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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="color:black;font-family:arial,sans-serif">Paul,<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt"><span style="color:black;font-family:arial,sans-serif">This
issue has been discussed in the literature for quite some time, and is important
because using such names as trade and technician is used as a justification for
paying lower salaries than are paid to others presumed to be professionals.<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt"><span style="color:black;font-family:arial,sans-serif"><span> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt"><span style="color:black;font-family:arial,sans-serif">I
published an article on the subject in 1993 (“Natural history collections
management in North America.” <i>Journal of Biological Curation</i>
1(3/4):1-17) pointing out that:<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt"><span style="color:black;font-family:arial,sans-serif">“a <i>professional </i>is one who conforms to
the standards of a profession. A <i>profession </i>requires specialized knowledge
and usually intensive academic preparation. By contrast, someone in a <i>technical
</i>position would be a <i>technician. </i>which can be defined as a specialist
in the technical details of a subject or occupation. The difference is
important</span><span style="color:black;font-family:arial,sans-serif"><span>¾</span></span><span style="color:black;font-family:arial,sans-serif">professional means specialized knowledge and intensive
academic preparation; technical means merely a mastery of certain technical
details. Collections managers have also been incorrectly referred to as ”paraprofessionals."
The definition of a paraprofessional is someone trained to assist a
professional person. This is not what collections managers do.”<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt"><span style="color:black;font-family:arial,sans-serif"><span> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt"><span style="color:black;font-family:arial,sans-serif">Much
more discussion of the subject can be found in Williams, S. L., and C. A. Hawks
(editors). 2006. <i>Museum Studies. Perspectives and Innovations</i>. Society
for the Preservation of Natural History Collections. In particular, the
chapters by Chambers, E. A., “Defining the role of the curator” (47-65), Cato,
P. S., and H. H. Genoways, “Toward common nomenclature and definitions for
natural science professional collections-related positions” (67-84); and Cunningham,
M. R., “Professionalism through academics. A historically established paradigm
and its application to the museum field” (85-109) are instructive.<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt"><span style="color:black;font-family:arial,sans-serif"><span> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt"><span style="color:black;font-family:arial,sans-serif">I briefly
addressed the historical development of the museum profession (which includes collection
managers and curators) in 2016 in <i>Museums. A History</i>, and I took a much more
detailed and in-depth look at the issue in 2020 in “A very brief history of the
profession” [pp.2-16 in J. E. Simmons and T. M. Kiser (editors). <i>Museum
Registration Methods</i>, 6<sup>th</sup> edition. Rowman & Littlefield], writing
that:<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><span>“In his book on
the history of museum studies, Jesús Lorente identified three components that
were fundamental to establishing the museum profession: (i) specialized
publications; (ii) professional associations; and (ii) formal training courses,
all of which blossomed in the twentieth century and enabled the collections care
profession to progress from people with on-the-job-learning and informal
apprenticeships to a core of university-trained professionals who could access
a range of technical literature and who had official channels for communication
with colleagues through museum associations.</span><span style="color:black"><span></span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;text-indent:0.5in;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">The title <i>collections
manager </i>came into use in the mid-1970s in natural history museums in the
United States. Although some natural history museums had registrars, the
position was not common. Historically, most hands-on collection work and
registration was done by curators or by curatorial assistants working under
their direction. As both collections and collections-based research increased
in size and complexity, it became obvious that specialists were needed to take
over the documentation and care of the collections because the job descriptions
of most natural history curators were increasingly focused on research and
administration. <span> </span>A 1990 survey of
collection care positions in the United States and Canada demonstrated that the
tasks of collections managers included the registration and care
responsibilities traditionally assigned to registrars in other museums but with
a greater emphasis on hands-on collections care and use of electronic
registration systems. Although<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">there were some attempts to distinguish
between a registrar and a collections manager (e.g., a registrar was primarily
involved with record keeping and a collections manager with hands-on collection
work), the responsibilities of the two positions quickly converged and the job
titles have become synonyms…”<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><span> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">The book by Lorente and the survey referred
to are:<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><span> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt"><span lang="ES-EC" style="color:black;font-family:arial,sans-serif">Lorente, J. P. 2012. <i>Manual de Historia de la
Museología</i>. Ediciones Trea<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt"><span lang="ES-EC" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><span> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><span lang="ES-EC">Cato, P. S. 1993. </span><span>Summary of a study to evaluate collection manager-type positions. <i>Collection
Forum </i>7(2):72–94.<span></span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><span> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><span>Lastly, the </span><span style="color:black">descriptions in your email of
profession and trade are interesting, and for many professions and trades are
accurate, but they are so narrow as exclude other professions and trades. For example,
these are the definitions from the <i>American Heritage College Dictionary</i></span><span><span></span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt"><span style="color:black;font-family:arial,sans-serif"><span> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt"><span style="color:black;font-family:arial,sans-serif">Profession.
