Museum Studies: Getting Started

Basic sources for researching an museum studies including finding books, journal articles, and professional information.

Introduction

A Museum is defined by ICOM as: a non-profit, permanent institution in the service of society and its development, open to the public, which acquires, conserves, researches, communicates and exhibits the tangible and intangible heritage of humanity and its environment for the purposes of education, study and enjoyment.

Museum studies, sometimes called museology, is the field that encompasses the ideas and issues involved in the museum profession—from the practical, 
day-to-day skills needed to operate a museum to theories on the societal role of museums.

Some of the skill areas include: Museum Administration and Management; Archives; Conservation; Collections Care and Management; Public Programming, Education, and Exhibition; Technology; and Legal Matters.  

KU Library Catalog

Other Library Catalogs

Starting Points

KU's Museum Studies Program

Interlibrary Loan

Webcasts & YouTube

The Smithsonian Center for Education and Museum Studies offers numerous webcasts on a variety of topics.

Center for the Future of Museums has a number of videos and lectures.

The Museum Computer Network has programs from their annual conferences.

Fine Arts & Humanities Librarian

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Andi Back
Contact:
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aback@ku.edu

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