The Information Worlds of Art Museum Curators and Registrars: an Institutional Ethnography of Practice in North Carolina Institutions.

This paper presents an institutional ethnography analysis of the information worlds of art museum curators and registrars to determine what information sources were used by art museum staff in specific work tasks. This study was conducted in four art museums in North Carolina; the Mint Museum in Charlotte, NC, the Ackland Art Museum in Chapel Hill, NC, the Nasher Art Museum in Durham, NC, and the Weatherspoon Art Museum in Greensboro, NC. Six curators and four registrars took part in the study, which consisted of interviews and information horizon maps. The results demonstrate a wide use of both digital and print sources used in work tasks, with an emphasis on utilizing document surrogates in lieu of the physical art object. However, difficulties in accessing information about art objects in other collections was widely reported, making planning exhibitions and conducting research more time-intensive. Further study into museum websites and catalogs is encouraged.Master of Science in Information Scienc