Museum as a Communication System A Preliminary Study on The Condition of University Museums in Indonesia

摘要

The idea of establishing university museum in Indonesia had already occurred when the Javanese School of Medicine (Sekolah Dokter Djawa) was established in 1849. Sekolah Dokter Djawa which later was transformed to School tot Opleiding voor Indisch Artsen (STOVIA) was the forerunner of Faculty of Medicine University of Indonesia where the learning and research materials for the first time started to be collected, recorded, maintained and used for medical and medicine sector. Such function is carried out by university museum as the university's supporting department in achieving its vision and mission in education, research and community service. Up to the present, there has never been a study on the existence of university museums in Indonesia. The objectives of this study were to collect the basic information on university museum in Indonesia and to analyze the information within the perspective of communication. The study used explorative qualitative approach and data collection was carried out through literature study, active observation on participants and in-depth interviews with museum managers. The result of the research indicated the importance of communication science use in museology in enhancing communication practices in museums, particularly university museums.