1.3 Findings

1.3.1 Educational Programs: Scope of Technology Courses

Of the 92 training programs surveyed, only 20 conferred stand-alone graduate-level degrees in museum studies in Canada and the United States. In Canada, for instance, only the University of Toronto and L'Université du Québec à Montréal et l'Université de Montréal offer graduate degrees in museum studies/muséologie. In many cases, museum studies programs are administered by larger departments, e.g. Art History or Anthropology, or as certificate programs delivered in conjunction with related undergraduate and graduate degrees, e.g. Public History. These programs often provide opportunities for students to take courses in information technology or informatics as electives. Florida State University, for example, allows students enrolled in its Museum Studies Certificate program to take a museum informatics course offered by the College of Information. Similarly, students enrolled in the University of Toronto's Museum Studies Program may take courses offered by the larger Faculty of Information in which the program is situated.

There are, however, a couple of programs in North America that distinguish themselves by the degree to which technology is central to the curriculum. These are the Cybermuséologie program at the Université du Québec en Outaouais and the Museum Studies Program at the Johns Hopkins University.

While the Johns Hopkins University program and the Université du Québec en Outaouais Programme de Cybermuséologie are unique in their delivery of courses that emphasize technology, many museum studies programs have integrated courses pertaining to technology into their curricula and have done so in three predominant ways. First, several programs have developed survey courses that address the role and impact of technology on museums, such as George Washington University's "Museums and Technology" course. Second, some programs include one or more courses that focus on specific technologies and/or provide overviews of current technology (e.g. Web 2.0, digital curation, World Wide Web), and ask students to consider how museums are being transformed by new technologies.

In many cases, these two types of courses are considered electives and can be taken to complement core course requirements. The University of Colorado, for instance, offers a course called "Introduction to Scientific Illustration", which instructs students on the use of basic computer applications used for rendering scientific subjects for public display. Additional courses provide subject-specific instruction for online fundraising and public relations; museum informatics; and digital imaging, as well as a range of issues related to Internet and Web 2.0 technologies. Of note, Tufts University offers "Museums and New Media" and University of Michigan offers "Preserving Information". It is possible that courses with specific content reflect the particular expertise of faculty at any given program.

A third group of courses that include technology as a component of instruction pertains to the specific area of collections management. These courses are commonly part of the core curricula for museum studies programs. Course descriptions vary; however, common themes include collections databases, object-tracking, interactive Web systems, and environmental controls. University of Colorado, University of Denver, the University of Toronto and several other institutions each offer a collections management course that incorporates technology into its curriculum.

It should be noted that this audit has identified education programs that have included information technology content in their course descriptions; however, it is possible that many additional programs include technology in curricula, but do not state this specifically in their course descriptions. Programs may assume that issues related to technology are implicit in all levels of instruction or that students will build their technology skills through extra-curricular training. For example, the Museum Studies Program at the University of Toronto is supported by a number of non-credit courses administered by the Inforum, the Integrated Library & Information Studies Laboratory at the Faculty of Information. These courses, such as "Introduction to Adobe Illustrator", "Mind Mapping with Freemind", and "Blogging & RSS", are offered at various times throughout the academic year. In addition, many programs allow students to take courses offered by other faculties or departments as electives. Because this study considered courses administered by museum studies programs only, the range or amount of cross-disciplinary opportunities is difficult to assess.

1.3.2 Educational Programs: Categories of Technology Education

Course descriptions were analyzed for key words and phrases, such as "digital", "computer" and "Web 2.0". The analysis indicates that there are three predominant categories of technology instruction offered by accredited museum studies programs. These categories of technology instruction are: Technology related to collections, Technology related to Audiences, and the Impact of technology on museums. These categories include elements culled from course descriptions included in L'Université du Québec en Outaouais: Programme de Cybermuséologie course listings and the Johns Hopkins University MA in Museum Studies course listings.

All three categories of technology instruction appear at each level of education (diploma, degree and certificate). Although Technology Related to Audiences offers the broadest range of subjects, including Web 2.0 and other interactive technologies, the most common category of instruction is Technology Related to Collections. This is perhaps because this type of instruction frequently appears in collections management courses, which as previously noted, are often core requirements in museums studies programs.

1.3.3 Professional Development Opportunities

Both credit and non-credit professional development programs that address digital technologies and their roles in museums are available across the United States and Canada. Most notably, the Ontario Museums Association offers a Certificate in Museum Studies that includes a collections management course with a technology component ("Collections Management") and Northwestern University in Chicago offers Museum Studies Professional Development Program, which includes two management courses enriched with technology content ("Successful Museum Management" and "Learning in Museums"). The University of Victoria, B.C. administers a certificate program with a number of courses that emphasize technology; these include, "Global Technologies and Local Knowledge" and "Museum Information Management", among others. These types of professional development programs allow practicing professionals the opportunity to upgrade their applied technology skills and learn about the impact that technology has on museums. Generally, however, professional development programs address new trends and training on specific technologies.

1.3.4 Conferences, Workshops & Seminars

Conferences offer additional professional development opportunities for practicing museum professionals. The Canadian Museums Association (CMA), the American Associations of Museums (AAM), and the Visual Resources Association (VRA), each hold major conferences annually with several workshops and seminars for participants. Many of these events address issues related to technology or provide training on particular technology applications; topics vary from year-to-year based on trends and interest from association members. Archives and Museum Informatics' "Museums and the Web" and the Museum Computer Networks annual conferences have emerged in recent years to address specifically the coalescence of technology and museums. The archived proceedings of these two conferences provide an expansive literature on the directions of museums and technology. The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) also hosts an annual conference called Webwise. In 2009, the theme of this conference was "Digital Debates", which addressed the "Big Issues" faced by museums, libraries, archives, and other cultural institutions in terms of emerging technologies.

Notably, in 2008 AVICOM's Festival international de l'audiovisuel et du multimédia sur la patrimoine (FIAMP) was an online conference focusing on cybermuseology. Each day of the conference featured live online sessions during which participants could interact with panelists and peers. All sessions were recorded and posted immediately for those who could not attend the conference site in Gatineau, Quebec. The emphasis during FIAMP 2008 was on sharing, networking and generating a universe of ideas that everyone could use immediately in their practice. The Department of Canadian Heritage and CHIN were among the organizing partners of his conference.

CHIN also offers eight online instructional guides on topics related to digitization and preservation, and web presence, as well as related research and resources. These e-tutorials, developed by CHIN and partners, aim to provide museum workers with training related to the creation, management, and preservation of digital content. CHIN does not charge a fee for these e-tutorials. Current offerings include:

Finally CHIN staff actively engage with the academic community by lecturing to Museum Studies programs in Canada on topics related to CHIN's online projects.