Will “Data Curator” be Automated?

Core Skills & Abilities

• Attend meetings, conventions, and civic events to promote use of institution's services, to seek financing, and to maintain community alliances.

• Design, organize, or conduct tours, workshops, and instructional or educational sessions to acquaint individuals with an institution's facilities and materials.

• Negotiate and authorize purchase, sale, exchange, or loan of collections.

• Establish specifications for reproductions and oversee their manufacture or select items from commercially available replica sources.

• Provide information from the institution's holdings to other curators and to the public.

• Inspect premises to assess the need for repairs and to ensure that climate and pest control issues are addressed.

• Develop and maintain an institution's registration, cataloging, and basic record-keeping systems, using computer databases.

• Plan and organize the acquisition, storage, and exhibition of collections and related materials, including the selection of exhibition themes and designs, and develop or install exhibit materials.

• Study, examine, and test acquisitions to authenticate their origin, composition, history, and to assess their current value.

• Confer with the board of directors to formulate and interpret policies, to determine budget requirements, and to plan overall operations.

• Train and supervise curatorial, fiscal, technical, research, and clerical staff, as well as volunteers or interns.

• Write and review grant proposals, journal articles, institutional reports, and publicity materials.

• Plan and conduct special research projects in area of interest or expertise.

• Arrange insurance coverage for objects on loan or for special exhibits and recommend changes in coverage for the entire collection.

• Schedule events and organize details, including refreshment, entertainment, decorations, and the collection of any fees.