Rose Laura, and any other persons whose toes have been bruised,
I should probably stand up for my program as well. My Masters from Texas
Tech did an exceptional job of providing theoretical and practical
experience in a variety of areas before I ever left the building for my
required internship. I suspect that is why I am rather picky. I know many
professionals from Baylor, GW, UT, CUNY, and others who had great
experiences and were fully prepared for the field.
Unfortunately many of the programs out there do not require such
internships, much less paid ones. Where they do, the discussion should be
moot. So many programs have proliferated in the past decade, that I can not
say with any confidence I have even heard of them all, much less know their
requirements. The concern is clearly that somehow significant practical
experience is being bypassed, resulting in underprepared candidates. There
is also a strong element of the discussion that indicates more of that
experience should come from the classroom, rather than the internship. That
calls into question the nature, type, duration, and content of internships,
which are just as relative as the programs themselves. But that should be a
discussion for another thread.
Keeping in mind(again) that we are not bashing museum studies programs,
castigating them for anything in particular, nor picking out any programs
in particular...I think the only question on the table is how to make
employers better aware of these variations in program strength and how to
help employers provide opportunities for new professionals that do not put
their collections at risk while training new employees. This is merely a
hypothetical discussion, which may be prone to tweaking the sensitive
points of people proud of their programs. I tend to think the profession as
a whole will find numerous ways to deal with the issue, if it actually
becomes one of concern.
It just seems a topic worthy of further consideration.
Mark Janzen
Registrar/Collections Manager
Edwin A. Ulrich Museum of Art
Martin H. Bush Outdoor Sculpture Collection
Wichita State University
(316)978-5850
"Mahoney, Laura"
<[log in to unmask]
V> To
Sent by: Museum [log in to unmask]
discussion list cc
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SE.LSOFT.COM> Subject
Re: cataloguer training
09/24/2004 03:54
PM
Please respond to
Museum discussion
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<[log in to unmask]
SE.LSOFT.COM>
Thanks for your message Rose. I graduated from the GWU museum studies
program in 1996. That program REQUIRES at least 6 credit hours (equivalent
to two courses) in internships. In addition to my two required graduate
internships, I completed a museum internship as an undergraduate. It seems
like many of the people commenting on the lack of vocational skills being
taught in museum studies programs forget that internships are an essential
and required part of these programs.
Laura (McMann) Mahoney
MA-Museum Studies
From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Rosie DiVernieri
Sent: Friday, September 24, 2004 12:16 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: cataloguer training
Speaking as a person who is just out of one of those programs 2 years, I
feel that I should stand up and say something about the quality out there.
There are many good quality programs out there like Baylor, Texas Tech,
George Washington to name a few. I graduated from the undergraduate
program at Baylor, which is a great program. It is exactly what you are
all agreeing on, vocational and theoretical. For example, in exhibition
design, we actually planned and constructed an exhibit (with some
professional help of course), in education class we taught programs at the
children’s museum, and collections management required us to work in the
collection for like 15 hours...all the while learning theory. And above
all...internships were required. All of these things have helped me
immensely in the professional world.
This is just my opinion so take it as you will, but we as a profession need
to make a push for some type of qualitative standard out there. I mean,
archivists have a test, why doesn't the museum field? You don't have to
take the test to work in the field, but if you do then you know you have
met a certain level/qualification. This would help show future employers
and the rest of the non-museum world, that we really do know what we are
doing. But like I said, that is just my opinion.
Rosie DiVernieri
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