FUNCTIONS

Acquisition. Museums acquire their collections in many ways. Some objects may be purchased with museum funds. Others may be gifts, bequests, loans, or exchanges or obtained on field trips. The museum has to proceed with caution. In regard to an archaeological or anthropological specimen, it must ask about a permit for field collecting or excavating. For a work of art the museum must determine whether it is authentic and whether it originated in a country that forbids export of significant artworks. For a biological specimen, American museums must check to see whether the plant or animal is protected by the Endangered Species Act.

功能

收购。博物馆以多种方式获得它们的收藏。一些物品可用博物馆资金购买。其它的可能是礼物、遗赠、贷款，或交换或实地考察获得。博物馆不得不谨慎行事。关于考古学或人类学的标本，必须询问实地收集或挖掘的许可。对于艺术作品，博物馆必须决定它是否是真迹，以及它是否源自禁止重要艺术品出口的国家。对于生物学标本，美国的博物馆一定会查验植物或动物是否受到濒危物种法案的保护。

Acquisitions policy varies according to the purpose of the museum. Some have small collections, acquiring only choice or exemplary objects. Museums at least partly devoted to research require extensive collections containing a great many more objects that are stored than are on display. For example, a study of the increase in toxic substances in the fur and feathers of animals and birds resulting from the use of insecticides may require a series of specimen ranging over an entire century. Or the origins of an unsigned painting may have to be ascertained by comparison with hundreds of signed works. To reduce costs of maintenance and storage, a museum should accept only gifts and bequests that contribute to its particular purpose. Some museums tend to refuse gifts with strings attached, as, for example, that a donor’s collection be shown in its entirety.

根据博物馆的目的，收购政策有所相同。有些收藏少的，只获取精选的或典型物品。至少，博物馆在某种程度上专注于研究获得的精品收藏，包含比进行展示更多存储的物品。例如，由于使用杀虫剂导致动物和鸟类毛皮中有毒物质增加的一项研究，可能需要跨越整个世纪的一系列标本。或者一幅未签名的绘画可能不得不与数百个未签名的作品进行比较来确定。要降低维护和储存的成本，博物馆应该只接收礼品和促成特殊目的的遗赠。一些博物馆倾向于拒绝附有条件的礼物，例如，这样捐赠者的收藏会被完整显示。

In the process of deaccession, or canceling, a museum may discard objects because of deterioration or sell or exchange them in order to improve the collection. Or the objects may be lost.

在出售收藏品或取消的过程中，为了改善收藏，博物馆可能因收藏品变质弃置物品，或出售，或交换它们。或者可能会丢失物品。

Research. A new acquisition is first numbered and entered in an acquisition book with brief information identifying it and giving its place and date of origin and date and method of acquisition. The object is then entered in a catalog, with a much more detailed description based on research. The description included scholarly classification, which must be understandable to all who use the catalog; measurements; physical appearance; a history of the object; and often a sketch or photograph. The collections (displayed and stored), library, and photographic files of a museum are generally open to outside scholars.

研究。新的收购首先被编号，进入带有标识它的简要信息收购册中，并给出其来源地和日期，以及收购的日期和方法。然后，物品编入一个基于研究，带有更加详细说明的目录。该说明包括学术分类，目录必须让所有使用它的人都可以理解；测定；物理样貌；物品的历史；以及通常的草图和照片。收藏（展示和储存），图书馆，以及博物馆通常向外部学者开放的影像照片。

Preservation and Restoration. Two of the most important functions of museums are the behind-the-scenes tasks of preservation and restoration a wide range of skills is needed. Paintings, both ancient and modern, must be cleaned. Waterlogged prints must be salvaged. Protective coatings must be devised and then applied to metals suffering from “bronze disease” or other damage by air pollution.

保存与修复。博物馆最重要的两个功能是保存和修复的幕后任务需要范围广泛的技能。古代和现代的绘画都必须是清洁的。必须抢救浸了水的印刷品。必须设计保护涂层，然后应用于患有“青铜病”或其它因空气污染损坏的金属。

Remedies have to be found to delay the fading and disintegration of textiles. Objects containing organic matter have to be protected from rodents and insects. Pottery found in archaeological excavations demands special skills. Fresh biological specimens have to be preserved in chemical solutions, which may be dangerous poisons, or dried and made into study specimens or mounts. Laboratories for preservation and restoration may be attached to large museums or may be independent institutions, such as the International Center for the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property established in Rome by UNESCO in 1959.

