The Cultural Resource Management Program at the University of
Victoria (on southern Vancouver Island) is offering a three-day
workshop in mid-October for museum professionals involved in or
concerned about changing approaches to research in the museum
context. If you are interested in participating, please contact our
office for registration information:


MUSEUM RESEARCH IN THE INFORMATION AGE: An Exchange for
Curators, Policy Makers and Information Management Specialists

Museums are in danger of losing their sense of purpose if they neglect
their unique and fundamental role in shaping knowledge. This intensive
workshop examines the paradox and implications of diminishing support for
research as we enter the Information Age, and focuses on innovative ways in
which new technologies enable us to generate, shape, access, use, and manage
information in balance with other museum activities. Victoria Dickenson draws
on her extensive experience in museum research, management and
information technologies to explore the following topics:
o informatics and information: what kind of information and for whom
o the importance of knowledge: museum databases as knowledge generators
o navigating knowledge: making it easy to make sense of data
o allowing access for internal and external users: who sees what and who pays
for what
o a vision for the not-too-distant future: knowledge providers to the world
o the museum as powerhouse, not storehouse

Instructor:  Dr. Victoria Dickenson is Director of Public Programs, National
Aviation Museum. Resource people will include a representative of Corbis
-Microsoft company, and a respresentative of the British Columbia Archives
and Records Service.
Dates: October 16-18, 1996
Please register by: September 18
Fee: $350 (Canadian Funds)


LEARNING OBJECTIVES

This short course will enable you to understand and articulate the following:
o how museum research differs from research conducted in other institutions
such as universities or research laboratories
o how current trends and developments in information technology will impact
on the manner in which museums undertake research
o how current trends and developments in information technology will affect
the way in which museums disseminate the results of research
o what criteria you might use to assess the application of new technologies to
the research function in museums

COURSE OUTLINE

DAY ONE  - Wednesday, October 16
On the first day of the course we examine the nature of museum research, in
particular the research that is peculiar to the museum institution-the study of
things, variously described as material history, natural history, or art history.
We also look at the nature of collections and database  management, and their
intimate relation to museum research and the generation of knowledge, and
the evolution of digital libraries and digital museums.

Morning
o Introductions:  Who I am and why are you here
o Museum Research: An Illustrated History
o Can you really learn from things?  What can you learn from things? An
exercise for the eye and the mind.

Afternoon
o Collections management: from card catalogues to mainframes
o Current collections management practices: A sample of softwre
o Digital libraries and digital museums: A look at the Web

DAY TWO - Thursday, October 17
On this day we examine in more detail the impacts of new information
technologies on the ways in which museums construct and store knowledge
and the ways in which it is distributed, with particular attention to questions of
access for whom-and at what cost.

Morning
o The Digitized Collection
o The importance of images: an example from the British Columbia Provincial
Archives
o The importance of authorities: the work of the Getty Institute

Afternoon
o The role of the private provider: the work of Corbis
o Questions of Access: a discussion on levels of access: BCARS, Getty, Corbis

DAY THREE - Friday, October 18
The final day will be devoted to discussions and problem solving around the
nature of a reformed museum catalogue.  You will be presented with a model
adopted by the instructor, and then asked to apply the model to your own
collections, or to imaginary collections, with a view to understanding more
thoroughly the problems of navigating knowledge and making it easily
accessible to users at all levels.

Morning
o The online catalogue: stories from the Web; The Berkely Example/MIP
o Rethinking the Museum Catalogue: Knowledge for whom?

Afternoon
o Models of navigation: Sailing new seas
o Group exercise
o Lewis Mumford's dream: storehouse to powerhouse-how will new ways of
generating and providing access to knowledge change the role of the museum
in society?


Please let us know if you require any further information or would like to
receive registration materials. Thanks!
Joy Davis, Program Director
Cultural Resource Management Program
University of Victoria
Phone 604-721-8462
FAX 604-721-8774
email  [log in to unmask]

For detailed Program information, please visit our Web Site at
http://www.uvcs.uvic.ca/crmp/