當前許多博物館的營運正面臨理想與現實的兩難局面，亦即在服務社會與財務籌措的壓力下，如何不被「市場化」稀釋博物館的本質與信度。本文試圖從當今博物館現象及博物館界的反應，了解博物館營運的環境與專業。當文化產業的觀念被不當應用到博物館界，則原本屬於非營利的博物館將成為商業的籌碼，博物館的社會價值及其設置的意義，將受到嚴重的衝擊與考驗。 近年來國內博物館在硬體建設上投入不少，但在組織或法制上皆欠缺明確的定位，使得當前博物館的營運面臨如下困境：一、博物館營運所依持的法源仍以社會教育法為本。二、組織編制的不穩定，影響博物館功能的發揮。三、政治對博物館的干擾，使其無法產生專業行政化或行政專業化的互動。 本文建議諸如「公辦民營」或「委外經營」以及「行政法人化」等幾項政府組織改造政策，若要施行於博物館，應先衡酌利弊得失，否則將衝擊到博物館的功能與設置意義，並將損及大眾公益與社會價值。 當前博物館主管機關有調整的趨向，無論如何改變，做為博物館的管理者，必須是專業的權威，而不是權利的命令。要減少偏見與主觀，才不致破壞博物館營運的基調。為提昇博物館的專業水準，在人員方面應同時考量館員的專業能力、責任及忠誠度。在營運績效方面應建立評鑑制度，以了解經費的花費、觀眾的人數、參觀的品質和社教功能的發揮，並且在資源應用上評估其營運的張力。

Today the museum is in a dilemma due to discrepancies between aspirations and realities, i.e. serving society and raising funds. Retaining the nature of museums while making them marketable is one of the major problems for museums. This paper attemps to understand the state of museum operation and its professional development from the perspectives of current phenomena and reactions in the museum sector. Recently, many museums have been built in Taiwan, but few are accepted legal organizations. Therefore, they face many difficulties, such as: (1) the need to follow social education regulations rather than museum laws; (2) degrading museum function due to instability of organizational structure and (3) lack of professional execution or executive professionalism due to changes in the political climate. This paper suggests that an assessment should be conducted before the governments implementation of organizational reform in the museum field. Such reforms not only threaten the function and existence of museums but also impede their public benefit and social value. Professionalism in museums is judged in two ways: staff loyalty, abilities and certification and accountability of operation, such as establishing assessment systems for expenditures, visitor numbers, quality of visits, effectiveness of social education, and resources applied to museum operation.