Part 2
Museums are of course as diverse as any other area of human culture from
fine and decorative arts to antiquities and archeological to ethnographic
and natural history, and medical. The type of research might involve
reconstruction, preservation, examination, analysis and dating. In terms of
research, as with any scientific endeavor, a detailed understanding of the
contextual relevance of the research subject is crucial but while the tools
of the trade may be similar context underlies the differences between museum
and academic research. Although that is perhaps only in as much as research
focuses around on collection materials. The questions being asked can be
very similar - asking about the material itself or asking 'what does this
material tell us about pattern and processes in the outside world?'
Robert Ross Director of Education of the Paleontological Research
Institution in Ithaca, New York was on the faculty at Shizuoka University in
Japan and has now been working at PRI, which is loosely affiliated with
Cornell, for the same length of time. 'We are doing scientific research
within the museum. I do believe some of our research is different from that
in some large museums with large staffs of researchers, because ours is so
tightly integrated with public education,' he says.
In making the move from a university to a museum, the job and not the type
of building should perhaps be one's guide. Some museum researchers in
hindsight realize just how narrowly focused their university work was in
comparison. 'Researchers may be surprised to find greater fulfilment at a
museum and to enjoy considering doing and conveying their research in
entirely new contexts,' says Ross.
'The oldest and most common route is by being a recognized expert in your
field and affiliating with or being hired by a museum,' says Michael Lewis,
Curator of Archaeology in the Maxwell Museum at the University of New
Mexico. 'This route,' he adds, 'does not necessarily require an advanced
degree, though recently strong emphasis is placed on the Masters Degree as a
minimum, preferably the PhD.' Moreover, in today's museum world, the
emphasis is on attracting research dollars and this generally requires an advanced degree, such as a completion of a credible online masters degree program, and a research history.
Read on... Museum Researchers