“1a. An occupation or career. B. An occupation such as law that requires considerable
training and specialized study.”<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt"><span style="color:black;font-family:arial,sans-serif"><span> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt"><span style="color:black;font-family:arial,sans-serif">Trade. “1.
The business of buying and selling commodities; commerce. 2. The people working
in or associated with a business or industry… 6. An occupation, esp. one requiring
skilled labor; craft.”<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt"><span style="color:black;font-family:arial,sans-serif"><span> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt"><span style="color:black;font-family:arial,sans-serif">--John<span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"><span style="color:black;font-family:arial,sans-serif"><span> </span></span></p>
</div><div><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">John E. Simmons<br>Writer and Museum Consultant</span></font></div><div dir="ltr"><font size="2"><span style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">Museologica<br><i>and</i><br>Investigador Asociado, Departamento de Ornitologia<br>Museo de Historia Natural, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Lima</span></font><br></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><br></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Fri, Feb 23, 2024 at 11:35 AM Callomon,Paul <<a href="mailto:prc44@drexel.edu">prc44@drexel.edu</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div class="msg1377522611148633374">
<div dir="ltr">
<div style="font-family:Aptos,Aptos_EmbeddedFont,Aptos_MSFontService,Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:11pt;color:rgb(0,0,0)">
Folks,</div>
<div style="font-family:Aptos,Aptos_EmbeddedFont,Aptos_MSFontService,Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:11pt;color:rgb(0,0,0)">
<br>
</div>
<div style="font-family:Aptos,Aptos_EmbeddedFont,Aptos_MSFontService,Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:11pt;color:rgb(0,0,0)">
As research for a planned paper, I thought I'd canvass you all on the following question:</div>
<div style="font-family:Aptos,Aptos_EmbeddedFont,Aptos_MSFontService,Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:11pt;color:rgb(0,0,0)">
<br>
</div>
<ul style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px">
<li style="font-family:Aptos,Aptos_EmbeddedFont,Aptos_MSFontService,Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:11pt;color:rgb(0,0,0);list-style-type:"- "">
<div><span style="font-family:Aptos,Aptos_EmbeddedFont,Aptos_MSFontService,Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:11pt;color:rgb(0,0,0)">Is collection management a trade or a profession? What's the difference?<br>
- A trade begins with learning, practice and experience (an apprenticeship). Apprentices pass tests and become journeymen; they then produce a masterpiece (the origin of the term, nothing to do with the Mona Lisa) and gain master's certification and sometimes
membership of a guild, which allows them to take their own apprentices and renew the cycle in their place of work. <br>
- A profession begins with study and examinations. Practice with real clients can only begin once both have been completed (think: lawyers; surgeons; accountants). A period of internship or further training is usual, but a professional qualification (MD, JD,
CPA etc) allows one to start doing things that are otherwise illegal (like cutting live people open, representing a defendant in court, etc). </span></div>
<div style="font-family:Aptos,Aptos_EmbeddedFont,Aptos_MSFontService,Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:11pt;color:rgb(0,0,0);list-style-type:"- "">
<div><span style="font-family:Aptos,Aptos_EmbeddedFont,Aptos_MSFontService,Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:11pt;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><br>
</span></div>
</div>
</li></ul>
<div><span style="font-family:Aptos,Aptos_EmbeddedFont,Aptos_MSFontService,Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:14.6667px;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">A master craftsperson is mobile between workplaces
at master rank, but a partially-completed apprenticeship might not be accepted outside the workplace in which it was created. There is no rank above master, and senior institutional management tends to be taken from the ranks of professionals. </span></div>
<div><span style="font-family:Aptos,Aptos_EmbeddedFont,Aptos_MSFontService,Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:14.6667px;color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><br>
</span></div>
<div><span style="font-family:Aptos,Aptos_EmbeddedFont,Aptos_MSFontService,Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:11pt;color:rgb(0,0,0)">Any capable young person can become an apprentice, and the lower bar for entry means
the trades are often more inclusive than the professions (though unions can and do bias hiring somewhat). Master tradespeople can make more money than at least junior professionals, and are arguably more important to the running of infrastructure-based institutions
like museums. </span></div>
<div style="font-family:Aptos,Aptos_EmbeddedFont,Aptos_MSFontService,Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:11pt;color:rgb(0,0,0)">
<br>
</div>
<div id="m_1377522611148633374Signature">
<div id="m_1377522611148633374divtagdefaultwrapper">
<p><span style="font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:10pt;color:black"><b>Paul Callomon</b><br>
<i>Collection Manager, Malacology and General Invertebrates</i></span></p>
<div align="center">
<hr align="center" size="2" style="width:100%">
</div>
<p><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:10pt;color:black"><b>Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, Philadelphia</b></span><span style="font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:10pt;color:black"><br>
<i><a href="mailto:callomon@ansp.org" id="m_1377522611148633374OWA9707aa78-2432-7bdd-7090-ec1b50081f47" style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px" target="_blank">callomon@ansp.org</a> Tel 215-405-5096 - Fax 215-299-1170</i></span></p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p> </p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
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