>          I would say that prospective museum professionals get no
>          particular sort of indoctrination. As you have seen on this
>          list, there are very few professional training programs for
 
Yes, I had noticed, which is why I asked.  Librarians are struggling to
define themselves in a professional sense in a world where many do not see
librarians AS professionals in the same way as, say, lawyers or doctors.
Hence the emphasis on this area.
 
>          I have two questions, for you: first, is "musea" an accepted
>          term. I have seen it here on this list, but almost nowhere
 
My background is in classics.  I instinctively see "museum" as a neuter
noun, hence "musea" as its plural.  If I THINK about it, I'll write
"museums", since that is more common -- but "musea" isn't wrong.  Affected,
possibly, pedantic, certainly, but not wrong.  (I'm not being defensive,
just explaining.)
 
>          else. Second, I hadn't heard that the holocaust museum was
>          troubled. In what way? All I had heard about was their
>          smashing critical and popular success...
 
It IS a smashing critical and popular success -- and I do apologize for
giving the impression that "troubled" meant "on the brink of disaster".  My
choice of words was poor.
 
I had heard rumblings about internal problems, however.  Drawing upon the
article in question (again: Washington Post; 4 January 1994; pp. B1-B2 (the
Style section; the author is Judith Weinraub):
 
     Staffers worry that its internal policies and procedures are
     only now being formulated; that its presidentially apponted
     board and activist chairman mange operations too closely;
     and that its component parts -- the museum, the research
     institute, the fund-raising operations -- often operate
     independently of one another.
 
     The resulting mixed signals have often unsettled the staff,
     a situation that intensified last summer when five senior
     employees left for a variety of reasons.
 
 ...
 
     One of the new director's greatest challenges is the absence
     of a long-term plan.  There is only the museum's mission
     statement ...
 
 ...
 
     And then there is money -- a continuing problem for any
     museum, but particularly for one with construction debts to
     repay and a federal budget that covers only salaries and
     basic museum operations. ... As things are, the Holocaust
     Museum has virtually no general endowment -- about $3.5
     million, only $200,000 of it available for unrestricted uses
     ...
 
 ...
 
     And Katz will likely encounter pressure from outside
     organizations, especially Jewish groups, to turn the museum
     to political purposes -- a problem that has dogged the place
     from its inception ...
 
In other words, the problems of a new museum just starting out -- AND
operating in the spotlight (what with its popularity and its close scrutiny
by Congress; a little like being in a goldfish bowl), AND covering a very
sensitive issue.  Just how many internal problems there are, and how much
it's just a matter of the museum's "finding itself", I've no idea.  Katz
does have his work cut out for him, though ... and if he has no experience
in museums (see, I CAN learn), it could prove very interesting.
 
>          Eric Siegel
 
Mario Rups
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