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

[Callomon,Paul]

Part of the reason for the question is to bring these words into focus. For some folks, "professional" simply means "paid," and not "amateur." That's not its actual meaning, though - there are no amateur surgeons or professional carpenters.

The distinction is important, because we should be thinking harder about creating more pathways into museum collections management. At present, the requirements and compensation vary so widely between individual institutions that it's impossible to  say whether this is something that someone with, say, a high school diploma or an associate's degree could aspire to. If it isn't - if to be a CM you need a master's or PhD or "equivalent" - then it's a profession, and we are likely to see the same demographic as in the other professions. At least we would, if being a CM paid like being a doctor or lawyer...


Paul Callomon
Collection Manager, Malacology and General Invertebrates

________________________________

Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, Philadelphia
callomon at ansp.org<mailto:callomon at ansp.org> Tel 215-405-5096 - Fax 215-299-1170




________________________________
From: Nhcoll-l <nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu> on behalf of Douglas Yanega <dyanega at gmail.com>
Sent: Friday, February 23, 2024 12:31 PM
To: nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu <nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu>
Subject: Re: [Nhcoll-l] Collection management: trade or profession?


External.

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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