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

Fri Feb 23 12:46:44 EST 2024

Echoing Doug’s remarks here -- I don’t know if I think collections management sensu lato fits neatly into either bin. What I do consider it, unequivocally, is a vocation in the Weberian sense. I think most collections people feel strongly that the work they do is a calling, and that they can’t imagine themselves doing anything else, whatever their background is.
I do not think the field is nearly as mobile as any trade, nor do I think institutions have consistent enough practices that might permit the kind of professional mobility that trades do.
That being said, I think collections management could definitely benefit from the organization that the trades have displayed.
I don’t really know of any other profession than the management of natural history collections that requires as broad of a skill set, or has as varied a set of responsibilities. On any given day, collection managers might be doing work that is decidedly blue collar (carrying out day-to-day operations of a warehouse, testing materials, physically moving  and cataloguing inventory, packing objects for shipments, etc), to decidedly white-collar / academic (managing complex relational databases, identifying species, providing authoritative scientific information to the public, government agencies, etc.)
In many ways I feel like CMs are like engineers, in that they are usually professionals with a degree credential that apply scientific concepts to practical problems, and are to some degree autonomous agents that can work anywhere, but to a lesser degree than tradespeople.
-Nate
--

[The Ohio State University]
Nathaniel F. Shoobs
Curator of Mollusks
College of Arts & Sciences Dept. of Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology
Museum of Biological Diversity, 1315 Kinnear Rd, Columbus, OH 43212
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mbd.osu.edu<http://mbd.osu.edu>

From: Nhcoll-l <nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu> on behalf of Dirk Neumann <d.neumann at leibniz-lib.de>
Date: Friday, February 23, 2024 at 12:43 PM
To: nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu <nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu>
Subject: Re: [Nhcoll-l] [EXTERN] Collection management: trade or profession?
Hi Paul, depends on how you understand Collection Management. Here in Germany, a US Collection Manager would be the Collection Technician. For this education, there are either specific schools, like the one that Senckenberg in Frankfurt runs. 

Hi Paul,

depends on how you understand Collection Management.

Here in Germany, a US Collection Manager would be the Collection Technician. For this education, there are either specific schools, like the one that Senckenberg in Frankfurt runs<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.senckenberg.de/de/karriere/lehre-und-ausbildung/__;!!KGKeukY!1So_d4GY6KGrjW9q79nfDhTuav-3eaDbzx2r5PNEeXs1ggcEZ3QjgKme1hf372gZmM40-mS_c_-4p5lHqbbvuaqkdw$>. Here, you start in a trade and graduate after two years as a technical staff. This is very similar as the education (school where you graduate) as a biological technical assistant (BTA), or - similarly, chemical technical assistant. (BTA profile link<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/web.arbeitsagentur.de/berufenet/beruf/6315__;!!KGKeukY!1So_d4GY6KGrjW9q79nfDhTuav-3eaDbzx2r5PNEeXs1ggcEZ3QjgKme1hf372gZmM40-mS_c_-4p5lHqbbvakyelA$>).

That is something between a trade and university education, but a proper profession (Berufsausbildung - knowing that you get along with the German terms). The other option would be a bachelor in biology would theoretically have the same level of education, but of course is less skilled at the start of the career.

But this is typically not was is understood here as collection management. This is a position that is situated between curators and technical staff, and would have a more "active" management component. In the UK, the collection managers are the Curators, while the traditional curators are research scientists (if these are still hired).

I assume you are asking for the person that technically runs a collection and in responsible for it maintenance and management?

My answer would be it can be both.

Interesting question!
Dirk

Am 23.02.2024 um 17:34 schrieb Callomon,Paul:
Folks,

As research for a planned paper, I thought I'd canvass you all on the following question:

  *   Is collection management a trade or a profession? What's the difference?
- 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.
- 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).

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.

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.

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

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Stiftung Leibniz-Institut zur Analyse des Biodiversitätswandels
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