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building stones and gemstones among others.
This is in addition to research already Closed
on modern birds and spiders, coelenterates,
bryozoans, echinoderms and annelids. Research
into land vertebrates except primates is now
reduced to two people! Cuts to information
bases and advisory services will also result,
including important work on host-parasite
catalogues and parasite identification. This
will severely affect advice to Third World
countries.
Several members of staff who have built
expertise in certain areas will be asked to
change their interests completely. Another
equally sad aspect of this restructuring
concerns the fact that most of the staff
remaining will be held at fixed curatorial or
research assistant grades, giving no
opportunity for promotion without a complete
change of job. This has the effect of
demoralising staff and dividing them into two
distinct bands with little overlap between the
two. Until now the Museum's strengths and
individuality have laid in the blending of
curation and research, with individuals
understanding both and developing research
careers from original employment as curators.
Researchers need full knowledge of the
collections. Curators will not be allowed to
develop the scientific expertise or knowledge
of the material in their care. Thus they will
become unable to provide constructive support
to visiting specialists.
The Corporate Plan still has to be reviewed by
the Office of Arts and Libraries and it may not