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LIS 2225 |
MUSEUM ARCHIVES, SUMMER 2006 TERM |
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Time/Location |
Wednesday, 6:00 – |
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Instructor: |
Bernadette G. Callery |
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Office Telephone: |
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Office Hours: |
By appointment or via email |
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Office Location: |
Carnegie Museum of Natural History or by appointment |
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Instructor's Email: |
calleryb@CarnegieMNH.org |
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Instructor's Homepage |
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Course URL: |
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E-Reserves |
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Museums can be defined as objects organized within a specific intellectual environment. This course is an opportunity for students to analyze and evaluate the range of recordkeeping systems that have been used by museums to document their collections, and the physical and intellectual environment in which records are created, used and maintained. Records of lasting value to museums include both those records that document individual objects in the museum's collection and those that document the business of the museum in acquiring, preserving and interpreting those objects.
Beginning with an overview of the history of museums and the roles of museum staff in creating and using museum records, students will identify the various types of records created by a museum in the course of its business of building, maintaining and using collections of objects. Functional analysis will be used as an archival appraisal technique to examine the organizational structure of a museum, in order to determine what records are created by the museum in the course of its business, which of those records are essential to the museum and where those records are likely to be created and maintained in a given museum. Students will examine internal and external policies governing the activities of the organization, and determine their influence on records creation and retention. The second half of the course will apply this knowledge to a series of "hot topics" which bear directly on the capture, retention and interpretation of records. Examples of these "hot topics" are acquisition and ownership of cultural property, repatriation of cultural objects, provenance research, especially of Nazi-era looted art, detection of forgeries and collaborative online access to images and other collection information. Two classes will be devoted to business or corporate archives in order to provide a contrasting extreme cultural environment for the management of archives. The course will provide an opportunity to apply previously learned archival theories to a specific institutional setting.
While direct experience of any type of museum will be helpful in this class, it is not required. If this is your first archives class, you may find it necessary to do additional reading in order to participate in class discussions and to benefit from the assigned readings. If you are in doubt about your background for this class, please contact the instructor to discuss this.
Please note that while this class will help you develop skills to identify, capture and maintain records dealing with museum exhibitions, object description and conservation, this class will not teach you to design or mount museum exhibitions, catalog or conserve museum objects.
As an active and thoughtful participant in this class, you will be prepared to serve as an archivist within a museum and to create, analyze or maintain a museum archives and records management system. These skills will allow you to:
§ Identify the historical changes of a museum’s purpose and structure and analyze the impact of those changes on museum recordkeeping systems
§ Analyze the recordkeeping issues specific to museums as a particular class of archival system
§ Describe the specific types of records and recordkeeping systems used by museums
§ Apply functional analysis as an appraisal method to the museum’s collections and activities as a means of evaluating its records for retention
§ Debate the application of archival theory and practice to the organization and access to museum records
§ Compare the recommendations and rationale for records management in the archival and collection management literature from the point of view of both an archivist and a museum curator
§ Examine copyright and intellectual property policies and practices in the museum context, particularly in the electronic information environment
§ Formulate maintainable museum archive policies that are consistent with professional best practice and that persuasively employ the specific language of museum recordkeeping systems
Books and periodical articles listed below as Required
Reading are available on reserve in the
Assignments, citations to readings, class notes and websites of organizations discussed in class are included both in the hardcopy syllabus and on its electronic version at http://courseweb.pitt.edu.
Please contact the instructor if you have any difficulty gaining access to any of this material, either in hard copy or in electronic form. Note that periodic updates and additions will be made to the information on the Courseweb site. Courseweb’s email function will be used to send out notices of any changes or updates and may also be used by used by you to send email to any or all of your classmates or the instructor.
In-class participation – 15%
§ Students should make every attempt to attend every class session. If for some reason a student must miss a class, he or she should contact one of the instructors as soon as possible, but preferably in advance of the class meeting.
§ Students should participate in discussions with relevant comments on the readings’ major arguments and importance.
§ Students who do not participate in class discussions should expect to get no higher than a B+ in the course.
