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What does a museum technician do?

Updated January 8, 2025
5 min read
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Museum technician responsibilities

Here are examples of responsibilities from real museum technician resumes:

  • Assist with planning, designing, and prototyping new exhibits.
  • Prepare daily animal diets and perform cleaning duties to USDA and AZA standards.
  • Perform an array of prototyping, fabrication, assembly, integration, and installation of exhibits.
  • Organize and catalog anthropology, mineral science and paleobiology collections.
  • Create and run excel macros on ceramic artifacts providing statistical analysis data.
  • Create and run excel macros on ceramic artifacts providing statistical analysis data.

Museum technician skills and personality traits

We calculated that 11% of Museum Technicians are proficient in Collections Database, Museum Collection, and Artifact. They’re also known for soft skills such as Analytical skills, Computer skills, and Customer-service skills.

We break down the percentage of Museum Technicians that have these skills listed on their resume here:

  • Collections Database, 11%

    Modified images using Adobe Photoshop so they met governmental standards and collections database requirements.

  • Museum Collection, 11%

    Restore, maintain and prepare objects in museum collections for storage, research, or exhibit.

  • Artifact, 11%

    Assisted in preserving and restoring Artifact for storage and display.

  • NPS, 9%

    Performed Integrated Pest Management and housekeeping duties following NPS standards.

  • Pest Management, 8%

    Implemented maintenance programs for storage areas including pest management and climate control.

  • Cataloging, 8%

    Provided telephone support on questions concerning the cataloging of historical objects to other parks within the National Capital Region.

"collections database," "museum collection," and "artifact" are among the most common skills that museum technicians use at work. You can find even more museum technician responsibilities below, including:

Analytical skills. The most essential soft skill for a museum technician to carry out their responsibilities is analytical skills. This skill is important for the role because "archivists, curators, museum technicians, and conservators must explore minutiae to determine the origin, history, and importance of the objects they work with." Additionally, a museum technician resume shows how their duties depend on analytical skills: "catalogued, re-housed, and stored artifacts; updated computer database"

Customer-service skills. Another skill that relates to the job responsibilities of museum technicians is customer-service skills. This skill is critical to many everyday museum technician duties, as "archivists, curators, museum technicians, and conservators work regularly with the general public." This example from a resume shows how this skill is used: "operate the front desk assisting guests and perform daily operations in the museum. "

See the full list of museum technician skills

The three companies that hire the most museum technicians are:

  • Thomas Jefferson Foundation

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Compare different museum technicians

Museum technician vs. Art preparator

We looked at the average museum technician salary and compared it with the wages of an art preparator. Generally speaking, art preparators are paid $18,903 higher than museum technicians per year.Even though museum technicians and art preparators are distinct careers, a few of the skills required for both jobs are similar. For example, both careers require artifact, museum standards, and condition reports in the day-to-day roles and responsibilities.

While similarities exist, there are also some differences between museum technicians and art preparator. For instance, museum technician responsibilities require skills such as "collections database," "museum collection," "nps," and "pest management." Whereas a art preparator is skilled in "art exhibitions," "art installation," "art preparation," and "sculpture." This is part of what separates the two careers.

On average, art preparators reach lower levels of education than museum technicians. Art preparators are 5.2% less likely to earn a Master's Degree and 1.7% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.

Museum technician vs. Book conservator

Book conservator positions earn higher pay than museum technician roles. They earn a $11,757 higher salary than museum technicians per year.

In addition to the difference in salary, there are some other key differences worth noting. For example, museum technician responsibilities are more likely to require skills like "collections database," "museum collection," "artifact," and "nps." Meanwhile, a book conservator has duties that require skills in areas such as "conservation treatments," "rare books," "paper conservation," and "research projects." These differences highlight just how different the day-to-day in each role looks.

Average education levels between the two professions vary. Book conservators tend to reach lower levels of education than museum technicians. In fact, they're 6.3% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 1.7% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.

Museum technician vs. Conservator

An average conservator eans a higher salary compared to the average salary of museum technicians. The difference in salaries amounts to conservators earning a $5,443 higher average salary than museum technicians.By looking over several museum technicians and conservators resumes, we found that both roles require similar skills in their day-to-day duties, such as "cataloging," "historical research," and "condition reports." But beyond that, the careers look very different.

There are many key differences between these two careers, including some of the skills required to perform responsibilities within each role. For example, a museum technician is likely to be skilled in "collections database," "museum collection," "artifact," and "nps," while a typical conservator is skilled in "social security," "photographic documentation," "conservation lab," and "conservation treatments."

Conservators typically earn similar educational levels compared to museum technicians. Specifically, they're 3.8% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 0.3% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.

Museum technician vs. Curatorial specialist

Curatorial specialists typically earn higher pay than museum technicians. On average, curatorial specialists earn a $2,887 higher salary per year.While their salaries may vary, museum technicians and curatorial specialists both use similar skills to perform their duties. Resumes from both professions include skills like "cataloging," "icm," and "exhibit installations. "While some skills are required in each professionacirc;euro;trade;s responsibilities, there are some differences to note. "collections database," "museum collection," "artifact," and "nps" are skills that commonly show up on museum technician resumes. On the other hand, curatorial specialists use skills like conservation efforts, collection research, customer service, and digital materials on their resumes.curatorial specialists reach higher levels of education compared to museum technicians, in general. The difference is that they're 6.3% more likely to earn a Master's Degree, and 1.7% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.

Types of museum technician

Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Research Team
Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.

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