museum, operation of

museum, operation of

Introduction

      wide array of diverse tasks that a museum undertakes in order to preserve and interpret the material aspects of human society and the environment. Several of the most important museum operations are described in this article. For purposes of convenience they are gathered into two categories: those operations which contribute to maintaining the museum as an organization (e.g., administration, management, funding, inter-museum cooperation) and those activities which are most commonly considered to be typical of museums (e.g., collection, preservation, cataloging, exhibition).

      For an account of the development of museums since the earliest collections of antiquity, see the article museum, history of (museums, history of). For the characteristics of art museums, natural history and natural science museums, science and technology museums, history museums, and general museums, see the article museum, types of.

The museum organization

Administration
      There is no consistent pattern for the general administration of museums throughout the world. In part, the lack of such a pattern reflects the diversity of museums' collections, but it also reflects an ambivalence in the understanding of the role of museums in society—i.e., whether museums are guardians and interpreters of the cultural heritage, repositories for the study of primary evidence relating to human and natural history, social instruments in community development, or facilities for leisure and recreation.

      On the most general level, museums may be either privately or publicly administered. Since 1970 there has been a marked increase in the number of private-sector museums, yet even some of these have corporate standing under general legislation and receive public moneys. In addition, private patronage also has become important for public museums, which often find themselves competing with private museums for additional funding from individual and corporate sources. In the public sector, national museums may be overseen by such diverse ministries as education, tourism, defense, environment, national heritage, culture, and leisure. The situation can be even more complicated at the local level.

      The level of state control varies from country to country. In France, for instance, the state has traditionally exercised greater control over museums. A number of the national museums in Paris operate under a semiautonomous administrative council, with an executive chairman who has a dual responsibility for policy and executive matters. In addition, there are a number of national museums located outside Paris, and some technical control over the country's municipal museums is exercised by the central administration. In the United Kingdom, on the other hand, public museums have traditionally enjoyed greater autonomy. Britain's national museums—located mainly in the capital cities of London, Edinburgh, Cardiff, and Belfast—receive funds from the national government, but each museum has been established by its own specific legislation, which empowers a board of trustees (nominally independent of the government) to administer and raise funds and to guide the museum's policies. British municipal museums, however, are provided under general legislation, and representatives from local government form the management committees by law. The British model can be found in other European and English-speaking countries. In the United States only the dependent museums of the Smithsonian Institution and the National Park Service have national status and are financed by the federal government.

Management
      Most museums operate under some form of governing body. This body defines the general policy of the museum and provides and controls the necessary resources to deliver it. The appointment of the director and perhaps of other staff members usually is among its responsibilities. The director of a museum governed by this type of body is responsible for the formulation and implementation of policy and for the day-to-day running of the institution and generally provides the link between the governing body, the staff, and the museum's clientele.

      The operation of a museum involves a wide variety of skills. These involve specialists in subjects relevant to museum collections (normally designated curators or keepers), information scientists involved in the documentation of collections and related scientific information (sometimes known as registrars), and conservators concerned with the scientific examination and treatment of collections to prevent deterioration. Another group is involved more actively with the public functioning of the museum. These include specialists in education, communication, and interpretation, designers, the security staff, and marketing and public relations personnel as well as administrative, maintenance, and other support workers. Such diversity can lead to complex staff structures. Many of the larger, older established museums with encyclopaedic collections have a large number of senior specialized personnel. In museums where the emphasis is on providing services for the general public and the collections are less wide-ranging, there are likely to be fewer curatorial and more service personnel. Nevertheless, museums are labour-intensive, and the extent to which new technologies can alleviate the need for labour is limited. In all types of museums, operation is based on teamwork, and this has important implications for the management structures adopted as well as for the training of museum staffs.