Comparative précis and class discussion question – 15%
Each student will select one of the required readings from weeks 2-6 and another from weeks 7-11, locate another article related in some way to each chosen article and write a 1-2 page précis summarizing the major arguments of both articles and assessing the success or failure of these arguments. Such an assessment might examine sources, clarity of arguments, supporting evidence, competing theories, documentation, organization and writing style. The précis will be due the night the assigned reading is scheduled for discussion. In addition, the student will post a discussion question to the class based on one of these reading pairs and lead at least a 5 minute discussion on it.
Policy paper and cover memo – 30%
The policy paper, due in week 8, July 5, will be a total of 8-15 pages and will concern museum policies dealing with some aspect of recordkeeping systems. You are to create a policy document and write an accompanying document summarizing the practical and theoretical literature dealing with this policy. Additionally, you will write an accompanying memo explaining the policy, such as might be used to justify the policy to the museum’s director or as a cover letter accompanying the policy to the museum’s staff. Sample policies might include requests for permission to use the archives, requests for permission to publish archival material from the collection, policies on staff collecting and consulting, ownership of personal papers created within the context of the museum, gifts and the rights of donors to restrict access, digitization on demand or deaccessioning.
Assignment statement for the policy paper:
Your assignment is to select a single museum archives activity or service, then
§ Write a policy statement and its accompanying procedure document that presents the museum's official position on this activity or service and the procedures used to achieve the policy’s desired outcome. (2-4 pages)
§ Write the cover memo for the policy that would introduce and explain the new policy to museum staff. (no more than 2 pages)
§ Write the benchmarking document, a literature survey that supports your policy decision as representative of prevailing best practice. (4-8 pages)
The purpose of this paper is to give you practical
experience in designing and communicating a recordkeeping policy. This paper will be due in week 8, July
5.
Research Paper – 40%
The research paper, due in week 11, July 26, will be 20-25 pages and be a more extensive investigation of one of the "hot topics" discussed in class or another controversial issue of your choosing that illustrates the purpose and value of museum recordkeeping systems. Appropriate topics could include the identification and restoration of looted art, management of personal papers (of museum staff), deaccessioning, conservation and art fraud, or cooperative access to electronic image collections.
A 1-2 page summary of the research paper will be due to the instructor
in week 6, June 21. The final form of
the paper will be due in week 11, July 26.
Doctoral Students. Doctoral students have the option of either all three assignments as described above or a major research paper of publishable quality that develops one of the themes discussed in this class as it relates to their thesis research. Students choosing this latter option should discuss their plans with the instructor by the second week of class.
Because so much of your interaction with others in this profession will be through written communications, all the course assignments are opportunities to practice your writing skills. Reminders of assignments and their due dates will appear on the Courseweb site and on the following Course at a Glance page. Assignments can be turned as hard copy handed to the instructor or via the Courseweb Drop Box by 6 PM on the day the assignment is due. No assignments will be accepted for full credit after the class period for which they are assigned without prior approval by the instructor.
Please do not hesitate to discuss these assignments with the instructor in class, via email or in person outside class. You are encouraged to meet with the instructor at least once during the course to discuss your work on the assignments.
Students should adhere to the latest edition of the Chicago Manual of Style in the preparation of their papers. Papers should use at least 1.5 line spacing and at least 10 point fonts. Do not use parenthetical references or ibid. in successive footnotes. Papers not using this style will be lowered half a letter grade.
Students
will be expected to comply with the University’s Policy on Academic Integrity
at http://www2.sis.pitt.edu/~wadmin/academics/information/sisacint.html
Any student suspected of violating this obligation for any reason during the semester will be required to participate in the procedural process, initiated at the instructor level, as outlined in the University Guidelines on Academic Integrity. If there is clear evidence of your presenting another's work as your own, including not citing published material or electronic resources, you will receive a failing grade for that assignment and your final grade will be lowered a full letter grade.
Incomplete grades will be given only if the instructor is notified by week 10 of emergency circumstances affecting the student’s ability to meet the course requirements. If an incomplete grade is granted, it is the student’s responsibility to make arrangements with the instructor to clear the incomplete within the one year limit.
