I think such courses are a must and I wish more people offered them. At my institution only handful of trips were approved for professional development and sadly it's not enough. I am scrounging for ways to make sure my staff is upgrading and updating their skill sets. It's how I justify giving my staff new responsibilities which later on leads to compensation for a job well done.
We may only have a small number of the types of collections you mention, but often because of their small number those collections can be made a lower priority.
Yes, I think so. Although many of us who work in museums where such
courses would be useful don't work with collections that are easily
divided into the categories you list. Our collections are primarily
cultural, although we do have a natural history collection of about 3500
items. An online course that would help me manage and use our natural
history items would be assessed by me and by my supervisor for its
applicability to all of the natural history collection, not just the
minerals, or the birds, etc.
Lindsey Richardson
Curator of Collections
Boston Children's Museum
300 Congress Street
Boston, MA 02210
Tel. 617 426 6500 x366
Fax 617 426 1944
www.bostonchildrensmuseum.org-----Original Message-----
From: Museum discussion list [
mailto:[log in to unmask]
OM]
On
Behalf Of Julianne Snider
Sent: Tuesday, March 06, 2007 10:10 AM
To:
[log in to unmask]Subject: [MUSEUM-L] Collections Care OnLine Workshops?
We are talking with our e-Education Institute about creating online
collections care workshops for museum professionals as part of their
Open Educational Resource Initiative. Each "workshop" would address the
care and use of specific types of collections, e.g., mineral
collections, osteology collections, vertebrate fossil collections, etc.
These virtual workshops would not replace onsite or hand's on workshops,
training, or museum studies courses but could be useful to museums and
museum personnel who may not have time or budgets for, or access to
other forms of continuing education.
The question is: is there an interest in this type of professional
development?
Thank you.
Julianne
--
Julianne Snider
Assistant Director
E!
arth an
d Mineral Sciences Museum & Art Gallery
The Pennsylvania State University
112 Steidle Bldg.
University Park PA 16802
814-571-6317
=========================================================
Important Subscriber Information:
The Museum-L FAQ file is located at
http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed
information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail
message to
[log in to unmask] . The body of the message should
read "help" (without the quotes).
If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message
to
[log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read
"Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).
=========================================================
Important Subscriber Information:
The Museum-L FAQ file is located at
h
ttp://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to
[log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes).
If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to
[log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).