Sorry about the length of this, but after all the traffic on drug testing I
am drawn to the conclusion that the boat has perhaps sailed while we are
still on the way to the dock. The drug testing issue, is simply a symptom,
not the disease. Is anyone interested in starting a "thread" about the
remarkable difference between the world of libraries and the relative
stagnation, lack of professional certification and concommitant lack of
status and funding at many museums? Colleagues, we have a LOT to learn from
libraries.
 
        My wife recently went back to school to get a Masters in Library
Science Degree. I began reading her ALA journal and following a few library
listservs. As a 20 year "veteran" of museums and museum start-ups I was
AMAZED at the difference in support, funding, required credentials and
availability of professional positions. I am beginning to believe we may be
risking collapse of our field (or non-educational privitization) by failing
to require professional standards of those entering the field, failing to
understand our audiences, and offering a product few want to buy.
 
        While museums have been bogged down with peripheral drug,
Maplethorpe and Enola Gay issues (and reaping bad publicity by not invoking
common sense before blindly proceeding with a course of action) libraries
have successfully "reinvented" themselves. They have had to do this after
the no-tax propositions of some years ago, while most museums have
floundered.  They are now "information centers" and a rock of most
communities along with the fire and police departments.  The bespectacled
librarian image has been replaced with a high-tech "information specialist"
image.  With the exception of some areas (such as California with
ill-conceived no-tax propositions), bond issues are beginning to be passed
right and left for books and buildings and staffs are growing. If you want
a real kick in the pants, take a look at the job  and news columns of an
issue of the ALA JOURNAL.
 
        In contrast, many museums, aquaria and related facilities are being
required to get building funds from "revenue" bonds, meaning that the bonds
have to be repaid out of earned income like K-Mart or Disneyworld. One
aquarium in my service area is opening with an annual bond repayment burden
of $6 million to $7 million a year, and this is increasingly common.
Education becomes secondary, staffs become business people rather than
educators, and corporate buiisness practices related to admissions,
facility rentals, food and gift shop income predominate.
 
        If you don't believe this, ask yourself, how many public libraries
have been forced to charge admission - or more than a simple yearly fee for
a card?  How many have gift shops? How many have restaurants? How many rent
out areas for weddings and banquets? How many have adopted a corporate
management structure with vice-presidents of this and that?
 
        The disparity in library salaries is another sign of this. Library
salaries often make many museum salaries look ridiculous. You've seen the
AAM listings (often written by board members) with text that goes on for
miles "must be fluent in twelve languages, have 9 Ph.D.s, 10 years of
experience be able to raise $50 million a year and cope with all sorts of
deviant personalities (museum management degree NOT required) - salary
$20,000, this is a half-time position but requires full-time work."
 
        The reality is that, over the last 10 years libraries have self-
imposed minimum professional standards for professional employees. In
libraries, it is almost impossible to get a position without a formal,
certified MLS degree. If you are grandfathered into a library position
without an MLS, you can shelve books but you will go NOWHERE. Some
libraries have even been draconian and given their employees 2 years to get
an MLS or be demoted or released. My wife has gone back to school after 18
years in a library to get the certification.
 
        In museums we have good M.A. programs, some good B.A.
"para-professional" programs, and a few off campus study programs like that
at Oklahoma. However, NONE of these are A.A.M. accredited as the ALA
accredits library programs. As a result, professional museum training is
often not required for positions. The quality of their work aside, there
are many curators, directors and museum consultants with degrees in
political science, amusement park operations, business management, etc. and
NO formal museum training.
 
        Those of you in the field who do the hiring know how many resumes
you get from freshly minted B.A. and M.A.s in history, art history, etc.
The letters frequently start with "...and since there are no teaching jobs,
my professors told me to lower my standards and look at museums..." This is
symptomatic.  One sometimes wonders about the time spent acquiring a museum
science M.A. or related degree?
 
        Have we become a low-wage dumping ground requiring only a liberal
arts degree? Or is our field actually much "simpler" than library science.
Does one only need the equivalent of a junior college understanding of
education theory, exhibit design, curation, conservation and management?
One sign of this seems to be the incessant A.A.M. and A.A.S.L.H. conference
workshops teaching things that SHOULD BE learned in Museum Science 1A. How
many times do we need to hear about writing text labels or basic copyright?
Originally these workshops were designed for volunteers attending
conferences or NEW professionals; now they seem to be filled with many
people in professional positions with no museum training. "WOW! Florescent
light is bad for artwork! I didn't know that!" Folks, national library
conferences do NOT have workshops on beginning book selection and Library
of Congress numbering systems  . . .
 
        I am drawn to the belief that we must work on professional
standards lest we convert this to a minimum wage job field. We had also
better get to work redefining museums and what they can actually do as
libraries have done. Our banners held high about "preservation",
"education", "heritage", "artistic expression", and "museums for the next
century" etc. are NOT working. The latest elections have made us ripe
targets for cuts (did you get the panic letter from the A.A.M.?). Sorry,
but no amount of pleading letters to Republican congressmen will help.
 
        How do we reinvent ourselves without "burning" the good
non-museum-degreed people in the field? How do we find a comparable to the
"information center" library approach?
 
        Thanks.
 
Byron A. Johnson, Executive Director
Tampa Bay History Center
[log in to unmask]