Key Concepts of Museology - ICOM

PREFACE
12
covered by each term, to discover new connotations and their links to
the entire museological fi eld.
Dr. Vinos Sofka did not work in vain when, in the fi rst years of
ICOFOM, he strove to turn this international committee into a forum
for refl ection and debate on museological theory, able to refl ect on
its own foundations. Thus the committee’s ongoing intellectual
production, which continues today, has been preserved through
the annual publication of the ICOFOM Study Series (ISS) which has
enriched the body of museological theory for over thirty years. The
international bibliography of all ICOFOM publications is unique and
represents a faithful picture of the evolution of museological thinking
throughout the world.
From reading the articles in this brochure we can understand the
need to reconsider the theoretical fundamentals of museology from
an integrating and pluralistic approach, founded in the conceptual
wealth of each word. The terms presented in this brochure are a
clear example of the work of a group of specialists who have been
able to understand and enhance the fundamental structure of the
language, our intangible heritage par excellence. The conceptual
reach of museological terminology allows us to appreciate the extent
to which theory and practice are inseparably linked. Wishing to go
beyond beaten paths, the authors introduced their own observations
wherever they needed to draw attention to a specifi c characteristic of
a term. They were not trying to build or rebuild bridges, but rather to
start from an examination of other more precise concepts and search
for new cultural meanings which enrich the theoretical foundations
of a discipline as vast as museology, destined to strengthen the role of
museums and their professionals worldwide.
In my position as Chair of ICOFOM it is a great honour and
pleasure to be present at the launch, through this brochure, of a work
that will soon be a landmark in the vast museological bibliography
produced by the members of ICOFOM from different countries and
disciplines, all united around one common ideal.
I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all who have
generously contributed their time and talents to bringing these