On what hopefully is a more pertinent vein that my last submissions,
as a director of biological collections, I could not afford
(assuming I had the money to afford) to hire a collections manager
that didn't have a pretty healthy background in organismal
biology--neither I nor collections curators have the time to explain
the taxonomic hierarchy, nor taxonomic authorities, nor
identification keys, nor the myriad other biological skills, to a
new hire. Furthermore, this takes something more than a beginning
biology course or two.  If I have a choice between someone with a
Museum degree or someone with a strong B.S. or (preferably) higher
degree in organismal biology, I'd have to go with the knowledge of
the field rather than with the knowledge of museum procedures and
theory (in the best of worlds, of course, I'd like both).  I can
teach that subset of museum skills necessary in our circumscribed
collections areas much more easily than I can teach the biological
skills and understanding.

Art Harris
--
Laboratory for Environmental Biology
Centennial Museum (Natural and Cultural History)
phone (915)747-6985; fax (915)747-5808; [log in to unmask]
http://www.utep.edu/leb http://www.utep.edu/museum