Key Concepts of Museology - ICOM

P REFACE
In accordance with the underlying principles of ICOM, the aim
of the International Committee for Museology (ICOFOM) since its
beginnings in 1977 has been to develop museology as a scientifi c and
academic discipline which will foster the development of museums
and the museum profession through research, study, and dissemination
of the main currents of museological thinking.
To this end a multidisciplinary working group was created to
make a critical analysis of museological terminology, focusing its
thinking on the fundamental concepts of museology. For nearly
twenty years the Thesaurus Working Group compiled remarkable
essays and summaries from its scientifi c research. Convinced of the
importance of providing the public with a catalogue of terms constituting
fundamental reference material, ICOFOM decided – with the
support of the International Council of Museums – to introduce this
publication at the ICOM General Conference to be held in Shanghai
in November 2010. The introductory brochure, a summary of each of
the twenty-one essays on a fundamental museological term, will be
presented as a ‘preview’ of the forthcoming Dictionary of Museology in
which these essays will be published in full, accompanied by a selective
dictionary describing close to 500 words mentioned in them.
I would like to emphasise that this brochure, an introduction to the
far more extensive work, does not pretend to be exhaustive but aims
to permit the reader to differentiate between the concepts that are
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