I have been charged with the onimous duty of finding out for my museum what exactly the collection manager does in a medium sized institution. Because we are very short of funds jobs have been consolidated into fewer resource people. In this new position, which will be called something with a technical connotation to it, the management is proposing a person who is able to supervise and perform the following functions: be in charge of all research activities (directing what is to be done and handling the data produced); data processing and all data base management like storage, archiving and uploading to national databases; all activities within the storage vaults (supervising access and activities); security for the whole building (determining who has access to the collections and that the building is physically secure from intruders); exhibit maintenance (may include directing teams of trained cleaners) and responsible for conservation (not active but preventive and not physically doing the work but determining priorities and making the collection accessible to the conservators). The untold story here seems to include network management on a very basic technical level. If your museum has a collections management or administration position that fits this description or even close please mail to me at my e-mail address as this may not interest everyone on the list. The information is urgently required and will be greatly appreciated. Incidently, I'm in Vancouver, Canada and yes it is still raining. But it's a warm rain. Thanks Linda