I have been charged with the onimous duty of finding out for my museum what
exactly the collection manager does in a medium sized institution. Because
we are very short of funds jobs have been consolidated into fewer resource
people. In this new position, which will be called something with a
technical connotation to it, the management is proposing a person who is
able to supervise and perform the following functions: be in charge of all
research activities (directing what is to be done and handling the data
produced); data processing and all data base management like storage,
archiving and uploading to national databases; all activities within the
storage vaults (supervising access and activities); security for the whole
building (determining who has access to the collections and that the
building is physically secure from intruders); exhibit maintenance (may
include directing teams of trained cleaners) and responsible for
conservation (not active but preventive and not physically doing the work
but determining priorities and making the collection accessible to the
conservators). The untold story here seems to include network management on
a very basic technical level.
 
If your museum has a collections management or administration position that
fits this description or even close please mail to me at my e-mail address
as this may not interest everyone on the list. The information is urgently
required and will be greatly appreciated. Incidently, I'm in Vancouver,
Canada and yes it is still raining. But it's a warm rain.
Thanks Linda