The expansion of public support to museums, witnessed by pending state-aid legislation endorsed by the New York State Department of Education, makes it necessary for museums to declare and guarantee professional standards. The author cites such accepted requirements of professional status as a broadly approved system of basic examinations, a training program which will produce skilled practicioners, and the enrollment of personnel in an established professional organization. He also discusses the matter of the protection, enjoyed by the medical and legal profession, from the competition of the unqualified, pointing out however that the establishment of proper standards should not be so rigid as to risk the loss of valuable personnel. Mention is made of abstracts or bibliographies of technical literature, as not only essential to practitioners, but also an effective way of convincing the layman that museum activity ranks as a profession. -- AATA