Key Concepts of Museology - ICOM

I NTRODUCTION
What is a museum? How do we defi ne a collection? What is an
institution? What does the term ‘heritage’ encompass? Museum
professionals have inevitably developed answers to questions such as
these, which are fundamental to their work, compiled according to
their knowledge and experience. Do we need to reconsider these? We
believe so. Museum work shifts back and forth between practice and
theory, with theory regularly being sacrifi ced to the thousand and one
daily tasks. The fact remains, however, that thought is a stimulating
exercise which is also fundamental for personal development and for
the development of the museum world.
The purpose of ICOM, on an international level, and of national
and regional museum associations more locally, is to develop standards
and improve the quality of the thinking that guides the museum world
and the services that it provides to society, through meetings between
professionals. More than thirty international committees work on this
collective think tank, each in its specifi c sector, producing remarkable
publications. But how can this wealth of thought on conservation, new
technologies, education, historical houses, management, professions,
and more, all fi t together? More generally, how is what one might call
the museum fi eld organised? These are the questions addressed by the
ICOM International Committee for Museology (ICOFOM) since its
foundation in 1977, in particular through its publications (ICOFOM
Study Series) which set out to inventory and synthesise the diversity of
opinions in museology. This is the context in which the plan to make
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