      Organized training for museum personnel to meet the requirements of such a diverse operation is of relatively recent origin. Early attempts were made in the context of subject-based studies, with little attempt at providing an understanding of the museum as a public institution. By 1910 three courses were being provided in the United States. The following decade, however, saw the commencement of further courses, some in the United States at Harvard University's Fogg Art Museum and at the Newark Museum, N.J., and others in Europe. One of these was the well-known École du Louvre, created to train curators for the French museums. Museology was also introduced in the curriculum of Purkyně University in Brno, Moravia (now in the Czech Republic), in 1921. The first validation for museum training, organized on an in-service basis, appears to have been the diploma of the Museums Association introduced in Britain in 1930. There the University of London also introduced postgraduate courses intended to train specialist curators in art history and archaeology.

      It was not until about 1965, however, that university faculties or departments of museology—museum studies, as it is more commonly known in English-speaking countries—were created with a specific emphasis on the theory and practice of museums, as opposed to an emphasis on the subjects represented in their collections. In certain countries, notably Japan and some Latin-American nations, curators are required by law to have graduated in museology before they can practice. Such courses, where available, normally provide some training in museum management. Although some museum studies are taught at the undergraduate level, postgraduate training is the generally recognized requirement.

Funding
Public and private sources
      Until the mid-1970s, public funds constituted the major income source for public museums and in many cases contributed a considerable percentage of the income of those operated privately. With increasing restrictions on expenditure of public moneys, however, funding from multiple sources has become far more commonplace. In both developed and developing countries this can be crucial to the formation and continued maintenance of a museum service.

      The main source of funds for museums in the public sector remains the local or national government. This can result in a lack of flexibility in the use of such moneys, because the funds usually are subject to government policies that have little bearing on the particular requirements of museums. In addition, these museums are required to compete for funds against such traditional public expenditures as education, social services, defense, and law and order, and in consequence museums often are given low priority.

      Many museums were founded through private benefaction, and a few have endowments that help to support their routine operation. Others may have received bequests, many of which are designated to be used only for the purchase of objects. Such sources, although they may seem appropriate when secured, can suffer from changes in economic circumstances and may have attached to them conditions that are incompatible with requirements of the modern museum.

      Today museums are becoming increasingly involved in fund-raising, in seeking commercial sponsorship, and in their own trading activities. Fund-raising may be undertaken by the museum, by a commissioned organization, or by a support body such as the many “friends of the museum” organizations now in existence. Fund-raising and sponsorship are normally directed toward a specific project or development.

Entrance fees
      Many museums charge entrance fees to help finance operations—even in some countries, such as the United Kingdom, that previously had a strong tradition of free entry to museums. Some museums charge admission fees only for major exhibitions. Others have introduced a system of voluntary donations by visitors on entry to supplement their income, but the results of this approach generally have been disappointing.

Commercial activities
      Commercial activities have become a significant feature of many museums. These may take the form of restaurants or shops that provide a service to visitors as well as income to the museum. Some museums have separate trading companies that act as publishers or engage in mail-order business, the profits from which are directed to the museum for general purposes. In this way the museum retains its charitable status, is not exposed to the direct dangers that would follow commercial failure, and also circumnavigates any requirements that direct income be returned to the public purse.

Support organizations
      A number of museums have support organizations, sometimes known as friends of the museum. These groups engage in such activities as fund-raising and provide voluntary assistance in a number of ways, and they can provide a powerful lobby for the museum's cause. The museum's volunteers may form a separate organization. The museum usually acts as host to such organizations for their various activities. In some countries a national coordinating body provides advice and assistance, and the World Federation of Friends of Museums was founded in 1975 to encourage worldwide cooperation among such societies.

Museum cooperation
      The first organized cooperation among museums at the international level arose through the League of Nations' Committee of Intellectual Cooperation. In 1922 the Committee established an International Museums Office, which initiated a number of studies and publications until it went out of existence in 1946. In that year the International Council of Museums (ICOM) was created, and today this nongovernmental organization provides a world forum for museum professionals through regular meetings and through continuous communication over the Internet. In some countries where there are no separate associations for museum personnel, the national committees of ICOM fill the role of professional association. ICOM is also the recognized adviser on museum matters to the Social and Economic Council of the United Nations as well as the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization ( UNESCO).

