MUSEUM LIBRARY, LIBRARY MUSEUM

A museum library is a two for one deal.

Go to the museum, check out the library.

Someone always gets a surprise.

What’s the surprise?

They like the time spent there so much they want to go back.

Whether it’s a kid, a student, or an adult, there’s something about a museum that hits the spot.

I know this from spending two decades in museum work.

Now, I hear you thinking, ‘is it really work dusting off old stuff?’

To do the job I had, I needed forklift certification, knowledge about the materials things were made of, and a thick skin.

Why the thick skin?

Because so many museum people are transient in nature, moving up the ladder from one institution to the next.

Not me. I was an Oregonian in an Oregon museum. I wasn’t going anywhere.

Neither was the old boss who’d been there thirty-five years and had the region dialed in.

After he retired, a string of bosses arrived one after another.

Not one had the correct understanding of how to make the place more vital than the old boss.

They had a job, did the work, and called it good.

The old guy was fun, understood all of the extras, and brought in people who were on the same page.

He had staff parties at his house, board member meetings at his house, and made everyone feel at home.

So what’s the problem with a museum library?

Museum Library Public Relations

During my travels I make an effort to see local museums big and small.

I was introduced to a curator once because I wanted to know more about their museum conservation work.

Old stuff turns to dust if they aren’t looked after.

But the old museum pro was a Phd who wanted me to know all about him.

The guy couldn’t answer a question unless it was about him.

Was he a behind the scenes worker? Yes he was.

He must have been good at what he did because he was a poor PR hype man.

Maybe I was just a naive baby boomer, like so many baby boomers, or maybe he didn’t like young museum professionals angling for his job?

The big job for a museum, or museum library, is education.

The bigger job is keeping the doors open, finding new sources of funding, and keeping the base membership happy.

A museum tells a story, many stories, aided by writers writing about art, history, and technology.

Sometimes a writer focuses on on area and creates an exhibit, a show, something millennials will show up for.

Cutting a federal source of museum library funding leaves more than the doors closed.

Sometimes it’s the death of an institution, the death of a career, leaving a tattered history that fades to obscurity.

We like unadulterated history from original sources, not some story made up to fit someone’s idea of what could have been.

We like education to help new people understand what they’ve got to look forward to.

There’s nothing like a responsible archive to spur interest. (Hey Matt)

A well funded museum library, museum and library, shows the way.

It’s good medicine for what ails you.