Hi

Here in the Transvaal Museum in Pretoria, South Africa, most of our
Heads of Departments started as volunteers.  Our Director Dr
Rautenbach started as a volunteer in the Mammal Department 32 years
ago he got the approprit degrees and became a researcher, then
finaly moved up to be Director.  Dr Ina Plug is now the assistant
director as well as the head of the Archaeozoology department, she
also started as a volunteer in 1977. Our current Public Relations
Officer started as a volunteer in Birds and Paleontology,  she got
the position and Collections Manager in General Entemology, from there
she got the position she is in now.  She is working wonders because
she knows the museum inside and out.

We have no museum degree or diploma specificaly aimed at Natural
History in SA, what we learn is hands-on and in house training.  We
are busy working on getting such a degree of the ground.  Even
if you start as a volunteer you can go anywhere with in the museum as
long as you have the relevant degrees and skills.  I myself started as
a volunteer three and a half years ago and I am now the Collections
Manager of the Archeozoology Department.  I am busy with my degree in
archeology and hope to move up to a Researcher position.

I think you have a better understanding of the museum world if you
work yourself up from the ground.  You also know the work and
what it entails by the time you get the chance for a better
position.  Seeing that we are a small museum (100 staff) every body
helps with everything so you get experience in most fields.

It seems to me that museums, no matter where they are, are basicly
the same.

Karin

Miss Karin Scott
Collections Manager: Archaeozoology
Transvaal Museum
P.O. Box 413
Pretoria
South Africa
0001

Tel: 27 12 322 7632
Fax: 27 12 322 7939
E-Mail: [log in to unmask]