      Since its inception in 1946, UNESCO has been responsible for a growing body of legislation to protect the world's cultural heritage, has been active in promoting the return and restitution of cultural property to its country of origin, has initiated campaigns to ensure the protection of major world heritage sites, and has provided financial assistance for the renovation of older museums and the establishment of new ones, particularly in developing countries. Some of its member states were responsible for the creation in 1956 of the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM).

      A number of regional governmental bodies also have an interest in museum provision. For example, the Council of Europe (Europe, Council of) has promoted legislation for the protection of Europe's archaeological heritage, has undertaken a number of studies on museum provision, and has promoted an award for museums. The European Union has promoted exchanges between museums, has encouraged the development of “European Rooms” in certain museums of its member states, and has contributed substantially to the capital costs of museum development.

Museum activities

Collection
Acquisition policies
      The history of museums and their precursors indicates the influence that the existence of a collection has had on the founding of museums and therefore on the nature of their original holdings. Relatively few museums have been established with the goal of making a collection; instead, most have been created to receive an existing collection. With the existing collection as its base, the museum has proceeded to collect to fill gaps or to extend its activity into other, usually related, fields. For this reason many museums have heterogeneous collections, at best accumulated under an “encyclopaedic” philosophy (which has rarely been successful unless major resources were available to achieve it) and at worst continuing a “cabinet of curiosities” approach (which may amuse and entertain the clientele but has little scientific validity). Often the collections made depended on the expertise or whim of the curator and were sure to change when that curator was succeeded by someone with different interests. This method has produced some outstanding special collections, but these have resulted from circumstance rather than long-term planning.

      Explicit collection policies are now more common. Indeed, where national codes of practice exist, a strong recommendation is normally to be found on the need for a clear statement of collecting activity. This has arisen for a number of reasons. Not only should a public institution's policies be available for scrutiny, but the cost of maintaining collections of ever-increasing size must be justified, a factor highlighted at times of economic pressure. Further, although a museum may have arisen from circumstance, an assessment of its available resources, the clientele it attracts or intends to attract, and the role it can serve in society generally must be matched against its primary resource, its collections.

      Every museum is responsible for ensuring the legality of its acquisitions. Laws regulating collection vary from country to country, but, whether or not a state has enacted its own legislation or ratified relevant international conventions, museum staff are expected to conform to generally recognized professional codes of ethics. Most regulation of collecting activity embodies principles established in the 1954 Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict and the 1970 Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export, and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property, both approved by member states of UNESCO. However, a number of countries involved in international trade found it difficult to ratify the 1970 convention, and certain difficulties arose over the definition of cultural property. The 1995 Unidroit Convention on Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Objects was intended to resolve these issues. Similar conventions exist on the regional level as well: for instance, in 1976 the Organization of American States adopted the San Salvador Convention on the Protection of the Archaeological, Historical, and Artistic Heritage of the American Nations, and, with a similar purpose in mind, in 1992 the Council of Europe issued a revised European Convention on the Protection of the Archaeological Heritage.

      Given the number and variety of legal regulations and professional codes, it is unlikely that a museum with clearly stated academic objectives will acquire illicit material. Indeed, methods of collection reflect the fact that a museum is concerned not only with collections per se but also with the information inherent in or associated with them. Where applicable, direct acquisition through fieldwork is much preferred. This involves collecting material through archaeological excavation, ethnological expeditions, or natural science fieldwork, and the collecting either is undertaken by the staff of the museum or is sponsored by it. Indirect acquisition is handled through purchases, gifts, bequests, and loans of objects.

Protection of cultural property
      Conventions such as those cited above reflect the fact that the collecting activities of the industrialized world are markedly different from those available to the developing nations. In some instances the significant cultural property of entire nations has been dispersed to private collections and museums in different parts of the world, leaving the developing museums to rely on casts and replicas to convey the area's cultural achievements. The international community has had only limited success in encouraging the return, through exchange or loan, of such material to its country of origin.

