Hugh Genoways wrote:
>
> Here is a question that has concerned me for some time.  Why is the museum
> profession in the United States making such a small contribution to museum
> scholarship?  Clearly, the British, Canadians, Italians, French, and even
> the Finns are making much greater contributions to the advancement of
> museum scholarship than we are.

Hugh,

I've worked in small-medium history museums for 7 years now and agree
with you that (often) the intellectual content of U.S. conferences (as
opposed to case studies, how to's, fundraising info, public awareness,
etc.) and in various publications is often lacking.  Coming from the
background that I do of understaffed, overworked and underfunded
institutions, I'm not surprised.  Who among us has time to write, much
less research, a scholarly article?  Aren't we all struggling to manage
our workloads, keep on top of professional standards, and obtain funding
to keep our institutions solvent?  Perhaps (and this is only a guess),
some of the countries you mention have stronger public (i.e. gov't)
support of their institutions, thereby unloading staff of the onerous
tasks related to fundraising and p.r.  I also feel that AAM is doing a
wonderful job at being our advocates with a government that increasingly
attacks the nonprofit world.  While I think it's a shame that few of us
have the opportunities to do more "thinking" and publishing, perhaps we
should be glad that someone somewhere is and take advantage of it--and
support the AAM's efforts in protecting museums because until we have
the public's (again, i.e. the gov't's) support we will always be
struggling to keep our doors open.

Stacey Otte
Collections Manager
Catalina Island Museum
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