Surprisingly I recent hear that the Museum of Cambridge (UK) was going from a supported museum to a volunteer led museum (and all staff were let go right before Christmas…).  Having seen this for years in the library sector, and reading yet another article on Museum of Cambridge I decided to ask the following question on Facebook and Twitter:

https://twitter.com/MarDixon/status/944200337921138688

This brought a few conversations around the use of volunteers (which also relates to libraries), the responsibility of the council/government all the way to the future of museums.

With Storify closing, I wanted to capture the conversations so here are the tweets:

NB:  There were only 7 votes on Facebook – all saying it was a bad idea.

Is only a good idea if volunteers aren’t taken for granted and taken advantage of. Sometimes the volunteer led model really works but it depends on the site and the plans!

— Rachel Cooper (@CrackleSays) December 22, 2017

Read the rest of this entry »