      The true significance of cultural property, collectively the universal heritage of humankind, places on museums a considerable responsibility. The acceptance of objects or collections into their care implies a permanence not associated with the acceptance of other types of property. Some museum legislation acknowledges this, declaring such collections inalienable. The disposal of museum collections in part or in full therefore normally only occurs in cases where items no longer serve a useful scholarly or interpretative purpose. The case for deaccessioning, as it is known in North America, can only otherwise have any validity where it is done to correct the imbalances of earlier indiscriminate collecting, and in that case the material concerned should first be made available to other suitable museums before disposal.

Conservation
      A museum's prime responsibility must be to maintain its collections and to do everything possible to delay the natural laws of deterioration. The acquisition of an item almost certainly brings it into a new and potentially alien environment. Material that has been recovered from the ground through archaeological excavation may need immediate treatment to stabilize it. Many of the materials from which objects are made are inherently unstable and undergo chemical or structural change as they age. A new or shifting environment can accelerate these changes, and temperature, light, humidity, and human and other biological factors all need to be controlled. In addition, conservation involves the treatment and, where feasible and acceptable, the restoration of objects as nearly as possible to their former condition.

      Most large museums have their own laboratories where preservation and restoration work is carried out (see ), and some take on projects for other museums as well. In some cases, as at the British Museum, a separate department of scientific research supports the museum's academic and conservation work, providing advanced scientific equipment for the analysis, dating, and identification of materials. Some museums are served by independent conservation laboratories, an example of which is the Canadian Conservation Institute, in Ottawa, which uses a fleet of mobile laboratories to attend to museum collections in many parts of the country.

Documentation
      Documentation is a significant function of any museum, whether it holds only a few hundred objects or many millions of items. Quite apart from the need for records to maintain adequate control of its collections, a museum's documentation system provides an indispensable record of the information associated with the objects for research. The documentation system also may include records to facilitate the museum's interpretative and other work.

      The form of a museum's documentation system may vary considerably, but to meet these requirements it should provide the fullest possible information about each item and its history. There are no generally accepted classification schemes for museum objects, although certain subjects have developed schemes with numeric or alphanumeric notations to facilitate the ordering and retrieval of information. For the natural sciences, taxonomic names are normally used.

      A number of museums have developed computerized (computer) documentation systems, some on-line but others relying on machine-generated indexes, periodically updated, to meet most of their information requirements. The advantages of computerized documentation are being exploited in a number of ways—for instance, in exchanging data between museums to facilitate study and research (research and development) or in making collection information available for public use in the museum gallery or over the Internet.

Research
      Because they hold the primary material evidence for a number of subjects concerned with an understanding of humans and their environment, museums clearly have an important role in research. The museum's research program is related to its objectives as an institution. A program may be concerned directly with the public services provided, in preparing exhibitions, catalogs, and other publications; or with promoting a better understanding of the discipline or region that it serves. In large museums, and in university museums in particular, pure and applied research may be of national or international significance and may be associated with fieldwork or study visits. Active research and publication on a given topic, apart from contributing to the academic standing of the institution, may attract further collections relevant to the topic.

      Many museums provide facilities, apart from those used by casual visitors, for researchers to study collections and associated documentation. Such facilities may include study rooms with a supporting library and equipment to assist in the examination of collections. Certain museums have accommodations for visiting foreign scholars; this feature is particularly helpful at site museums that are difficult to reach.

Exhibition
      Many museums have abandoned the traditional view of exhibition, by which storage and display are ends in themselves, in favour of an approach that enhances the setting of the object or collection. To this end museums use the expertise of a number of specialists—designers, educators, sociologists, and interpreters as well as curators—to improve communication through objects. The result has been a remarkable transformation in the presentation of museum displays. Far greater use is made of colour and light (within the bounds prescribed by conservation requirements), in the way material is interpreted through a variety of mediums (sound, video, interaction between visitor and exhibit, virtual reality, as well as more traditional methods), and in the provision of a more relaxing environment in which to enjoy the exhibits. A result of museums' increased awareness of the needs of their visitors has been a considerable increase in museum attendance.

