Although I laud many of its undertakings, the A.A.M. seems to spend little
effort directed at either standards for museum administration programs or
discussing the merits of some sort of professional accreditation.
 
As a graduate of the program at Texas Tech university, I and other
graduates were apalled one day to learn that the M.A. program was going to
be "reduced" to a concentration rather than a program.  We launched a
campaign to keep this from happening, pointing out to the administration
that (at that time) 100% of the graduates had employment on a curatorial or
higher level. Didn't work.  We later found out that they wanted to strip
the program to pump funds into a new medical school that has not exactly
rivalled Johns Hopkins.
 
Is there a set of lore or philosophy inherent in museum training? There was
when I went to school 22 years ago. A chief problem seems to be Boards of
Trustees who have no knowledge of credentials outside of "M.A." or "Ph.D."
(doesn't matter in what to most of them). After doing MAP surveys for a
couple of museums, and listening to gripes from trustees about the staffs,
I asked about their concepts of qualifications. Guess what? There was
little talk about training or museum operations knowledge, just social
skills and the willingness to work cheap. Sounds like a waiter at a yacht
club to me!
 
Seriously, if you take a look at an ALA journal you will find tables of
suggested salary ranges in different parts of the country and a strong
commitment to not having realtors serve as librarians. The longer I remain
in this field, the more I begin to believe in the need for a "union
ticket." It gets very old arguing  for professionalism and cleaning up
other people's messes after a while. Likewise, there are too many annual
conference seminars on an elementary level.  I am fully in favor of people
who have come in through the "back door" being allowed to get certification
through programs, but standards are necessary. Otherwise the field may
become a refuge for frustrated academics who cannot find teaching jobs. And
by the way, my hat is off to preparators and other so-called
paraprofessionals." The field could not survive without their
underappreciated and underpaid work.
 
__________________________
Byron A. Johnson
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