[Nhcoll-l] Collection management: trade or profession?

[Douglas Yanega]

On 2/23/24 8:34 AM, Callomon,Paul wrote:
>
>  *
>     Is collection management a trade or a profession? What's the
>     difference?
>
I imagine that most people you asked "What's the difference between a 
trade and a profession?" could not give a clear and coherent answer 
discriminating between them. If I had not seen the definitions you 
posted, I don't think I could have answered this question, myself, 
despite 25 years as a collection manager. Frankly, off the top of my 
head, I would have said that a profession is what you get paid to do - 
i.e., that's what distinguishes a professional from an amateur. In that 
sense, trade and profession are synonymous, since I can't imagine 
calling something a trade if it is not a source of income.


I'm not disputing the definitions you gave, just saying that that 
particular distinction is not intuitive, given the various uses of the 
word "professional".


Peace.

-- 
Doug Yanega      Dept. of Entomology       Entomology Research Museum
Univ. of California, Riverside, CA 92521-0314     skype: dyanega
phone: (951) 827-4315 (disclaimer: opinions are mine, not UCR's)
              https://faculty.ucr.edu/~heraty/yanega.html
   "There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness
         is the true method" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chap. 82
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