With increased awareness about conservation of history and heritage there
is a growing need for professionals in this field. In India, there are
more than 1000 Museums offering wide employment, starting from Central
Government Museums to the District level ones and from Trust Museums to
private ones. Museums can be a reputable and generally trusted source
of information about cultures and history. A variety of careers exist
within the discipline of museum studies, including Museum director, curator,
educator, exhibit designer, archivist and conservation specialist.
Museologists usually work in the government sector in museums run at
the state and national levels such as National Museum, New Delhi; Indian
Museum, Kolkata; Salarjung Museum, Hyderabad, RBI Monetary Museum etc.
Museums are also opening in the private sector and are creating more employment
opportunities for museologists. Main employers of museologists apart from
various central and state museums, can be by art, history, archaeology,
textile and numismatic societies, Sanskriti Foundations and private museums
set up by large corporate groups. They can also find jobs in private museums
like Aziz Bhat Museum in Kargil, ONGC's second oil museum at Guwahati,
Sachin Tendulkar museum in Mumbai etc.
One can enter the government sector through UPSC or SSC examinations.
Moreover the student can also take up SLET and NET for going into research
and teaching profession.
Museologists can work as curators in museums, where they are in charge
of cataloguing and organising the museum artifacts. More importantly,
they are also in charge of classifying and describing museum articles.
Curators help students and researchers with reference material. They are
also involved in research or processing of records, general administration
and supervision. A curator can go on to become a Director of a big museum.
Those of you in art, art history, history, education, educational administration,
and public relations are very likely to find the museum field rewarding.
Librarians, historians, and archivists looking for new careers will also
find the field challenging, research being such an important aspect of
museology.
Remuneration
The initial pay package may not be very alluring especially in the government
sector. However the private sector may give considerably good package
when compared to the government sector companies. The basic package is
between Rs.15,000 to Rs.30,000.
