Libraries and Museums Books

This is THE reference guide for those interested in pursuing a career in the museum field. I cannot describe how informative this book is. If you are like one of many, desiring that position, you hear about, but don't know how to pursue it, look here first and you'll find just about everything you need to know on how to get started. From listing job descriptions and salary tables, to college program and internship program listings, this book gives all sorts of information that would normally be in 30 different books, but now can be found in just one. Can't find it, look here first, you won't be disappointed.

Museum Careers: A Practical Guide for Students and Novices by N. Elizabeth Schlatter covers just about every aspect of the field, ranging from the reasons to choose a museum career (and the potential drawbacks) to practical advice and resources for job seekers.

This book is written in a casual, friendly tone that captures the reader from the beginning. It is both engaging and chock full of useful information that you will need when launching your museum career.

Museum Careers is divided into three parts: Museum Work, Museum Jobs, and Preparing For and Gaining Museum Employment. Chapters include Museum Trends Affecting Employment, Finding and Applying for Jobs, and Professional Development and Career Growth, as well as detailed chapters explaining a wide variety of museum positions.

Schlatter begins with an explanation of why she chose museum work, which she calls "an altruistic yet selfish calling." People become museum professionals for a host of reasons, including a love of objects or museums themselves, an opportunity for lifelong learning, or an engaging and creative work environment.

The drawbacks are well-known in the field, and Schlatter does not shy away from telling it like it is. The first obstacle is, of course, the notoriously low salary. It is important to realize that the benefits of museum work almost never include a fat paycheck, but life isn't all about money. The workload is often heavy, with mandatory overtime at after hours events and programs. In a post 9/11 economy, many museums have had to cut back to balance budgets, which translates into fewer staff members performing more duties.

I was glad to see Schlatter mention the geographic limitations of museum work as another drawback. I seldom see this referenced, although I am always telling my interns about it. You will almost always have to move to find your ideal museum job. The more limited your geographic search, the fewer opportunities you will find. If you are unwilling to move, plan to spend an even longer period of time searching for employment.

Toward the end of the first chapter, Schlatter reminds her readers that you do not have to be "intimately familiar" with the museum's specialty, but you should be enthusiastic about it. "A general rule of thumb for museum work is that if you dislike the mission, you'll hate your job," she writes.

Schlatter mentions several important trends affecting the profession as a whole, the most important being a shift toward education. "The stereotypical curator of the mid-twentieth century (an overeducated male connoisseur who reveled in his acquisitions, arcane research, and elite insular network of peers) became obsolete," she says.

Today, curators work as part of a broader team, more closely focused on education - through programming, exhibitions, and outreach.

The center section of the book focuses on detailed descriptions of each position found in the museum profession, divided by Jobs Focused on Objects and/or Exhibitions, Jobs with a Public Focus, and Jobs with an Administrative Focus. Included are the following:

Director
Conservator
Curator
Designer
Exhibition Manager/Developer
Librarian/Archivist
Photographer
Preparator/Art Handler
Registrar/Collections Manager
Development Officer/Membership Manager
Editor
Educator/Volunteer Manager
Information Officer
Marketing Manager/Public Relations Manager
Retail Manager
Security Chief
Visitor Services Manager
Administrator/Finance Officer
Facilities Manager
General Counsel/Attorney
Human Resources Manager
Technology Manager

Each job title is explained in great detail, followed by salary ranges; education, experience, and skills; and resources for job openings specific to that position.

The book's third and final section focuses on how to prepare yourself for and find a job within the museum field. Schlatter examines undergraduate majors and graduate programs, outlining a wide variety of options ranging from a Master's of Arts degree to various certificates. She stresses the need to serve as an intern or volunteer as you prepare for your future career.

Schlatter concludes with advice about where to find museum jobs, how to prepare a resume and cover letter, and what to expect during the interview process.

The conclusion of the book, called "Life Outside the Museum," really struck home with me: "The final tidbit of advice is to remember that life exists outside of the museum, not just the museum you work for but also the industry as a whole. Many people joke that a museum career is not a job, it's a lifestyle. We spend our free time visiting museums, learning more about our field, reading the latest publications...."

In my own experience, this is absolutely true. A museum career is rewarding and frustrating in many ways, full of both opportunities and challenges. But every day, I can honestly say that I love what I do, and I can think of nothing better I could have done with my life.

I thoroughly recommend Museum Careers to anyone thinking of dabbling in this world. It provides not only a ton of practical advice, but Schlatter is completely honest about every aspect of this career. When I was just starting out, I wish I had had such a wonderful resource at my disposal. It is the most complete book on the museum field I have ever seen.

Buy it! You won't regret it.

This textbook provides to those interested in setting-up museum exhibitions a proper procedure to manage and develop such activities. Each chapter will take you to different phases required in the process to present a museum exhibition. Appendix 2 "Exhibition Request Form" and Appendix 3 "Checklist for Exhibition Develoment", I found of great value for the person in-charge of managing the exhibition "project". I recommend this book to anyone interested on learning how to properly handle a museum exhibition and wants to know about its "theory and practice".

