MUSEUM, OPERATION OF

wide array of diverse tasks that a museum undertakes in order to preserve and interpret the material aspects of human society and the environment. Several of the most important museum operations are described in this article. For purposes of convenience they are gathered into two categories: those operations which contribute to maintaining the museum as an organization (e.g., administration, management, funding, inter-museum cooperation) and those activities which are most commonly considered to be typical of museums (e.g., collection, preservation, cataloging, exhibition). For an account of the development of museums since the earliest collections of antiquity, see the article museum, history of. For the characteristics of art museums, natural history and natural science museums, science and technology museums, history museums, and general museums, see the article museum, types of. Geoffrey D. Lewis Additional reading Until recently the information relating to museums has been much dispersed, but detailed studies are now being published in book form. The following list identifies some of the literature available.The most comprehensive bibliographic listing is International Museological Bibliography (annual), maintained by the ICOM, and is also available on CD-ROM. A number of other bibliographies are published, such as Simon J. Knell (compiler and ed.), A Bibliography of Museum Studies, 11th ed. (1994); Michael Steven Shapiro and Louis Ward Kemp (eds.), The Museum: A Reference Guide (1990); and Peter Woodhead and Geoffrey Stansfield, Keyguide to Information Sources in Museum Studies, 2nd ed. (1994). Art and Archaeology Technical Abstracts (semiannual) provides abstracts on museum techniques within these fields. Istvn ri and Bla Vgh (eds.), Dictionary of Museology (1986), lists museum terms in 20 languages.General periodicals include Museum International (quarterly); I C O M News (quarterly); Curator (quarterly); Museum Management and Curatorship (quarterly); Museums Journal (quarterly); Museum News (bimonthly); and Museum Practice (3/yr.).General works about museums and their operation include Timothy Ambrose and Crispin Paine, Museum Basics (1993); John M.A. Thompson et al. (eds.), Manual of Curatorship: A Guide to Museum Practice, 2nd ed. (1992); and Gary Edson and David Dean, The Handbook for Museums (1994). Professional training is covered in Victor J. Danilov, Museum Careers and Training: A Professional Guide (1994); Gary Edson, International Directory of Museum Training (1995); Jane R. Glaser and Artemis A. Zenetou, Museums: A Place to Work: Planning Museum Careers (1996); and Stephen E. Weil, A Cabinet of Curiosities: Inquiries into Museums and Their Prospects (1995), and Rethinking the Museum and Other Meditations (1990), on museum administration and techniques. Examples of national position statements may be found in American Association of Museums, Museums for a New Century (1984), and Museums Count (1994); and Great Britain, Museums and Galleries Commission, Museums Matter (1992).Museum operations in various types of museums are considered in Susan Pearce (ed.), Art in Museums (1995); Stella V.F. Butler, Science and Technology Museums (1992); Peter Davis, Museums and the Natural Environment: The Role of Natural History Museums in Biological Conservation (1996); Gaynor Kavanagh, History Curatorship (1990); and Susan M. Pearce, Archaeological Curatorship (1990). Works on specific aspects of museum operation include Josep Ma. Montaner, New Museums, trans. from Spanish (1990), an architectural view of recent museums; Gail Dexter Lord and Barry Lord, The Manual of Museum Planning (1991); H.J. Plenderleith and A.E.A. Werner, The Conservation of Antiquities and Works of Art: Treatment, Repair, and Restoration, 2nd ed. (1971); Garry Thomson, The Museum Environment, 2nd ed. (1986, reissued 1994); David Liston (ed.), Museum Security and Protection (1993); D. Andrew Roberts, Planning the Documentation of Museum Collections (1985); and Dorothy H. Dudley et al., Museum Registration Methods , 3rd ed., rev. (1979).Interpretive functions of museums are treated in R.S. Miles et al. (compilers), The Design of Educational Exhibits, 2nd ed. (1988); Michael Belcher, Exhibitions in Museums (1991); Giles Velarde, Designing Exhibitions (1988); Eilean Hooper-Greenhill, Museum and Gallery Education (1991); Eilean Hooper-Greenhill (ed.), The Educational Role of the Museum (1994); Roger Miles and Lauro Zavala (eds.), Towards the Museum of the Future: New European Perspectives (1994), which utilizes case studies to demonstrate the museum as communicator and educator in a rapidly changing world; Sue Runyard, The Museum Marketing Handbook (1994); and G. Donald Adams, Museum Public Relations (1983).The legal arrangements concerning museums are closely related to those of the preservation of cultural property, and the following are helpful: Lyndel V. Prott and P.J. O'Keefe, Law and the Cultural Heritage (1984 ); The Protection of Movable Cultural Property (1984 ), collected legislative texts for many countries published by UNESCO; Stephen E. Weil, Beauty and the Beasts: On Museums, Art, the Law, and the Market (1983); and Marie C. Malaro, A Legal Primer on Managing Museum Collections (1985), and Museum Governance: Mission, Ethics, Policy (1994). Geoffrey D. Lewis