You may find something in the program of the following conference.

http://www.sciencemuseum.ugent.be/colloquium/index.html

ellen

Hi Ellen,

Thanks for pointing out the colloquium in Ghent, I'm looking forward to attending and presenting at the conference. There will be plenty of people who should know the answer to the question. I haven't found anything in the literature as yet that focusses on organisation theory.

Hi Jennifer,

Excellent and appropriate extension of the question. I know of a few general papers that describe qualitative value propositions for universities developing and using material collections but none in terms of organisation theory. Organisation theory is particularly interesting because of various definitions in the literature around the terms, organisation, network and institute, community of practice etc.

I am conducting a study now using student development theory. and many higher educaiton msueums seem to follow Senge's Learning Organization model does this help?

Hi Mirma,

Sounds like an interesting study. I recall Senge published on the concept of "communities of practice" some time ago, but I need to read more on his "learning organisations" model and their 5 dimensions of operation.

Look forward to hearing about the results of your study.

University College London, University of London is doing some very interesting work in this field at the moment. This includes rethinking the way they use their material collections (founding the Institute of Making, for example).

However there is also some reflective work going on also, particularly within the Bartlett School. Here's a link to a paper by Alan Penn, Maximo Martínez and Maia Lemlij:

http://www.spacesyntaxistanbul.itu.edu.tr/papers%5Clongpapers%5C073%20-%20Penn%20Martinez%20Lemlij.pdf

As Architecture is a key specialism within the Bartlett, the article looks at physical organization and flows as well as practices of human organization, but it does link factors within the British Museum in particular to some elements of organisation theory. Hope it is of use!

It looks like you've raised an interesting and under-researched area so good luck with your own study!

Hello Andrew,

just for your information, we designed an exhibition to celebrate 200 years of the Humboldt University of Berlin. The exhibition structure comprises of 37 cubes scattered through the central library and outside, emphasising the relationship between university and city. The cubes are "Wissensspeicher" containers of knowledge in which the content is thematicaly grouped across different acedemic departments.

http://duncanmccauley.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=137%3Amittendrin-eine-universitaet-macht-geschichte-&catid=2%3Aausstellungen&Itemid=15&lang=en&Itemid=99999

Hi Margaret,

Thank you very much for the link to this interesting article (and conference). UCL as an institution appear to have a very enlightened approach to their material collections with their centralised university museums "service group" but dispersed museum sites. I'm also aware of some interesting work on the value of object based pedagogies emerging from UCL.

Hi Tom,

What a great project! Good to see institutions engaging creatively in a way that connects their internal constituents, too often universities are tempted to only think of external stakeholders and potential donors for these kinds of projects. The central library and precinct is a wonderfully symbolic and practical space for a work such as this. Congratulations!

Hi Andrew, here in Brazil we are experimenting some PBL - Problem-based Learning approach for the Century XXI university along with major business and society. Also, I believe in the change of institutions to transform education, more linked towards network and real-time solving of small wins, as cloud, rather then structures of buildings, being cheapest and vocationally morphogenic agreed for upcomming problems and interpretations made as possible conjoint effort.

I have no related studies to recommend. I would like to share my thoughts that may enlighten the issue presented. This is how I understand your question. The university museums and material collections emerged as an approach to face the changing technology and changing operating environment. Personally I agree with this approach even without the influence of changing technology. University museums and material collections called arts and culture strategy helps to reveal and enhance the identity, image, uniqueness, meaning, value of the university as an organization. University museums and material collections articulate the historical, cultural, economic, and cultural context of university, commitment to the vision, mission, and philosophy, and emergence and evolution of the university as progressive organization. Evolutionary organization theory explains how organizations emerge and evolve. In my opinion evolutionary organization theory applies. The university museums and material collections articulate the emergence and evolution of the university with the vision, mission, and philosophy. Organizations evolve and innovate out of change

Hi Fernando,

It sounds like the model you are describing is conceptualised as a partnership between the university and the business community. Will the development be funded by philanthropy? Most of the major developments at the university level seem to have a philanthropic component. It sounds like a great project, am interested in any links with more information.

Hi Florencia,

Thanks for your thoughts. University museums certainly face changing circumstances; technology, increased competition between universities etc. But you are right that they also reflect an institution's history and identity. So while they might have started out as collections to help with teaching in one department, many have grown to be relevant to the whole university rather than just the one section of it. Yes, your concept of evolutionary organisational change is correct.

This is what I find interesting in terms of organisation theory, the relationships between parts of an organisation to the whole of the organisation in times of change. Despite the large volume of literature on organisation theory, higher education and museums, there doesn't seem to be much on this.

I agree with your views Andrew. The university museums link the university to the external stakeholders within economic and political perspective. In addition, university museum as component of organizational culture strengthen the oneness of internal stakeholders embracing the mission and vision of the university. That organizational climate promotes quality and excellence while adapting to impact of change.

Hello Andrew and fellows, thank you for the attention. It is my pleasure to present something we are trying to achieve. This university is completing 100 years now and we are a new campus. It has been difficult to conciliate the old and the future. Itabira is a major and former mining plant and the invitation is to transform economy among Vale, Itabira (land from a biggest modernist poet Carlos Drummond de Andrade) and Ministry of Education and Culture (MEC). Please, this link is the prompt project and the budget is carried-out by the city -house municipality.

The museums topic is applied if to open for communities those learning spaces as we think the importance of universities along the centuries and challenging the future.

References:

Architecture for the new university contact: http://www.gustavopenna.com.br/projetos/exibir/unifei_-_campus_itabira/86

Best wishes from Brazil!

Hi Florencia,

I think you have summarised the main contributions of university museums at an institutional level very well. I have just returned from a conference at the University of Gent where many universities presented interesting case studies on how they are seeking some form of convergence, either administrative or administrative with co-location. Quite a variety of different approaches. I think there will be a volume of key note contributions published some time next year.

Hi Fernando,

Wow! This is a major project with some very advanced thinking about integrating institutional functionality in the one central location.

Thank you very much for sharing, I look forward to seeing how the project develops.

Just as a follow up to this thread, I was fortunate to attend the colloquium on positioning academic heritage in Ghent mentioned by Ellen. Here's a link to a brief report on it.

http://caumac.wordpress.com/positioning-academic-heritage-in-ghent/

You should contact AAMG-L, which is the is the listserv of the Association of Academic Museums & Galleries. The members of the list are very active and always keen on answering questions. To learn more about AAMG, visit http://www.AAMG-US.org.