With all due respect to Mr. Harris, I would like to disagree.  I
have been a collection manager for over 20 years, and I have both
a bachelor's degree in biology (systematics and ecology, actually)
and a master's degree in museum studies.  This combination is, in
fact, what most qualified applicants for collection management jobs
will have (very, very few institutions have undergraduate degrees
in museum studies).

> ...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... <SNIP>
> 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.

I don't think this is an either/or situation.  The question you have
to ask is, what skills does one learn in a masters or PhD program
in biology that will make you a better collection manager?  The kind
of knowledge Mr. Harris is talking about is what you learn by working
in a discipline area, not in a degree program.  More importantly,
I would like to correct the assumption that there is a "subset
of museum skills" that one needs for collection management.  There
is, in fact, a large literature and large body of knowledge concerning
collection management, storage environments, materials, integrated
pest management, preventive conservation, computerization and so forth
that is much better learned in a museum studies program than on your
on. Having worked with a lot of collection managers over the last
20+ years, of every conceivable educational background, I can tell
you that (1) a lot depends on the motivation of the individual but
that (2) in general, those with a bachelor's degree in biology and
a master's degree in museum studies are MUCH better prepared to do
their jobs than those with advanced degrees in biology but without
the museum studies training.

I agree with Mr. Harris that the knowledge of the particular discipline
in biology, particularly the taxonomy, is extremely important.
However, my own experience has been that those individuals without
museum studies training are woefully unprepared to be professional
natural history colllection managers and face a much longer learning
curve than they realize.

I recommend the following references as germane to this discussion:

Cato, P.S.  1991.  Summary of a study to evaluate collection manager-
type positions.  Collection Forum 8:72-94

Cato, P.S. R.R. Waller, L. Sharp, J. Simmons and S.L. Williams.
1996.  Developing Staff Resources for Managing Collections.  Virginia
Museum of Natural History Special Publication Number 4:1-71

Ford, L.S. and J.E. Simmons.  1998.  The diffusion of knowledge:
Agassiz (1807-1872), Ruthven (1882-1971), and the growth of
herpetological collections.  Pp. 577-593 in Pietsch, T.W. and W.D.
Anderson (editors).  Collection Building in Ichthyology and Herpetology.
American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists Special
Publication Number 3.

John Simmons
Natural History Museum
University of Kansas