> I would say that prospective museum professionals get no > particular sort of indoctrination. As you have seen on this > list, there are very few professional training programs for Yes, I had noticed, which is why I asked. Librarians are struggling to define themselves in a professional sense in a world where many do not see librarians AS professionals in the same way as, say, lawyers or doctors. Hence the emphasis on this area. > I have two questions, for you: first, is "musea" an accepted > term. I have seen it here on this list, but almost nowhere My background is in classics. I instinctively see "museum" as a neuter noun, hence "musea" as its plural. If I THINK about it, I'll write "museums", since that is more common -- but "musea" isn't wrong. Affected, possibly, pedantic, certainly, but not wrong. (I'm not being defensive, just explaining.) > else. Second, I hadn't heard that the holocaust museum was > troubled. In what way? All I had heard about was their > smashing critical and popular success... It IS a smashing critical and popular success -- and I do apologize for giving the impression that "troubled" meant "on the brink of disaster". My choice of words was poor. I had heard rumblings about internal problems, however. Drawing upon the article in question (again: Washington Post; 4 January 1994; pp. B1-B2 (the Style section; the author is Judith Weinraub): Staffers worry that its internal policies and procedures are only now being formulated; that its presidentially apponted board and activist chairman mange operations too closely; and that its component parts -- the museum, the research institute, the fund-raising operations -- often operate independently of one another. The resulting mixed signals have often unsettled the staff, a situation that intensified last summer when five senior employees left for a variety of reasons. ... One of the new director's greatest challenges is the absence of a long-term plan. There is only the museum's mission statement ... ... And then there is money -- a continuing problem for any museum, but particularly for one with construction debts to repay and a federal budget that covers only salaries and basic museum operations. ... As things are, the Holocaust Museum has virtually no general endowment -- about $3.5 million, only $200,000 of it available for unrestricted uses ... ... And Katz will likely encounter pressure from outside organizations, especially Jewish groups, to turn the museum to political purposes -- a problem that has dogged the place from its inception ... In other words, the problems of a new museum just starting out -- AND operating in the spotlight (what with its popularity and its close scrutiny by Congress; a little like being in a goldfish bowl), AND covering a very sensitive issue. Just how many internal problems there are, and how much it's just a matter of the museum's "finding itself", I've no idea. Katz does have his work cut out for him, though ... and if he has no experience in museums (see, I CAN learn), it could prove very interesting. > Eric Siegel Mario Rups [log in to unmask]