Museum Information

It can be argued that the business of museums is information. Information is of paramount importance in fulfilling the basic functions of collecting, recording, preserving, managing, researching and communicating. Museums need to manage many types of information in the operation of facilities , fulfilling mandates, administering finances, getting members, soliciting funds, acquiring objects, or mounting exhibitions. This view, shown schematically in Figure 1, is becoming more commonly accepted but it still is not universally accepted. The information handling requirements for museum activities such as accounting, financial, educational , staffing, and public programs are still often seen to be completely separate from collections management. Until recently, it was not common to systematically assess all the information needs and especially to find points of information integration.