      As the museum's cultural role has developed, so its exhibition work has diversified. Large international exhibitions have been organized by cooperating nations and have been shown in the major museums of the participating countries. Exhibitions organized for national circulation are also increasingly common. Museums concerned with a particular region have arranged topical exhibitions to tour the area, and, in places without suitable premises for display or in sparsely populated areas, exhibitions have toured in specially adapted buses or trains. Some countries have developed multipurpose cultural centres, and collaboration with museums has resulted in exhibition programs successfully reaching a wide audience.

      Interest in the historic and natural environment globally has involved museums in the preservation and interpretation of sites, monuments, and landscapes (as in the Slave House museum at Gorée Island, Senegal; see photograph ). Here the conflict inherent in imposing an interpretive medium into a natural or historical context has to be resolved. In its simplest form, interpretation may be conveyed through nature or history trails in which information is provided in written or recorded form. With a historic property there are also opportunities to reenact events associated with the property, such as period battle scenes and banquets, to demonstrate industrial or craft techniques, or to use theatre and son et lumière performances to interpret the site.

Educational services
      The contribution that museums can make to education is widely acknowledged. The majority of their clientele learn by looking at exhibitions and displays. There has been, however, a long association with schools, and many museums provide services specifically designed to meet schools' needs. Services include facilities for use both in the museum and at the school, many of which are administered by separate departments of museum education employing teachers for the purpose.

      Special rooms equipped for teaching and for handling specimens are provided in many museums. By allowing the study and handling of objects from its collections, the museum can give substance and form to the bare facts of art, history, and science. Some museums build special collections for this purpose. Teaching may be undertaken by the museum's educational staff or, more often, by the schoolteacher, who will have been advised and instructed by the staff. For advanced studies, particularly in subjects like archaeology and geology, the availability of museum collections can be indispensable.

      Although opinion differs as to the value of school loan collections, many museums do provide small exhibit cases or kits that may be borrowed by the school for a limited period for classroom teaching. Unlike libraries, museums are not able to provide extensive loan services (which would conflict with their prime purpose), but, for rural schools unable to visit the museum, such a facility, albeit limited, meets a need. In some areas museums include the larger community schools within their traveling exhibition schedules.

      As a better-educated adult population with increased leisure time seeks purposeful outlets, museums are well placed to provide activities. Many museums have adult programs such as lectures, courses, demonstrations, and field excursions, some of which are planned as family events.

Information (information science) services
      A museum acts as an information centre for its community. In addition to its displays and exhibitions, its data banks and publications, it has a staff of specialists, who in most cases are available by appointment to provide information on request.

      Museum publications may be educational or cultural or may be designed for a popular market. They may take the form of periodicals, handbooks, catalogs, research papers, or general guides to aspects of the museum and are an important medium for disseminating information to the lay public and scholar alike. Many museums also offer an opinion on items brought to them for identification. This can be of value to both the inquirer and the museum because it provides an awareness of local discoveries and holdings that aids the museum's efforts to build up a picture of its area of responsibility. At the same time it provides an informed opinion as a public service. Museums rarely provide valuations, however, and some, to avoid conflicts of interest, decline to have any connection with the antiques trade.

