To thrive or survive? The state and status of research in museums

This paper, the opening address of the Canadian Museums Association 2005 meeting on research, offers a wide-ranging sweep of its position in today's museums, largely from a UK perspective. It suggests that many of those working as curators feel that they cannot pay the activity the regard it deserves. There are many factors which now make it difficult for research to be offered adequate priority when it has to co-exist with other museum functions, amongst which are the broadened responsibilities which museums must now shoulder. General studies on such a core subject are surprisingly sparse but a useful investigation of British museums, undertaken fairly recently, is examined.