Strategic Action Plan, 2021-2025
The mission of The American Numismatic Society shall be to promote and advance the study, research, and appreciation of numismatics.
The American Numismatic Society, founded in 1858, has built an institution renowned as a center of scholarly excellence that has as its core endeavor to study and promote numismatics to a national and international audience. In order to continue this mission into the future, the following strategic action plan has been proposed for implementation between the years 2021 and 2025.
Overarching Objectives are to share awareness of the ANS collections and resources with the wider public; cultivate and expand the membership base; increase financial support through expanded membership, active development campaigns, and forward-thinking initiatives; support numismatic research, both by academic scholars and learned collectors; help educate future generations in numismatic, financial, monetary, and economic literacy in the fields of history, sociology, art, and culture.
Core Mission Activities include physical interaction with objects, including books, since the demand for authentic exposure to artifacts is even more crucial in a digital world; increasing digital access of the ANS’s physical holdings to the wider public; maintaining organizational oversight and setting strategic vision through governance structures; supporting curatorial staff in Greek, Roman, Medieval, and American collections, both as administrators and researchers; continued collection development through active curatorial acquisitions, in-kind donations, and strategic opportunities; diversifying further curatorial endeavors in non-Western numismatics to reflect the ANS’s holdings, membership, and user base – notably in Islamic, South and East Asian, African, and Latin American numismatics; supporting library staff and continuing acquisitions while making prudent choices about managing space limitations, as information resources globally move toward digital formats; maintaining an active publication department for serial and monographic production in print and digital formats; maintaining and expanding our digital-media presence in order to keep up with the changing landscape of information exchange and consumption; supporting staff and maximizing communication across all levels of management; securing digital platforms and portals, stabilizing data storage, and guaranteeing durability through robust duplication.
Strategic Goals consist of 1) a commitment to advance plans to secure a permanent headquarters, which are cost effective, suited to the ANS mission, membership, and staff, and satisfy the ANS’s operational, programmatic and collections needs; 2) expansion and diversification of financial resources to enable the ANS to accomplish its mission by increasing the donor base, broadening membership, and actively seeking funding through grants; 3) enhancing and increasing the ANS’s public presence and programs through online educational platforms, educational videos for a range of age groups, the Eric P. Newman Graduate Seminar, social media, blogs, podcasts, digital and print publications, significant in-person gatherings (when feasible), and an active outreach program; 4) prioritizing digital efforts by continuing to develop existing data archives and IT projects and while expanding the ANS’s internet and social-media presence; 5) exploration of potential partnerships with one or more organizations for programmatic activities and possible resource sharing.
