A historic site, garden, zoo or nature reserve shows the fourth, where the collection is a place, a landscape, living plants or living animals, and public access must be balanced against care for what is being kept.

Where a museum shop, a museum classroom and a museum film belong

The edges of this scope are a good test of how Rev. 5 thinks, because a single museum building can host several activities that belong elsewhere. Publishing books held by a library is publishing work, in Section J, even if the library publishes a catalogue of its own collection. Education courses run in a museum building are education, in Section Q, when the service is teaching with a programme, rather than exhibition. Retailing souvenirs in a museum shop is trade, because the shop sells objects to take home. Broadcasting a documentary about a museum collection is Section J work, because the broadcaster transmits to viewers elsewhere. None of that diminishes the museum. It simply means the museum as a legal unit may be doing museum work plus publishing, education, retail or broadcasting work, and each strand should be read in its own entry rather than absorbed into the most visible one.

Why visits, collections and preservation need their own totals

Libraries, archives and museums preserve collective memory and provide free or low cost access to knowledge and culture. Their statistics help funders compare visits, collections and preservation work across countries, and they show the public value of institutions that do not sell their main service in a market. Without a separate scope, a library’s lending would disappear into general services, a museum’s conservation would disappear into property or education totals, and a funder would have no way to compare one country’s preservation effort with another’s. Rev. 5, UN Statistics Division, contains 22 sections from A to V, with 87 divisions, 258 groups and 463 classes in total, so placing a cultural institution in the wrong group or class would distort exactly the comparison funders rely on. Start from the UNSD detail page, work through the section and its finer levels for this topic, and keep a note of the wording relied on, so a later reviewer can retrace the same path, including any exclusions noted in the entry.

This guide is a statistical description of cultural institutions, not a ruling on any one library, archive, museum, garden, zoo or reserve. Its placement, principal activity and registration, where those are in question, should be confirmed with the national statistical institute or business register that holds the record for that institution.