The museum dataset is an evolving list of museums and related organizations in the United States. The data file includes basic information about each organization (name, address, phone, website, and revenue) plus the museum type or discipline. The discipline type is based on the National Taxonomy of Exempt Entities, which the National Center for Charitable Statistics and IRS use to classify nonprofit organizations.

Non-museum organizations may be included. For example, a non-museum organization may be included in the data file because it has a museum-like name on its IRS record for tax-exempt organizations. Museum foundations may also be included.

Museums may be missing. For example, local municipal museums may be undercounted because original data sources used to create the compilation did not include them.

Museums may be listed multiple times. For example, one museum may be listed as both itself and its parent organization because it was listed differently in each original data sources. Duplicate records are especially common for museums located within universities.

Information about museums may be outdated.  The original scan and compilation of data sources occurred in 2014.  Scans are no longer being done to update the data sources or add new data sources to the compilation.  Information about museums may have changed since it was originally included in the file.