不得不找到解决方法来延缓纺织品的退色和衰变。包含有机物的物品不得不保护免受啮齿动物和昆虫的侵害。在考古中发掘的陶器要求有特殊的技能。新鲜的生物标本不得不保存在化学溶液中，它可能是危险的毒物，或者将其干燥并制成研究标本或基座。用于保护和维修的实验室可能附属于大型的博物馆，或可能是独立机构，如1959年由联合国教科文组织在罗马建立的国际文化财产保存与修复中心。

Climate Contral. Closely related to preservation is climate control, which also requires expertise. In temperate regions, the most desirable museum conditions are a relative humidity of 40% to 60%, a temperature between 60゜and 70゜F (16゜--24゜C), and air relatively free of dust and chemicals. These conditions are measured by a psychrometer and other devices. Lighting has to be controlled to avoid fading and discoloration of objects, especially paintings and textiles. Prints and drawings should be shown only under artificial light. Experts recommend vertical illumination, diffused by ceilings of laminated glass, of a warm, white, daylight tinge of 15 footcandles intensity or less that is free of ultraviolet rays. Such qualities are measured by light meters and other instruments.

    School Programs. Many museums concern themselves with reaching the schools. They recommend that visits to museums should be an integral part of the school curriculum and that classes should be prepared for their visits and should receive follow-up attention. A preliminary visit by the teacher is considered helpful. American museums often lend objects and slides to schools, sometimes with staff members to show them in preparation for a museum visit. They also provide reading lists. Old Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts sends previsit resource kits.

学校计划。许多博物馆都关心它们自己到达学校的问题。它们建议，访问博物馆应该是学校课程不可或缺的一部分，而且课程应该为它们的访问做好准备，并且应该承接后续的关注。老师的初步视察被认为是有帮助的。美国博物馆常常给学校借出物品和幻灯片，有时，与员工一起展示它们，为参观博物馆做好准备。它们也提供阅读清单。马萨诸塞州老斯特布里奇村还发送预先参观的锦囊。

Finance and Staff. Museums in the United States are supported partly by public funds and partly by admissions, tuitions, and memberships; individual gifts and endowments; and corporate grants. Admission charges are a sensitive issue because museums want to be available to everyone but are forced by financial needs to charge modest fees, often exempting senior citizens and children. The National Museum Act of 1966 offers new guidelines for grants.

财务与员工。美国博物馆部分是由公共资金支持，部分由入场费、学费和会员费支持；还有个人礼品和捐赠款项；以及公司资助金。入场费是个敏感的问题，因为博物馆希望所有人都能利用，但迫于财务需求要收取适度的费用，常常会免除老年人和儿童的费用。1966年的国家博物馆法案为补助金提供了新的指导方针。

In most other countries, museums are supported chiefly by the government. Uniquely self-supporting is the Ethnographical Park Museum in Gabrovo, Bulgaria. It sells pottery, embroidery, distilled beverages, and other products made by native craftsmen, whom it employs in workshops in its restored houses.

在大多数国家，博物馆主要由政府支持。独特的自给自足博物馆是保加利亚加布罗沃的民族志公园博物馆。它销售陶器、刺绣品、蒸馏饮料和由本地工匠制作的其它制品，雇用的这些工匠就在修复后房屋的作坊里。

The training of museum personnel is largely devoted to matters of administration and conservation. India’s central conservation laboratory in New Delhi teaches chemical analysis, testing metals for hardness, and fumigation. The University of Delaware in cooperation with the DuPont museums offers graduate work in museum administration, conservation, research, exhibition, and interpretation. The University of California at Berkeley offered a seminar on the scientific methods of establishing the authenticity of paintings, bronzes, and ceramics. The Smithsonian’s 1977 workshops in museology covered label writing, model making, lighting, insurance, photography, and the soliciting of grants. They also dealt with two less-technical subjects—the training of museum docents and responding to visitors’ needs.

博物馆人员的培训主要致力于管理和保护事务。位于新德里的印度中央保护实验室教授化学分析，检测金属的硬度和熏蒸。特拉华大学与杜邦博物馆合作，在博物馆管理、保护、研究、展览和解释方面为研究生提供工作。加州大学伯克利分校提供了一场关于建立绘画、青铜器和陶艺真实性的科学方法的研讨会。史密森尼的1977年博物馆学作坊涵盖了标签书写、模型制作、照明、保险、摄影以及资助金的招募。他们还处理两个技术含量较低的科目—博物馆讲解员的培训和回应参观者的需求。

                                         ALMA S. WITTLIN

                                      Author of “The Museum:

                             Its History and Its Tasks in Education”

                                             阿尔玛 S. 维特林

                      “博物馆：它的历史和它在教育中的任务”作者

2024年9月21日译

（译者注：该词条部分位列《大美百科全书》1985年版，第19卷，第637页至640页）