Museum Professionals in a Digital World: Insigths from a Case Study in Portugal

Abstract

Considering the evolution and impact of digital technologies in society, and consequently in cultural organisations, how are these changes affecting museum professional's profile roles? What are the required new competences? Are there changes or up‐skilling to be made? Can new emergent job role profiles be identified? These are some of the questions that informed Mu.SA‐Museum Sector Alliance, a project held from 2016 to 2019 and funded by the Erasmus Plus Programme, which focuses on the development of digital competences in the museum sector by supporting ongoing professional training in Greece, Italy and Portugal. In this article, we discuss the Mu.SA objectives and research methods, and examine the key findings of the first phase of the research for the Portuguese case study. Four job profiles that emerged from the project's overall findings will also be presented.