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There is no unanimous view about the form, content or extent of training for museum staff. This is to be expected. In part it reflects the present position of the museum profession. Further, it is inevitable as museums respond to great social change that there will be diverse and sometimes almost alien views about museum training. Have other professions had similar developmental anguish? Consider the medical profession, for example. There was little, if any, medical training in medieval Europe, where surgical operations were often the responsibility of the community barber. Today this would be un- thinkable. The medical profession serves society and the highest standards are expected from it. Training is a crucial element in forming, maintaining and developing those standards.

Museum personnel also serve society. They are concerned with the preserva- tion and interpretation of aspects of society’s cultural resources. A review of the relevant legislation - international or national - soon reveals that society places considerable emphasis on the preservation of cultural property, and many states recognize that it is no ordinary property. Why is it, then, that in most countries of the world society, and indeed in this profession that serves it, we do not insist on a more rigorous preparation of practitioners for this task?

What then are the issues? Is curatorship no more than the application of a subject discipline concerned with museum collections and therefore requiring training in that subject alone? Is curatorship of such a practical nature that it i s best achieved on the job through an apprenticeship? Or is there more to it than this? One school of thought considers the needs of the subject discipline pre-eminent together with the skills, academic and practical, involved in pro- moting and furthering knowledge in that subject. Another school takes the view that museum training should be concerned with the many different aspects of the museum operation. Of course, a curator without understanding and knowledge of his collections is hardly likely to interpret them adequately. Equally a curator without some understanding of communicating his collec- tions, whether through display, teaching or publication, is unlikely to provide a very effective museum service. In many respects the views exemplified here represent two of the many different types of museum that exist today. Indeed this is a factor which exacerbates the training debate: the diversity of the museums themselves, their character, size, location, collections and clientele. While museums should have clear objectives involving the collections, their preservation and interpretation, the emphasis placed on these different aspects of the museum operation can vary enormously.

The last twenty years have seen increasing specialization among museum staff. In a number of museums conservators, designers, educationists and in- formation scientists, for example, now fulfil roles previously undertaken by curatorial staff. If these specialists are not on the museum staff, they may be engaged as consultants or through another museum service. Another example

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of change affects the financing of museums. Many museums now rely heavily on a variety of funding sources and have had to develop a far more overtly com- mercial, even if non-profitmaking, approach in order to sumive. This implies an understanding of dBerent fiscal skills, particularly for museums outside the public sector, which are unlikely to have the back-up of financial and ad- ministrative services found in the governmental sector.

Another factor today is that museums, collectively, are big business to many nations. Statistics reveal that hundreds of millions of visits ape recorded in the museums of the world each year. Many of these visitors are tourists, from within a nation as well as from other countries. The heritage of a country may constitute a major attraction for foreign visitors thus giving museums an in- direct but important contri0ution to make to the economic base of that coun-

through which the story of a nation and its own people is communicated. The contribution of this to education and national understanding is considerable, if not easily measured, and has also to be recognized.

Should museum studies training now embrace al1 the various specialisms in- volvecl as well as the many disciplines traditionally associated with museums? Or should training compartmentalize the many specialisms comprising museum work rather than embrace the whole operation? Museum work is team work and, to provide cohesion within the museum as an institution, its members should know and understand not only their own role but that oftheir colleagues as well. The same argument also applies to the cohesiveness of the museum profession at large. There is a distinct body of knowledge relating eo the museum phenomenon, and museum practitioners , whatever their role, need to be aware of this theory and develop their practice accordingly. To achieve this, some form of formal training is essential; the apprenticeship ap-

there is the necessary breadth of knowledge and experience to pass this on but the approach tends also to promote the statas qao in professional development.

There comes ;E time when the increasing body of knowledge, the supporting technology, the role and standing of the practitioners in society and the demands of society on them c d for a high level of training. The museum world has already reached this stage and museum training rightly has a high priority in Unesco's programme. The modzcs operandi will vary from country to country to meet particular requirements. How some have responded to this and the complexities of the museum operation in training museum personnel

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proach does not fulfil this need, for not only are there few museums where

forms the subject of this issue. It must be a continuin

Geoffrey LEWIS