West-countries museums, which had represented the traditional, historical and national values, have transformed since 1980 extending the range and character of their activities. Such transformations in Lithuania started in 1990, after regaining Lithuania independence. The museums, along with representation of „high level“ culture, started to take part in the processes of contemporary and popular culture, and the range of their activities started to vary a lot. The needs of museum visitors became one of the main issue. Anyway, the issues of interaction and relationship between museums and community, the analysis of museums sociocultural activities still remain very important problem requiring deeper studies. This study investigates municipality museums sociocultural activities. The study focuses on conceptualization of such activities, the interaction between museums and regional communities which is understood by meeting sociocultural needs of the visitors. This research project includes four pats. First three parts presents literature analysis: the theoretical basis of museums sociocultural activities, museums-community relationship peculiarities and general museums policy in Lithuania in 1990 – 2004. The fourth part includes the investigation of museums sociocultural activities in community from the visitor’s point of view. The following museums were included in the study: Panevėžys country, Biržai, Kupiškis, Pasvalys and Rokiškis municipality museums. 136 visitors... [to full text]