Museum professionals in all museums that use governmental funds should be
accessible to the public. There is a strong tendency in many public
institutions (libraries, parks, museums, general government) to want to
communicate with fellow professionals only. This is institutionally
counterproductive and morally wrong. Counterproductive, because a timely and
polite response to a query is the best way to build support for your
institution; morally wrong, because if you accept even part of your pay from
the public you need to be responsive to members of the public. A good
museum's purpose is not to save objects but to serve the society and its
members.

There may be differences in implementing an accessibility policy depending
on a variety of specific circumstances, but good museum practices should
encourage the maximum contact with members of the public. Those folks who
argue about being diverted from their primary tasks by responding to
people's needs are essentially arguing that they object to additional work.
Such employees should be candidates for the next round of outplacement
interviews. I have yet to hear of a story of a museum employee who died from
overwork.
nburlakoff

-----Original Message-----
From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf
Of Brigid Nuta
Sent: Wednesday, January 21, 2004 10:13 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: To Post Staff Contact Info on Web Or Not To...

On the College Park Aviation Museum website, we only have a general email
address ([log in to unmask]).  This goes to the two staff who are
responsible for the website, and we forward them further if necessary.

The big problem is that our parent organization that hosts our website has
their own "contact us" button -- and lots of people email that instead of
finding ours!  They just forward that on to us.

We keep staff names off because that is the policy of our parent
organization.

Brigid Nuta
College Park Aviation Museum
www.collegeparkaviationmuseum.com
[log in to unmask]
[log in to unmask]

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