Ross's comment below---


> And I maintain, once more, that anyone seriously interested in the museum
> profession needs to look beyond the urban museums out into the grass roots,
> where professional help is often truly needed but (without adequate funds)
> can't be recruited easily.

---inspires me to wonder whether the parallel with big parks and small
parkswould be apt. In a big park (Yellowstone, Rocky Mountain, Independence,
etc.), the experience one gets is often very specialized, narrowly focused, and

somewhat isolated from other parts of the whole operation. In a small park,
everyone at some time or another does just about everything, even though
most of one's time is spent doing one's specialty. As you can guess, I think
the trade-off is: if you really want to learn how parks (museums?) operate,
go to a small one; if you really want to work only within your specialty, go
to a large one. For those who aspire to management positions, I especially
think broad exposure to an institution's operations is good preparation.

Tom
--
Tom Vaughan    "The Waggin' Tongue"
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11795 Road 39.2, Mancos, CO 81328  USA
Cultural Resource Management, Interpretation, Planning, & Training