If you have a disability for which you are or may be requesting an
accommodation, you are encouraged to contact your instructor and Disability
Resources and Services, 216 William Pitt
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Date/
Week |
Topic |
Assignments
in addition to assigned readings) |
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May
17 Week
1 |
Introduction
to Museum History |
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May
24 Week
2 |
Functional
analysis of museums and resultant records |
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May
31 Week
3 |
Overview
of business archives |
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June
7 Week
4 |
Museum
policies and practices |
Elizabeth
Tufts Brown, Guest speaker |
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June 14 Week
5 |
Acquisitions,
Donors and Deaccessioning |
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June
21 Week
6 |
Rights
management and cooperative access to image collections |
Karin
Schellenberger, Guest speaker Paper
outline due |
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June
30 Week
7 |
Restricted
access to sensitive information |
NOTE
change of day, time and location of class meeting |
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July
5 Week
8 |
Business
ethics and archives |
Policy
paper due |
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July
12 Week
9 |
Provenance
research |
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July
19 Week
10 |
Theft
of cultural resources and repatriation |
Deborah
Harding, Guest speaker |
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July
26 Week
11 |
Forgeries
and authenticity in the real and virtual worlds |
Final paper due |
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Aug
2 Week
12 |
Culture
wars in the museum |
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The items listed below and chosen for each week’s readings represent a portion of the available literature on this topic. Students should also browse the selected organizational websites for general information about these organizations and their services, as well as the increasing number of online publications mounted at these sites. Call numbers are those used by the University of Pittsburgh Library System and may be used to retrieve the books from reserve from the SIS Library; e-journal means that the full text of the journal is available via the University’s electronic journal collection; e-reserve means that the material is available online through the University’s e-reserve system.
The following are strongly recommended for purchase:
Alexander, Edward. Museums in Motion: An Introduction to the History and Functions of Museums. Nashville, TN: American Association of State and Local History, 1979.
AM5 A37
Buck, Rebecca A. and Jean A. Gilmore, eds. The New Museum Registration Methods. Washington, DC: American Association of Museums, 1998. AM139. N4
Shapiro, Michael S., ed.
The Museum: A Reference Guide.
New York: Greenwood Press, 1990.
Z5052. M93
Wythe, Deborah, ed.
Museum Archives. Chicago, IL:
Society of American Archivists, 2004.
American Association for State and Local History (AASLH). Valuable publications, including Technical Leaflets and useful links to regional and national organizations.
http://www.aaslh.org/
American Institute for the Conservation of Historic & Artistic works. http://aic.stanford.edu/
Canadian Heritage Information Network (CHIN). Free access to resources dealing with collection management, intellectual property and creating and managing digital content in museums. Includes training tools, online publications, directories and databases.
http://www.chin.gc.ca/
International Council on Museums (ICOM). Particularly concerned with the preservation of cultural heritage worldwide. http://icom.museum/
Legal Protection of Cultural Property: A Selective Resource Guide by Louise Tsang. 2005. Available online at http://www.llrx.com/features/culturalproperty.htm
Rights and Reproduction Information Network (RARIN). A taskforce of the Registrars Committee, a Standing Professional Committee of the American Association of Museums, concerned with rights and reproduction of museum materials. http://www.panix.com/~squigle/rarin/01rcsite.html
Smithsonian Center for Education and Museum Studies (SCEMS). Includes Museum Studies Bibliographies. http://museumstudies.si.edu/
Society of American Archivists. http://www.archivists.org. See the Museum Archives section.
Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections (SPHNC). Includes research on ethnographic collections as well as biological and geological collections. Indexes for and the full text of some issues of the Society’s journal, Collection Forum, are also available online. http://www.spnhc.org/
UNESCO Archives Portal. http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=5761&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html Also
see UNESCO’s Memory of the World program.
How have museums institutionalized the basic human impulse to collect? How the relationship of museums to their public changed over time and what impact have these changes had on museum recordkeeping systems?
Required readings
Levin, Miriam
R. “Museums and the Democratic
Order.” Wilson Quarterly 26(1):
52-65 (Winter 2002). E-journal
Przybyla, Ann Marie. “The Museum Archives Movement,” in Museum Archives, 3-8, ed D. Wythe. Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 2004.
