Prior to coming to Hong Kong I worked for eight years at the Institute of Museum and Library Service. This combined agency often struggles because the goals of libraries and museum are similar but in the end there two separate types of institutions.
The museum people come from a perspective that “librarians love books but then we discover that what they really love is order.” Librarians believe that “museum people love old stuff but eventually they discover that it the presentation of that stuff that really drives us.”
With this conceit: museum people are from Mars and Librarians are from Pluto approach I collaborated with two librarians to write a paper for the IFLA conference in Singapore this year.
We are focusing on local history and talking about how these approaches can strengthen an organization that has both.
Thank you to Partick Lo and Kitty But, my librarian friends and colleagues.
Robert Trio Museum Consulting 