Job profiles for museums in the digital era: research conducted in Portugal, Italy and Greece within the Mu.SA project

Abstract

Due to the increasing use of technologies in the museum sector, new job profiles are now emerging within that sector. This paper describes the key findings of the research activities carried out in Greece, Portugal and Italy within the Mu.SA – Museum Sector Alliance – project funded by the European Erasmus Plus Programme – Sector Skills Alliances. Our research addressed the questions of what skills and know-how are needed by museum professionals in the process of digital transformation of their sector and what emerging job profiles would help museums to thrive in the digital environment. The research validated four job profiles such as Digital Strategy Manager, Digital Collections Curator, Digital Interactive Experience Developer and Online Community Manager. It also showed that there are some digital and transferable competences common to the four museum job profiles, but, most importantly, that an awareness of digital culture should be developed throughout the whole of a museum's workforce.