[Nhcoll-l] filling the gap (Re: Collection management: trade or profession?)

[Heather Ouellette]

As someone who only recently finally got a full time job in museum collections after years of internships and part time jobs, an apprenticeship program or at least more information on how to get into museum collections work would be great. I wish I had known in grad school about a specific museum studies degree. Instead, I went for a degree in paleontology with a thesis in fossil stabilization. Then I struggled for years to get an actual job in a museum.
Is there also possibly a glut of people trying to get into museum collections work, but there aren't enough positions to go around?

Heather Ouellette
Research Collections Manager
FAU Harbour Branch
772-224-2206

From: Nhcoll-l <nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu> On Behalf Of Douglas Yanega
Sent: Tuesday, 27 February 2024 10:49 am
To: nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
Subject: [Nhcoll-l] filling the gap (Re: Collection management: trade or profession?)



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On 2/27/24 6:39 AM, Shoobs, Nate wrote:
 I think what John articulated here is correct but perhaps unfortunate.
I would love it if there were an international guild of museum curatorial staff that had an apprenticeship system. (Or, alternatively, if collections management were professionalized to a greater degree and we became similar to university professors, art museum curators, or librarians.) But neither scenario is currently the case.


Not currently the case, but there are things that somewhat fill that void. At the risk of a little institutional self-promotion, allow me to post something from one of our campus student organizations:

"The Natural History Museum Club at UCR is a local branch of the Natural History Collections Care Network. Our activities include volunteering in collections on campus (such as the geology collection, entomology museum, and herbarium), museum science workshops, and tours and/or field trips to museums on and off-campus.

The purposes of the Natural History Museum Club at UCR organization shall be:

I. To provide multidisciplinary education, training, access, and opportunities for museum work to students which would otherwise be inaccessible or limited in scope

II. To interface with a nationwide network of like clubs on other university campuses

III. To facilitate interactions between undergraduates, graduates, staff, and faculty in fields utilizing natural history collections

IV. To further the goals of campus natural history museums"

I see from the NHCCN website (https://thenhccn.wixsite.com/nhccn/clubs) that at present there are only seven affiliated chapters, but it's a fairly new initiative, and hopefully other institutions will sign on. Part of that issue is promoting awareness of the organization, and as I am one of the campus advisers to our chapter, I suppose that promoting it here in this thread is acceptable and appropriate. These clubs are very much intended to fill the gap at institutions that have campus collections but do not have courses (let alone a degree) in collection management. Our chapter has been active for only a few years, but it has already helped a number of students, as well as collections. The last four museum technicians we've hired have all been students in our campus chapter, and I think the herbarium and geology collection on campus have also hired NHMC members. This gets us very motivated technicians, and gives them something tangible for their CVs, plus the potential for a very meaningful letter of recommendation, should they need one. I encourage people to consider looking into joining this network, and I can vouch for its benefits. It may not be much, but it's a positive step, for sure. Given time and a critical mass of members, I can imagine it eventually growing into another force for advocacy, which would be a good thing.

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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