Geoffrey D. Lewis

Additional Reading
Until recently the information relating to museums has been much dispersed, but detailed studies are now being published in book form. The following list identifies some of the literature available.The most comprehensive bibliographic listing is International Museological Bibliography (annual), maintained by the ICOM, and is also available on CD-ROM. A number of other bibliographies are published, such as Simon J. Knell (compiler and ed.), A Bibliography of Museum Studies, 11th ed. (1994); Michael Steven Shapiro and Louis Ward Kemp (eds.), The Museum: A Reference Guide (1990); and Peter Woodhead and Geoffrey Stansfield, Keyguide to Information Sources in Museum Studies, 2nd ed. (1994). Art and Archaeology Technical Abstracts (semiannual) provides abstracts on museum techniques within these fields. István Éri and Béla Végh (eds.), Dictionary of Museology (1986), lists museum terms in 20 languages.General periodicals include Museum International (quarterly); I C O M News (quarterly); Curator (quarterly); Museum Management and Curatorship (quarterly); Museums Journal (quarterly); Museum News (bimonthly); and Museum Practice (3/yr.).General works about museums and their operation include Timothy Ambrose and Crispin Paine, Museum Basics (1993); John M.A. Thompson et al. (eds.), Manual of Curatorship: A Guide to Museum Practice, 2nd ed. (1992); and Gary Edson and David Dean, The Handbook for Museums (1994). Professional training is covered in Victor J. Danilov, Museum Careers and Training: A Professional Guide (1994); Gary Edson, International Directory of Museum Training (1995); Jane R. Glaser and Artemis A. Zenetou, Museums: A Place to Work: Planning Museum Careers (1996); and Stephen E. Weil, A Cabinet of Curiosities: Inquiries into Museums and Their Prospects (1995), and Rethinking the Museum and Other Meditations (1990), on museum administration and techniques. Examples of national position statements may be found in American Association of Museums, Museums for a New Century (1984), and Museums Count (1994); and Great Britain, Museums and Galleries Commission, Museums Matter (1992).Museum operations in various types of museums are considered in Susan Pearce (ed.), Art in Museums (1995); Stella V.F. Butler, Science and Technology Museums (1992); Peter Davis, Museums and the Natural Environment: The Role of Natural History Museums in Biological Conservation (1996); Gaynor Kavanagh, History Curatorship (1990); and Susan M. Pearce, Archaeological Curatorship (1990). Works on specific aspects of museum operation include Josep Ma. Montaner, New Museums, trans. from Spanish (1990), an architectural view of recent museums; Gail Dexter Lord and Barry Lord, The Manual of Museum Planning (1991); H.J. Plenderleith and A.E.A. Werner, The Conservation of Antiquities and Works of Art: Treatment, Repair, and Restoration, 2nd ed. (1971); Garry Thomson, The Museum Environment, 2nd ed. (1986, reissued 1994); David Liston (ed.), Museum Security and Protection (1993); D. Andrew Roberts, Planning the Documentation of Museum Collections (1985); and Dorothy H. Dudley et al., Museum Registration Methods, 3rd ed., rev. (1979).Interpretive functions of museums are treated in R.S. Miles et al. (compilers), The Design of Educational Exhibits, 2nd ed. (1988); Michael Belcher, Exhibitions in Museums (1991); Giles Velarde, Designing Exhibitions (1988); Eilean Hooper-Greenhill, Museum and Gallery Education (1991); Eilean Hooper-Greenhill (ed.), The Educational Role of the Museum (1994); Roger Miles and Lauro Zavala (eds.), Towards the Museum of the Future: New European Perspectives (1994), which utilizes case studies to demonstrate the museum as communicator and educator in a rapidly changing world; Sue Runyard, The Museum Marketing Handbook (1994); and G. Donald Adams, Museum Public Relations (1983).The legal arrangements concerning museums are closely related to those of the preservation of cultural property, and the following are helpful: Lyndel V. Prott and P.J. O'Keefe, Law and the Cultural Heritage (1984– ); The Protection of Movable Cultural Property (1984– ), collected legislative texts for many countries published by UNESCO; Stephen E. Weil, Beauty and the Beasts: On Museums, Art, the Law, and the Market (1983); and Marie C. Malaro, A Legal Primer on Managing Museum Collections (1985), and Museum Governance: Mission, Ethics, Policy (1994).Geoffrey D. Lewis

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Universalium. 2010.

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