First of all, this book is funny. The stream of consciousness, thinking aloud style of Paul Werner is terribly amusing and extremely entertaining which puts it in a class of its own. Paul Werner does not pontificate, does not condescend... he just dissects with great wit and surgical precision the politics of a privately owned museum in today s world.. We understand how some museums are more obsessed with selling their brand name to cities in need of tourist attraction than showing us the gullible public works of art worth seeing. Anybody who thinks something is amiss in the art world must read it. His description of being a tour guide to hairy 200 pound lifelong bikers in the now infamous Motorcycle exhibition seems straight out of a Chaplin movie...

About the Book :
This book is devoted mainly to the problems of the protection of India`s cultural property through a broad-based museum movement and by means of legislative measures. It deals with the history of India`s museum movement, its achievement and shortcomings and also suggests measures in the country that have been examined in the light of similar laws in various developed and developing countries, and against the background of different Unesco conventions and recommendations. The book`s eleven chapters include Cultural Property and Indian Museums; History of India`s Museum Movement; Theft, Illicit Traffic and Vandalism; Protection of Movable Cultural Property; Legislative Measures: A Review in Global Context; The Indian Treasure-trove Act, 1878; The Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958; The Antiquities and Art Treasures Act, 1972; and Reflections on Future Challenges. Besides, there are appendices reproducing the important documents published by the International Council of Museums and the Unesco.

About the Author :
Mr. H. Sarkar is an archaeologist of repute and has substantial contribution to various fields of Indian archaeology, particularly Buddhist art and architecture, and protohistory, art and architecture of south India. Among his publications are Studies in Early Buddhist Architecture of India (1966), Nagarjunakonda (third edition 1980), Amaravati (second edition1980), An Architectural Survey of Temples of Kerala (1978), Monuments of Kerala (second edition 1978), and the Kampaharesvara Temple at Tribhuvanam (1974).
He joined the Archaeological Survey of India in 1955 and served in various capacities in different parts of India and had been for some time Director (Antiquity). He was in deputation to the secretariat of the XXVI International Congress of Orientalists from 1964 to 1967 as the Assistant Editor.
Mr. Sarkar association with museums date back to 1961 when the island museum at Nagarjunakonda was being built to house antiquities found in the large-scale excavation there before its submergence; in fact, he was intimately associated with the entire salvage operations, including the reconstitution of important monuments a venture which was among the first in India.

Contents :
Preface
1. Introduction
2. Cultural Property and Indian Museums
3. History of India`s Museum Movement
4. Theft, Illicit Traffic and Vandalism
5. Protection f Movable Cultural Property
6. Legislative Measures : a Review in Global Context
7. History of Antiquarian Laws in India
8. The Indian Treasure-trove Act, 1878
9. The Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958
10. The Antiquities and Art Treasures Act, 1972
11. Reflections on Future Challenges
Appendices
Icom Ethical Acquisition Code, 173
Guidelines for Loans, 176
Recommendation on International Principles
Applicable to Archaeological Excavations, 180
Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property, 189
Recommendation for the Protection of Movable Cultural Property, 199
Plates
Description of Plates
Index

I was a close friend of the author, and helped prepare the manuscript for publication after she passed away. This book will be of great relevance to anyone interested in history, museography, communication, anthropology, ethnography, and art history. It is an ambitious and scholarly attempt to review the history and practices of museum exhibitions of Native Canadians, and addresses fundamental questions: when and why are objects considered "art" vs. "artifacts"? How should non-Native museums and curators approach the challenges of exhibiting cultures they do not belong to? Building on Clifford's art/artifact, authentic/inauthentic analytical axes, Moira's study enriches our understanding of how Western culture has chosen to re-present the history and cultures of Native peoples in Canada--in settings where traditionally there has not been space allowed for Native voices themselves to be heard. Although the book is focused on Canada, the issues are relevant to Native populations anywhere in the world. Needless to say, I strongly recommend this book!

"New Museum Theory and Practice" has been a great resource for the Museum Studies course I'm taking in college. This book is a collection of essays that addresses numerous issues that are crucial to the new outlook for museums in the 21st century. Honest and up to date, the book discusses matters such as collection processing, feminism, multiculturalism, and poses questions about the basic foundations of museums as they exist today.

This book, drawn from portraits in the Newport Art Museum's collection and those of local collectors, spans the history of New England portraiture from Gilbert Stuart to Andy Warhol. It is well produced and has dozens of great paintings of, by or owned by Newporters.

it is great to read a book on how the ancient egyptians learned the techinques of their culture form the nubians despite the egyptians and the nubians were both a black african peoples

This book, based on the author's doctoral thesis, is an excellent exploration of the development of ethnographic museums in Germany. These museums originally evolved from scattered ethnographic collections. They were developed and funded as a result of competition between different municipal governments. Originally the stated purpose of such institutions was to understand man kind by collecting exhaustive examples of material culture from "disappearing" societies with a view to understanding them through evaluating these materials. Later there was more of a focus on the public nature of museums and how certain types of displays could make human variation more accessible to the public. One major change was from typological arrangements to geographically oriented arrangements. Display cases went from being packed with examples of spears from a variety of cultures to thoughtful arrangements of objects from a single culture. He discusses problems such as lack of space, need for more labels and the focus on accumulating more and more objects at the expense of cataloging or evaluating them. He gives numerous interesting examples of political strife and also how collecting was carried out in the field in the colonial context including a descriptions of some less than ethical collectors. Overall, for someone who is interested in this topic, this is an excellent book which held my interest throughout.