Do different types of collections generate different types of records? Which museum staff create and use what records – and how? How can functional analysis be used to predict the likelihood of records and their creators?
Alexander, Edward P. Chapters 1-5 in Museums in Motion: An Introduction to the History and Functions of Museums, 5-95. Nashville, TN: American Association for State and Local History, 1979.
Buck, Rebecca A. and Jean Allman Gilmore. “Documentation,” 1-37, “Processes,” 157-206, “Collections management policies,” 221-223. Skim “Collections management,” 43-155 in The New Museum Registration Methods. Washington, DC: American Association of Museums, 1998.
Spiess, Katherine and Philip Spiess. “Museum Collections,” in The Museum, A Reference Guide, ed. Michael S. Shapiro, 141-166. New York: Greenwood Press, 1990.
Wythe, Deborah, ed. Museum Archives. Chicago, IL: Society of American Archivists, 2004. Chapters 4-6,10-11
Recommended Readings
Samuels, Helen W. Varsity letters: documenting modern colleges and universities. Chicago, IL: Society of American Archivists, 1992. CD3065 S26 1992
What are the major differences between archives of for-profit organizations and archives for not-for-profit organizations?
Adkins, Elizabeth W. “The development of business Archives in the United States: An Overview and a Personal Perspective.” American Archivist, 60(1), 8-33, Winter 1997. E-reserve
Bruemmer, Bruce, “Avoiding accidents of evidence: Functional Analysis in the Appraisal of Business Records,” in The Records of American Business, 137-160, ed. J. O’Toole. Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 1997. HF5736 R3625 1997, E-reserve
Mooney, Philip F., “The Practice of History in Corporate America: Business archives in the United States,” in Corporate Archives and History: Making the Past Work, 9-20, ed. Arnita Jones and Philip L Cantelon. Malabar, FL: Kriegar Publishing Co., 1993. E-reserve
Smith, George David and Laurence E. Steadman, “Present Value of Corporate History,” Harvard Business Review, vol. 59, issue 6, Nov/December 1981, 164-173. E-journal.
Yakel, Elizabeth, “The way things work: Procedures, processes on organizational records,” American Archivist 59(4), 454-464, 1996. E-reserve
In addition to the usual concerns of archives use, what circumstances peculiar to museums are covered in museum archives policies? Guest Speaker: Elizabeth Tufts Brown, Associate Registrar, Carnegie Museum of Art.
Anderson, Susan. “Research Use: Ethics, Privacy and Restrictions,” in Museum Archives, ed. D. Wythe, 55-64. Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 2004.
Belk, Russell W. “Institutional collectors,” in his Collecting in a Consumer Society, 102-138. London: Routledge, 1995. E-reserve
Case, Mary, ed. Registrars on Record: Essays on Museum Collections Management. Washington, DC: American Association of Museums, 1988. Especially Margaret Santiago, "The Registrar in the Cabinet of Curiosities," 58-75; Karol A. Schmiegel, "Managing Collections Information," 46-56. AM 139 .R42
DeAngelis, Ildiko Pogany. “Collections Management: Hypothetical Cases, Acquisitions, Deaccessions, and Loans,” in Libraries, Museums, and Archives: Legal Issues and Ethical Challenges in the New Information Era, ed. Tomas A. Lipinski, 83-94. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2002. KF4315. L53
Malaro, Marie. “Legal and ethical foundations of museum collection policies,” in Libraries, Museums, and Archives: Legal Issues and Ethical Challenges in the New Information Era, ed. Tomas A. Lipinski, 69-82. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2002. KF4315. L53
Perry, K.D. et al. The Museum Forms Book. Austin, TX: Texas Association of Museums, 1990. Also see the Society of American Archivists’ 1982 Archival Forms Manual.
What are the common expectations of donors and how can gift policies clarify the conditions under which gifts are accepted and subsequently handled?
Required Readings
Alexander, Edward P. “Museum as Collection,” in his Museums in Motion: An Introduction to the History and Functions of Museums, 117-138. Nashville, TN: American Association for State and Local History, 1979.
