Curators and Archivists

Hi Taryn,

Your wiki on Museum Archives is coming along really nicely. The introduction gives a nice overview. In particular, I like the quote from Claudia Hommel, the pictures you've included (they could be a little bit bigger!), and the 3 examples of museum archives.

I have a couple of comments about the section "Curators and Archivists." I think that the first sentence in the second paragraph,

"Differences between the curator’s job within the museum, and the archivist’s job within the museum archives, as well as other differences with regards to how archivists and curators view the archival records and collections objects within the museum contributes to a language discrepancy that sees curators and archivists speaking two different languages, and that searching out a common ground in order for both to see eye-to-eye would be ideal."

is a bit long and redundant since you already make a similar point in the first paragraph: "Fundamental differences between the professions of curator and archivist can sometimes cause strain on the relationship between the two. It is vital for the curator and archivist to find common ground, built upon the foundation of a strong museum administration, and focusing on similarities while arbitrating differences."

In order to add a little bit if you decide to remove the redundant sentence would maybe be to elaborate a bit on the point you make about the differences between archivists and curators in how they handle records and artifacts:

"Curators, for example, catalogue and collect in a manner that does not reflect the way that archivists process, arrange and describe.[36]"

This is an interesting point, but it would be nice to hear a little bit more about it!

Two small suggestions: "The success in the 1980s can be attributed several factors" - "to several factors"

"Museums are not static entities whose missions and functions remain static throughout their existence." - replace the 2nd "static" with another word?

Cristen

Hi Cristen,

Thanks for the feedback! Fixed the minor issues you pointed out, appreciate it very much! I'm slowly but surely figuring out how exactly I want to approach the curator/archivist section, I do see the redundancy in those two sentences, so I will restructure or probably just eliminate the second paragraph's opening sentence. Resources are quite low, and seem to be very opposing when it comes to whats written vs. the reality re: relationships between archivists and curators, so I'll have to work that in somehow as well. Thanks very much for the feedback again!

-Taryn