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