Dear Ann Gunn:

In regards to your question about research and scholarship in museums, I would
like to add a word from the researcher's side. I was informed last Friday that
the one and only museum here in Hawaii will charge me $50 per hour to work on a
collection (I need to measure and weigh several hundred lithic artifacts). I am
an archaeologist writing my Ph.D. dissertation and certainly cannot afford to
spend that kind of money doing research. I won't do it, the research won't be
done, the museum won't have the data, and everyone loses.

I know that museums are desperate for money but surely this isn't the answer.
Many scholars do not have huge research grants and must pay their own way.
While I am very sympathetic to the financial problems of Collections Managers,
I see this trend as a death knell for scholarly research in museums.

Aloha anyway,
Charlotte Hunter