EMII European Standards Survey - Future Vision 4.1

European Standards Survey

Future Vision 4.1 - Portugal

4.1 Future Vision
i. Your comments in response to our question: 'Please use this space to describe ways in which you consider EMII should develop to provide a value added resource to museums in your country. Feel free to address any aspect of our current remit or to propose new roles. You may be as detailed as you like and include references to publications, Web sites, iniatives etc. Whilst we are developing our vision for EMII's future activities we also want to ensure that we capture your needs and concerns.'

The Portuguese Institute of Museums (IPM) is at present in charge of establishing a network of co-operation between Portuguese museums. With this task came the need to launch a questionnaire to all Portuguese museums and self-called museums, in order to characterise them and their regular practices.

The report that resulted from this questionnaire, was recently published by the IPM and gives us detailed information that will be fundamental to define a national policy for Portuguese museums and at the same time proceed with the construction of the Portuguese Network of Museums (RPM).

The next step will be to define in what terms the Portuguese Network of Museums will be established, as well as what role the most active, well equipped and better financed museums will have in the process of qualification of a larger number of museums. We thus feel that this Network will have to be decentralised, transversal to the various typologies of museums and collections and profoundly articulated with the activities, expectations and needs of their communities, through a self conscious awareness of its role at a national, regional or local level.

One of the main objectives of the RPM will be to divulge criteria that will regulate the creation of museums in order to avoid the proliferation of "museological situations" that in truth are no more than "collections", "traditions" or "legacies", but tend to identify themselves as being museums.

Another goal will be to qualify institutions that already exist, through the establishment of several networks of mutual help, in order to help a greater number of museums to acquire the minimal conditions for safeguard and fruition of their collections and at the same time be in accordance with national and international requirements in what concerns venues, research of collections, human resources, budget and activities for the public.

In this context, IPM participation in EMII institutionalisation acquires an enormous relevance, due to the opportunities it represents to achieve the following goals:

To compare models, theories and experiences in other countries concerning their museum structure and networks;
To establish communication interfaces and to improve the institutional relationship between IPM and institutions that proceed identical objectives, in what concerns museums and collections management;
To define through EMII a possibility of liaison between the Portuguese Network of Museums and other European networks of museums. The fact that EMII gathers the participation of major institutions that are concerned with the same issues at a national and international level, represents for the first time to us a project where we identify ourselves and where we find the right partners for a larger discussion about our major concerns regarding the constitution of the Network of Portuguese Museums;
The participation of IPM in EMII, and through it, also of Portuguese museums, since IPM will act as a core disseminating of the information on the issues debated within EMII partners, amongst Portuguese museums, but will also allow Portuguese issues to be presented in this forum, thus enabling a rich and most valuable true interchange of experiences, development of projects, crossing the areas of museum activities;
In what concerns collections management, in particular in the field of digitisation and standards procedures, the improved access to information and communication between reference institutions that the EMII enables, makes it a true added value;
To contribute for the development of scientific research in the area of museum studies, with a cross-reference with all the scientific areas represented by museum collections. Fundamental will be deepen studies and practices in the areas of museological requalification, exhibition design, documentation, curatorship, conservation, restoration and dissemination of movable cultural heritage;
To develop the communication between museums through a systematic diffusion of projects and public activities.

These benefits resume the uniqueness of the EMII project and the possibilities that its future implementation represents in terms of a wider access and debate of all the European institutions with responsibilities in museum and collections management.

Submission Details

i. Submitted by:	Isabel Cordeiro
ii. Job title:	Head of Registration and Cataloguing Department
iii. Organisation:	Instituto Portugus de Museus
iv. E-mail:	dsi@ipmuseus.pt
v. Date Submitted:	01/05/2000

Funded by the European Commission - DGX - Raphaël Programme