a very generalized list

jtrant — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 15:28:00 +0000

Heidi,

thatks for your comment. you're right, there are lots of specializations that are not be represented individually on the list. as you know, many functions are not assigned consistently across museums; staffing and organizational structures depend a lot on size and budget.

this list aggregated all professions represented in three recognised sources describing museum work. yes, "Visual Resources professionals" would fit in the Collections / Collections Management cluster, as that is the information and records creation/management group here. not specifically naming Visual Resource professionals was no different than not specifically naming a Rights and Reproductions officer. the summary didn't go to that level of detail. it certainly wasn't intended as a slight.

the point of the survey was to identify broad areas of responsibility and the competencies required (at a very high level). it was shared to help a group that was not familiar with museum organizational structure at all.

here's an additional summary, further abstracted, interesting to me because of what it says about the role of Museum Studies as preparation for some kinds of museum work.

Number of Distinct Job Titles		Museum Studies Qualification		Professional		Professional + Museum Studies
Director's Office	4	1	25.0%	3	75.0%	1	25.0%
Administration	28	2	7.1%	9	32.1%	1	3.6%
Collections	19	9	47.4%	12	63.2%	4	21.1%
Public Programming	29	13	44.8%	14	48.3%	9	31.0%
Total	80	25	31.3%	38	47.5%	15	18.8%

Note: Totals are of jobs types, not number of staff people, e.g. Director =1, Museum Guard = 1 though many museums will have more than one guard.

* Sources [these may have been updated since 2006 when the summary was done]

Danilov, V. J. (1994). Museum Careers and Training: A Professional Guide: Greenwood Press.

Lord, G. D., & Lord, B. (1997). The Manual of Museum Management. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press.

Glaser, J. R., & Zenetou, A. A. (1996). Museums: A Place to Work: Routledge.

Precedents

Teather, J. L. (1978). Professional directions for museum work in Canada : an analysis of museum jobs and museum studies training curricula, a report to the Training Committee of the Canadian Museums Association. Ottawa: Canadian Museums Association.

/jennifer

j. trant archives & museum informatics www.archimuse.com

museumsandtheweb.com - Comments for "Museum jobs: a summary"

a very generalized list