Dearstyne, Bruce W. Managing Historical Records Programs. Walnut Creek, CA: Altamira Press, 2000. Skim, reading pages 1-30, 63-85, 156-164. CD3050. D43
Malaro, Marie C. Museum
Governance: Mission, Ethics, Policy.
Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1994. Chapters 6, 7, 10 AM121. M35
Sax, J.L. “Antiquities Business,” in his Playing Darts with a Rembrandt: Public and Private Rights in Cultural Treasures, 179-196. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1999. E-reserve
Swank, Scott, “The History Museum,” in The Museum: A Reference Guide, ed. M.S. Shapiro, 85-114. New York: Greenwood Press, 1990.
Malaro, Marie C. A Legal Primer on Managing Museum Collections. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1998.
Weil, Stephen E., ed. A Deaccession Reader. Washington, DC: American Association of Museums, 1997. Pages 1-123.
How do you control access to the multi-media records of cultural property, especially electronic images and machine-readable collection information and online exhibitions? Who decides what you can see online?
Guest lecturer: Karin Shellenbarger, Photo Archivist, Teenie Harris Archive, Carnegie Museum of Art
Buck, Rebecca A. and Jean Allman Gilmore. “Rights & Reproductions,” in The New Museum Registration Methods, 221-226. Washington, DC: American Association of Museums, 1998
Galloway, Edward A. “Imaging Pittsburgh: Creating a Shared Gateway to Digital Image Collections of the Pittsburgh Region.” First Monday, 9(5), May 2004. http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue9_5/galloway/index.html
Hirtle, Peter. “Archives or Assets.” Society of American Archivists Presidential Address, 2003. Available on SAA site http://www.archivists.org/governance/presidential/hirtle.asp Download (PDF) available at http://techreports.library.cornell.edu:8081/Dienst/UI/1.0/Display/cul.lib/2003-2
Shapiro, Michael S. and Brett I. Miller. A Museum Guide to Copyright and Trademark. Washington, DC: American Association of Museums, 1999. See the chapters on copyright, pp. 15-55 and Museums and the Web, pp. 93-105.
Tonelli, Edith A. “The Art Museum,” in The Museum, A Reference Guide, ed. M. S. Shapiro, 31-58. New York: Greenwood Press, 1990.
Darnell, Polly, “Audiovisual materials,” in Museum Archives, ed. D. Wythe, 141-152. Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 2004.
Sorkow, Janice. "Pricing and Licensing for Museum
Digital Content." Archives and Museum Informatics
11:165-179 (1997). E-journal
Who wields the power to control cultural identity? How is the concept of ownership culturally biased and how has it changed over time?
NOTE: This class will meet in the Carnegie Museum of Natural History on Friday, June 30, from 1-4 PM
Required Readings
Brown, Michael F. “The Missionary’s Photographs” and “Cultures
and Copyrights,” in his Who Owns Native
Culture? Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2003. K1401. B79.
E-reserve
Porter, Charlotte, “The Natural History Museum,” in The Museum: A Reference Guide, ed. M. Shapiro, 1-30. New York: Greenwood Press, 1990.
Sanjek, Roger. “The Secret Life of Fieldnotes,” in Field Notes: The Makings of Anthropology, edited by R. Sanjek, 187-270. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1990. E-reserve
Stam, Dierdre C., “The
Informed Muse: The Implications of the ‘New Museology’ for Museum Practice.” Museum
Management and Curatorship 12(1993): 267-283. E-journal
Tsosie, Rebecca, “Contaminated Collections: An Overview of the Legal, Ethical and Regulatory Issues” Collection Forum, Fall 2001, vol. 17, nos. 1-2, p. 14-29. E-reserve
Cox, Richard. “Truth and the Record in the Post-Truth Society,” Records and Information Management Report 21, Feb. 2005, 1-13.
Fogerty, James, “Facing Reality Oral History, Corporate Culture and the Documentation of Business,” in The Records of American Business, ed. J. O’Toole, 251-273. Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 1997.
