It must be kept clearly in mind that anything reasonable or
rational, done in some other country - Australia, New Zealand,
Switzerland, GB, or (until recently) Canada - stands absolutely
no chance whatsoever of being done in the United States of
Anachronism.
(**Usual Disclaimers**)

According to Linda Young:
>
> Byron Johnson writes about the (new?) British National Vocational
> Qualifications and Museums Association Diploma requirements.
>
> I'm not up on what the Brits are doing, but I was under the impression that
> the MA had just about abandoned its Diploma in favour of the govt-funded
> Museum Training Institute.
>
> The nub of the difficulty is the issue of whether a professional
> organisation goes down the track of credentialling or registering its
> members, as architects and engineers do.  It's a very demanding (read
> expensive) process, and requires a substantial investment in organisational
> apparatus to do it with no hint of cronyism.  This is one reason why
> membership of the architects' and engineers' institutes is so dear.
>
> The notion of the profession governing itself is very, well,
> professionalist in a rather late 19thC way - is it still appropriate in the
> late 20thC?
>
> It seems to me that there are sufficient academic credentials to set
> education standards for the museums industry, and sufficient standards of
> practice established by practice and documented in the literature, to say
> that our trade has a soundly based set of standards.
>
> I think that what we need from our professional associations is sets of
> ethics that guide how and to whom we apply the standards.
>
> Hmmm?
>
>
>
>
> Linda Young
> Cultural Heritage Management
> University of Canberra
> [log in to unmask]
>