Museum for sale

Here's what the American Association of Museums, the accrediting organization for museums in the U. S., has to say about that: http://www.aam-us.org/pubs/mn/snapshot.cfm Anyone who studies museums in a serious way will quickly encounter a few hurdles. First, you can't really define museums; at least, there is no definition that can be used consistently to include or exclude organizations from the ranks. A number of such groups as the International Council of Museums have written definitions that they use to determine membership. Others, such as the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services, use a definition to determine funding eligibility. The definitions agree on a few key points: museums are educational in nature and are open to the public at least part of the year. But consensus quickly breaks down. Most definitions prominently feature preservation and exhibition of collections, but our survey reveals that a fifth of museums report that they do not own, care for or use collections. Most definitions cite museums as being nonprofit entities working in service to the public, although there is a small but growing number of for-profit museums in the U.S. Increasingly, there are museums that exist only in such virtual locations as Second Life. What does it mean for these museums to be "open to the public"? It continues, but that's pretty definitive right there. Speaking as the holder of a certificate in museology from the University of Washington, I would consider Robert Krten's pdp12.org to be an on-line museum, and not at all unique even within this community. Rich Alderson Vintage Computing Sr. Server Engineer Vulcan, Inc. 505 5th Avenue S, Suite 900 Seattle, WA 98104 mailto:RichA at vulcan.com mailto:RichA at LivingComputerMuseum.org http://www.PDPplanet.org/ http://www.LivingComputerMuseum.org/