Glantz, Stanton et al. The Cigarette Papers, Berkeley, University of California Press, 1996. online at http://www.library.ucsf.edu/tobacco.cigpapers
What records are necessary and adequate to prove ownership of objects? How are museum archives used to authenticate objects or prove ownership?
Guillford, A. "Bones of Contention: Repatriation of Native American Human Remains." Public Historian 18(2), Fall 1996: 119-143. E-reserve
Haglund, Kristine A.
"Implications of Repatriation for Museums and Archives." ASC
Newsletter 21(5): 53, 58-60 (October 1993). E-reserve
Yeide, Nancy, et al. American Association of Museums Guide to Provenance Research. Washington, DC: American Association of Museums, 2001. (Skim this) N3999. Y45
Nazi-Era Provenance Internet Portal. http://www.nepip.org/
Nicholas, Lynn H. The Rape of Europa: The Fate of Europe's Treasures in the Third Reich and the Second World War. New York: Vintage Books, 1994.
Simpson, Elizabeth, ed. The Spoils of War: World War II and Its Aftermath: The Loss, Reappearance and Recovery of Cultural Property. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., in association with the Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, 1997
Guest Lecturer: Deborah Harding, Collection Manager, Anthropology, Carnegie Museum of Natural History.
Atwood, Roger. “The Actual Object,” in his Stealing History: Tomb Raiders, Smugglers and the Looting of the Ancient World, 131-166, bibliography. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2004. E-reserve
Webb, Timothy, “Appropriating the Stones: the Elgin Marbles and English National Taste,” in Claiming the Stones, Naming the Bones: Cultural Property and the Negotiation of National and Ethnic Identity, ed. E. Barkan and R. Bush, 51-96. Los Angeles: Getty Research Institute, 2002. E-Reserve
Bogdanos, Matthew. “The Casualties of War: The Truth about the Iraq Museum.” American Journal of Anthropology 109(3): 477-526 (July 2005). E- reserve
Clavir, Miriam. “Historical Development of Conservation and Its Values,” “ConservationValues and Ethics,” in her Preserving What Is Valued: Museums, Conservation and First Nations 3-25, 26-66. Vancouver: UBC Press, 2002. E-text
Chaffinch, Lynne, “The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Art Theft Program,” in The Strategic Stewardship of Cultural Resources: To Preserve and Protect, ed. A.T. Merrill, 95-100. New York, London & Oxford: The Haworth Information Press, 2003. E-reserve. Also published as Journal of Library Administration, 38(1/2, 3/4), 2003. E-journal
What are the strategies for maintaining authenticity online? How can forgeries be detected and documented?
Are the responsibilities of preservation and access mutually exclusive? What are the ethics of “invisible” restoration – and who keeps the records of conservation treatment? Is it real?
Rapport, Leonard, "Fakes and Facsimiles: Problems of Identification," American Archivist 42: 13-58 (Jan 1979). E-reserve
Stille, Alexander. The Future of the Past. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2002. “The Sphinx – Virtual and Real”, 3-39. and also the introduction , ix-xxi and skim the conclusion “Writing and the Creation of the Past,” 311-339. CC135. S76. E-reserve
Caple, Chris. “History of Conservation,” “Conservation Ethics,” “Objects: Their Recording and Investigation,” and “Restoration.” In Conservation Skills: Judgment, Method and Decision Making, 46-58, 59-69, 70-89, 119-139. London: Routledge, 2000.
Hoving, Thomas. False Impressions: The Hunt for Big-time Art Fakes. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996
Who is the Museum for? What are the social influences, resulting in the “History Wars,” which influence how a museum selects and presents exhibitions and other public programs? How are these changes in position documented?
Required Readings
Washburn, Wilcomb E. “Museum Exhibition,” in The Museum: A Reference Guide, ed. M. Shapiro, 199-229. New York: Greenwood Press, 1990.
Weil, Stephen E. "From Being about Something to Being for Somebody: The Ongoing Transformation of the American Museum." Daedalus 128 (3): 229-258, 1999. E-reserve
Yakel, Elizabeth.
“Museums, Management, Media and Memory: Lessons from the Enola Gay
Exhibit.” Libraries and Culture 35 (Spring 2000): 278-310.
E-journal