This broad introduction to museums benefits all educators who teach introductory museum studies, addressing the discipline from a holistic, dynamic, and document-centered perspective.

Museums serve to help us understand the past and navigate our future-as individuals, as societies, and as a global community. A careful and accurate assessment of a museum's purpose is crucial to its ability to serve its users effectively. Foundations of Museum Studies: Evolving Systems of Knowledge offers a holistic introduction to museums and the study of them from the perspective of specialization in museum studies within the context of library and information science (LIS).

The book strikes a balance between theory and practice, examining museums from a systems perspective that considers museums to be document-centered institutions-that objects are documents that generate and convey information, meaning, and inspiration. The authors utilize examples drawn from their experience with institutions in the United States that can be applied to museums across the world. Future museum professionals who read this book will have a broader perspective, an expanded skill set, and the adaptability to span the spectrum of traditional academic disciplines.

Kiersten F. Latham is assistant professor in the School of Library and Information Science at Kent State University, Kent, OH, where she has developed the museum studies specialization within the MLIS program.

John E. Simmons is an international museum consultant and lecturer who has worked in museums for more than 40 years.