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Museum Informatics Across the Curriculum: Ten Years of Preparing LIS Students for Careers Transcending Libraries, Archives, and Museums

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Museum Informatics Across the Curriculum: Ten Years of Preparing LIS Students for Careers Transcending Libraries, Archives, and Museums Museum Informatics Across the Curriculum: Ten Years of Preparing LIS Students for Careers Transcending Libraries, Archives, and Museums Paul F. Marty School of Library and Information Studies, College of Communication and Information, Florida State University, 240 Louis Shores Building, Tallahassee, FL 32306-2100. F-maii: [email protected] Michael B. Twidale Graduate School of Library and Information Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 501 E. Daniel Street, Champaign, IL 61820-6211. E-mail: [email protected] Library and Information Science (LIS) students are increasingly interested in pursuing careers that transcend traditional boundaries between libraries, archives, and museums. To help students achieve these goals, the LIS programs at the University of Illinois and Florida State University have offered courses on museum informatics—the sociotech- nical interactions between people, information, and technology in museums—since 2001 and 2003 respectively. An examination of the evolution of these courses over the past decade provides a unique opportunity to explore their relevance and value to LIS students, their ability to meet student needs and educational goals, and their integration into the LIS curriculum. Through a content analysis of course syllabi and assignments, this article examines bow tbe teaching of museum informatics in LIS programs has evolved in response to course evaluations and research publications documenting the changing nature of information work in museums. It discusses key milestones in the evolution of the course from examining museums as a unique information organization to helping students acquire the knowledge they need to work across all types of cultural heritage institutions. Keywords: museum informatics, cultural heritage organizations, information profes- sionals, course development and evolution, content analysis, transcending libraries, archives, and museums Introduction enroll in interdisciplinary programs in the digital humanities and museum studies. IS students are increasingly interested Recent years have seen renewed interest Lin pursuing careers that transcend the in research exploring the overlapping edu- boundaries between libraries, archives, cational goals of LIS, archival studies, and and lnuseums. They are well aware that museum studies programs (Given & Mc- access to digital resources has blurred tra- Tavish, 2010; Trant, 2009). Workshops, ditional distinctions between information conferences, and new funding initiatives organizations, leading to a digital conver- have focused on the common challenges gence of libraries, archives, and museums facing libraries, archives, and museums, (Zorich, Waibel, & Erway, 2008; cf. Ray- exploring how educators and practitioners ward, 1998). To improve their understand- can work together to meet their shared in- ing of the responsibilities of information formation needs (Marty, 2008). professionals in cultural heritage institu- This article contributes to this small but tions., they seek out courses on digital ar- growing body of literature by document- chives and digital preservation, and they ing the evolution of a course on museum J. of Education for Library and Information Science, Vol. 52, No. 1—(Winter) January 2011 ISSN: 0748-5786 © 2011 Association for Library and Information Science Education 10 JOURNAL OF EDUCATION FOR LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SCIENCE informatics—the sociotechnical interac- history of teaching courses about archives, tions between people, information, and museums, and other memory institutions technology in museums—at two differ- in LIS programs (Cox & Larsen, 2008), ent universities: the university of Illinois and LIS students are frequently interested and Florida State University (FSU). An in pursuing careers in museums, archives, analysis ofthe evolution of these courses rare books, and special collections (Marty, over the past decade provides a unique op- 2005). portunity to explore their relevance and Recent research has demonstrated the value to LIS students, their ability to meet value of LIS skills and expertise for mu- student needs and educational goals, and seum professionals (Marty, 2007b) and their integration into the LIS curriculum. chronicled the rise of a tiew type of mu- This study identifies important milestones seum professional, one whose interests lie in the evolution of the course, detailing in managing museum information resourc- how each new iteration was influenced by es (Hamma, 2004; cf. Hermann, 1997). research publications and course evalua- These individuals need to be capable of tions, and examining the lessons learned at setting information policy, administering each stage in the process. The results help content management systems, implement- illustrate best practices for LIS, museum ing metadata standards, etc., and museum studies, and archival studies educators administrators have become increasingly and practitioners as they work to meet the concerned over their ability to find em- shared challenges facing cultural heritage ployees who understand the unique infor- organizations. mation environment ofthe modern muse- um (Marty, 2007a). As museum professionals look forward Literature Review to new ways of interacting with informa- tion resources and technologies, there is Museum informatics is the "study of an unprecedented opportunity to promote the sociotechnical interactions that take integration and cross-disciplinary collabo- place at the intersection of people, in- ration between LIS and museum studies, formation, and technology in museums" in education and practice. With museums (Marty, 2010, p. 3717). This literature re- interested in hiring LIS graduates (muse- view provides the necessary background utii job postings frequently list a master's for a study of museum informatics in LIS in LIS as "highly desired"), and with LIS programs by examining the historical con- students interested in pursuing museum nections between museum studies and LIS careers, it makes sense that the informa- education, and recent initiatives to prepare tion needs of museums be included in LIS students for careers in libraries, archives, curricula. and museums. Preparing LIS Students for Cultural Museum Studies and LIS Education Heritage Careers There has long been a close relationship Teaching LIS students about museum between LIS and museum studies. Many informatics is only the first step; LIS ed- museum employees, including museum ucators today are focused on preparing librarians and registrars, have LIS back- their students to meet information needs in grounds (Reed & Sledge, 1988), and mu- many different organizations. While there seum professionals, along with librarians has always been a strong relationship be- and archivists, have a great deal of expe- tween libraries, archives, and museums rience solving information management (Given & McTavish, 2010), the ongoing problems (MacDonald, 1991). There is a digital convergence of cultural heritage Museum Informatics Across the Curriculum 11 institutions has prompted educators and ics have been integrated into LIS curricula. practitioners to re-examine how they can The results of such studies will help deter- combine forces to better serve their users, mine the future education of infonnation many of whom do not distinguish between professionals who wish to work across the different institutions or the information boundaries of libraries, archives, and mu- resources they manage (Marty, 2008). Re- seums. cent years have seen a renewed focus on integrating LIS, archival studies, and mu- seum studies education (Ray, 2009; Trant, Methods 2009). These efforts have prompted LIS pro- This study examines how the teach- grams (e.g. Illinois, FSU, UCLA, etc.) to ing of museum informatics at two LIS offer courses on information management programs—the University of Illinois and in museums, and museum studies pro- Florida State Universify—has evolved grams (e.g. Harvard, Johns Hopkins, JFK in response to student evaluation data University, etc.) to offer courses on muse- and empirical research documenting the ums and information technology. Schools changing nature of information work in such as the Faculty of Information at the museums. Through a content analysis University of Toronto have experimented of course syllabi, student evaluations, with offering master's degrees in LIS and and research publications., we identified museum studies as part of the same pro- the factors that led to curricular changes gram, and there are now several univer- at these universities from 2001 to 2010. sities (e.g. the Universities of Michigan, Rather than providing a single snapshot of Washington, and British Columbia) where the course as it existed at a given point in it is possible to seek advanced degrees in time, this approach allows us to document LIS, archival studies, and museum studies how these programs have evolved over the from the same university, even if the de- years and provide a detailed analysis ofthe grees are offered by different departments. factors that influenced these changes. Such initiatives are rare, however, and We began our analysis by gathering all even at universities where it is possible to available material for each iteration ofthe pursue degrees in LIS, archival studies, class, a total of 15 unique course offerings and museum studies simultaneously, there across two universities from 2001 to 2010. are very few students (if any) actually do- Available data included syllabi, readings, ing it. In an attempt to break down
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