Museology: an academic discipline or form of cultural activity?

Museology is the science of museums. Most experts characterize it as an independent applied scientific discipline, which studies how museums develop and optimize their activities to meet the needs of society. The term "museology" was first mentioned in the work by P.L. Martin "Praxix der Naturgeschichte" published in 1869 in Germany. But the determination of the status of museology as a science was first given by J. G. Th. Von Graesse in the article "Museology as a Science" published in the magazine „Zeitschrift für Museologie und Antiquitätenkunde" in 1883. The author announced a new scientific discipline of museology and tried to highlight its research potential. Thus, museology as a science began in 1883.

Since 1960s museology museology is introduced as a scientific discipline in many universities around the world; there were created first centers of museological research, published numerous papers on museums. However, so far, some experts deny the scientific character of museology considering it "a discipline that coordinates a specialized type of cultural activity".

In his article, the author analyzes the path of museology in the process of its development as a scientific discipline, identifies the problems of its classification in the system of sciences, and highlights the contributions of some researchers (P. van Mensch, J. Neustupny, T. Šola, Z. Stransky, R. Florescu, etc.) to the consolidation of its status of an independent science. In conclusion, the author believes that museology is an academic science, but a relatively young and developing.