I think that melanie is right about there being two sides to the valuation story. We do tend to contribute to society not seeing museologists as professionals. It doesn't seem to be a problem in the US, where everybody appears to have to be highly qualified but in SA, despite the museums association putting professionalisation high on the agenda, (museum employees are the lowest paid civil servants in a generally low pay sector) we do not treat each other like professionals. I have an Honours degree (one year course work plus thesis) and a Masters in Museology, yet I cannot get formal employment in museums because although I have a degree in archaeology I do not have an Honours, therefore, cannot work in a researcher/curator type job, museums would rather employ market research companies with no experience in non-profit or education institutions to do their visitor research, they would rather employ teachers with no museum education training as education officers. I have done every bit of museum work that I can, often with little or no pay-I have raised funds to do museum research this year but this does not include any salary, etc, etc, Admittedly this is a very personal whinge but I do think that this shows a lack of respect from museologists for museum professionals. Kathryn Mathers Pretoria